ubcsala [china] 2007

 
 
The new light rail line in Beijing offers all sorts of new opportunities for residents – new housing, travel options, etc. For some in the area, it offers a new set of opportunities for the informal economy. Most stations are basically a gauntlet of hawkers, Pedi cabs, and illegal cabs leading from the exit toward […]

 

China is the world’s largest country, in terms of population. And with all of its economic successes comes a greater awareness and availability the outside world. For a communist country this is not always welcome. The internet is widely used throughout the country. However, some sites have raised issues for the Chinese government; for example, the ever […]

The residential towers here in Beijing have not learned some basic lessons from their Vancouver look-a-likes. Often each floor type is the same, stacking each on top of the other – much like those in Vancouver. In Beijing, the repeated floor type goes all the way to the ground floor. Lacking the basic acknowledgement […]

When walking the streets of Paris, San Francisco, or any number of other western cities, one can experience cafes with crowds spilling over into the sidewalks. Beijing does those cities one better. The shops often have no indoor seating, with all seating on the sidewalk [as a matter fact, often the kitchen is on the […]

Many of the housing developments in Beijing are just that – developments. Meaning, they often contain a gate and feel very isolated from the community. There is a clear sense of boundary. This may or may not be able to be traced back to historic patterns in the city/culture. What is not debatable is whether […]

Beijing, and China as a whole, is notorious for people not respecting the traffic laws. Cars use the bike lanes, bikes are on sidewalks, walkers are in the streets – everyone gets in on the action. Fully aware of the citizenry’s mentality toward movement laws, the local government has set up numerous fences […]

Many of the tower developments in Beijing resemble those of Vancouver. In both cities, these often include semi to fully private parks. The major difference is that in Beijing people actually use the parks. One would be hard pressed to find more than two families using a typical Vancouver courtyard. Here it is impossible to […]

The new streets in
Beijing are constructed much like streets from a western context – wide, designated zones for each form of movement [car travel, bike lane, parking, pedestrian travel, etc], and paved. On the other hand, most old streets in Beijing, and most of China, do not conform to these standards. They are often much […]

Walking around Beijing, one cannot help but notice the proliferation of air conditioning units. And with the current dominant development pattern in Beijing being towers, their prominence is heightened [literally] even more. Many projects choose to ignore this fact and allow the air conditioning units to unfold in a random pattern on the facades. In […]