Beijing’s citywide facelift is complete, and she’s ready for the big dance. The shiny new signs have replaced dingy old ones. Potted plants have suddenly appeared in street medians. Restaurants have eliminated some of the more, let’s say, exotic dishes from their menus. The traffic is actually tolerable, and, the air, well, the air doesn’t seem to have changed much.
[photo of the air on opening ceremony day. by the way, you probably won't see my loveable yet modest neighborhood on tv]
The most disappointing feature of the “new Beijing,” in my opinion: the wonderful cringlish signs that used to dot the city are now grammatically correct. What a pity!
[courtesy of engrish.com]
Also, the myriad of construction projects have finished. Even if the buildings are not yet functional, they have managed to complete the exteriors. Besides the Olympic venues, a couple of the more noteworthy projects, which happen to be in the neighborhood I work in, include the new China World Trade Tower and the China Central Television Towers.
China World Trade Tower 3 has been fully erected and has the flashing Christmas-like lights up at night to prove it. It is now the tallest building in Beijing and, on non-smoggy days (unlike today), I can see it from my bedroom window miles away. Then, there is the architecturally more interesting CCTV Towers. One doesn’t have to be an expert to appreciate the feat of engineering and imagination that went into this structure. I get shivers every time I come near the overhang.
[taken this spring, you can see the China World Trade Center through the opening in the CCTV tower]
[also taken this spring, lunchtime is funtime for a number of people in our corporate plaza]
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