For east is east, and west is....
By Diego Montero and Wang Shanshan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-29 16:02
Consequently, some locals now view west Beijing differently.
"Every
time I travel to west Beijing, I get the impression that I am in a time machine
travelling not to the future, but to the past," said Li Hongfeng, 31, of East
China's Anhui Province, who set up an art gallery in Jianguomen area in the
east. However, in the eyes of some west Beijingers, the east has
disadvantages. Jasmine Lu, a young teacher at the Beijing Foreign Studies
University on the west side, remarked: "People in east Beijing are the kind of
people who cannot enjoy the goodness of living beside the best
universities.
"They are the kind of people who have been the major force
in pushing forward China's modernization in the past two decades, but some don't
have much depth, and a few can even be vulgar."
But native Beijinger Wang
Yulin, 83, who fought in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
(1937-45), pointed out that it is not only east Beijing that is modernizing.
Zhongguancun in the northwest, the Olympic construction in the
north-central area and Financial Street in the west's Xicheng District are
booming, as well. To him, the economics of one region or another are becoming
less relevant.
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