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Beijing; Olympic City - July 2008
This month, in her best school ma’m impersonation, Kerri Bonwick insists on polishing our language skills before we sit glued to our television screens as the auspicious 8th of the 8th 2008 at 8pm draws near. Beijing – One World One Dream.
We could not let such an auspicious event as the Beijing Olympics go by without an Urban Excursion to this newest host City. Indeed it was the upcoming Olympic spectacle and the level of activity that would be evident in Beijing that sparked my interest in exploring this imperial city.
The Games of the 26th Olympiad will showcase a proud, modern China to the world, from its political, administrative and cultural heart, Beijing. What Shanghai is to progress and economic development, Beijing is to a proud, imperial and efficient China.
Hosting an Olympic Games is heralded with generating economic and social growth and development. Jones Lang LaSalle reported 5 main key long term impacts experienced by former host cities including:
- Urban regeneration
- Olympic villages
- Infrastructure
- “Greening” The Games
- Tourism promotion and conventions
Housing more than 17million people the City is a cacophony of sight and sound, entrenched in centuries old architecture and imperialism and framed by the omnipresent construction activity. Beijing has embarked on a major overhaul and upgrade of its infrastructure to cope with the City’s growth as well as planning as host city for the Olympics. The City’s subway system has been upgraded from 4 to 8 rail lines between 2006 and 2008 and the Beijing Airport’s T3 has recently opened in time for the influx of Olympic visitors. The impressive ring road system currently stands at 6 – the Olympic Village is located on the 5th Ring Road also named Olympic Avenue. Urban sprawl may dictate that the 7th and even 8th ring roads may need to be accommodated at some point. But Beijing has also ensured that the finer details have received the same level of attention, including the repainting of icons such as the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and more than 14,000 paintings in the Long Corridor at the Summer Palace.
Urban regeneration too has been conspicuous in Beijing, and reminiscent of the outcry of the loss of low cost housing to make way for the Expo 88 site in Brisbane (I am showing my age!), much debate has centred around the displacement of more than 350,000 people from inner Beijing as the traditional hutong areas have made way for modern redevelopment. UNESCO estimates that some 62km2 of the hutong areas have been demolished in the wave of urban regeneration, in part related to the Olympic inspiration and in part to general economic prosperity and development of Beijing.
This complex City and redevelopment pattern has created an interesting convergence between modern high rise apartments and imperial China. Perhaps one of the largest scale inner city regeneration projects is the Oriental Plaza complex, spanning more than 800,000m2 of floor area and the ultimate in mixed use developments, comprising the Hyatt Hotel, luxury serviced apartments, shopping malls, and eight A Grade office buildings. Oriental Plaza is home to some of the most renowned international brands such as Burberry, Audi, Max Mara, Tiffany & Co, Rolex etc.
Tourism too has benefited from the event that will be the Olympics, with some 6,200 new hotel rooms understood to have been constructed between 2006 and 2008, including the entry of upper end hotels. Beijing does offer tourists an expansive array of sights, sounds and tastes to explore, from the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and Tiannamen Square to the Beijing Opera and to Peking Roast Duck and Teahouses. Just ensure you wear your comfy shoes!
The 66ha Olympic village is another regeneration site that will house some 10,000 athletes during the Games, with the apartments to be sold for residential purposes at the conclusion of the Games. A range of entertainment, recreational and community facilities have also been developed, creating a city within a city for the future residential community that will occupy this village.
Olympic City or not, no Urban Excursion to Beijing would be complete without exploring the shopping…from ancient hutong shops to the Silk Market, which houses probably more fake goods than silks (but more about the fakes when I return to explore Shanghai), Wangfujing Street and the large shopping malls such as Oriental Plaza, located on Wanfujing Street. Perhaps what surprised me the most was the absolute dedication to brands by the Chinese people and the clear emergence of a very affluent middle class with a great appetite for luxury imported brands. I counted some 14 watch and pen stores alone within the Oriental Plaza, most of which were high end brands such as Rolex or Montblanc.
And on a final note, English speaking cultures are habitual in our bastardisation of other languages. Somehow Beijing was heralded as Peking. The Chinese took to changing the spelling to Beijing as a non too subtle prompt, but still we made sure to show our naivety by continuing to mispronounce the name. Rather than pronouncing as it is written, we have insisted that it must be pronounced Bayzhing. In the lead up to one of the sporting spectacles of the 21st Century, let us embrace the phonetically pronounced Bay-Jing: Beijing for it really is One World One Dream.
Forbidden City
Did you know that Architecture and Designs for Town Planning were Olympic Events?
From 1912 to 1948 medals were awarded in several fields of art and culture including Architecture and Town Planning. Unfortunately no Australians received medals in these events, which were dominated by the Europeans.
Did you know that Architecture and Designs for Town Planning were Olympic Events?
From 1912 to 1948 medals were awarded in several fields of art and culture including Architecture and Town Planning. Unfortunately no Australians received medals in these events, which were dominated by the Europeans.
