Young Beijing
Our class arrived in Beijing on Friday to begin the International Field Study component of the MBA program. What an exciting adventure it has been! One of my first excursions was to the Forbidden City — a monument steeped in history and shrouded in mystery. Being from the US, it is remarkable to wander through a landscape of structures that date back hundreds and hundreds of years.
Forbidden City, Beijing China
In keeping with the rich traditions of Beijing, I took a dragon boat and followed the old imperial route up the Long River to the Summer Palace. Although it starts in the heart of the city, the shallow river is surrounded by old willows and is insulated from hustle and bustle of the city. My experience cruising in the traditional-style boat along the ancient route seemed to be not so different from this experience in Beijing 500 or 1,000 years ago.
Buddha Temple and Lake Kunming at Summer Palace
Yet Beijing is a young city. Most of the building has only taken place in the past ten years — and a large part of it happened within the past five years as China prepared for the Olympics. A visit to the Olympic Park area really captures this young Beijing. The high tech museum which chronicles the construction of the Olympic venues and the structures themselves seem to belong to a different time and place than my dragon boat river ride.
The Aquatics Center (Water Cube)
Classmates who spent time in Beijing ten or 20 years ago remark that they don’t even recognize the city. And the Chinese tell me that the pace of change is so rapid that many of the pictures I take now will be very different in just a few years. This is not such a surprise as I realize that buildings that were shrouded in construction fabric only one week ago are now showing freshly polished stone and “opening soon” signs.
Diorama of Beijing at Urban Planning Museum
