A tale of three cities

Beijing is a pretty mind-boggling city all around. To say it's massive is an understatement. The population of Seattle is just over half a million people (slightly more than 582,000), and the population of Beijing is 17.5 million. That's nearly 35 Seattles rolled into just one city.

For a city this size, it's natural there would be distinct cultures within that population. But here in Beijing the distinctions are incredibly pronounced. The differences between imperial Beijing, modern Beijing, and the small neighborhoods called hutongs are huge.

Imperial Beijing is the history and former glory of the centuries of emperors (and a couple emperesses.) The Forbidden City sits grandly opposite Tiananmen Square, as if to say, "You'll never take away my legacy." Courtyard inside courtyard, palace after palace, like those Russian nesting dolls. I felt like a rat in a maze, wondering if there was cheese at the end of one special corridor. Why the cultural revolution spared this amazing site I don't really know, when so many other historic relics were destroyed.

Modern Beijing rises up high in the sky, in gleaming glass and polished stone towers. It's also found in the stark, vast, marble of Tiananmen Square. The square looks back across at the Forbidden City as if to say, "Your days are long gone, old man." But some Chinese tell me that the communists are really just one more dynasty along the path of life. It seems like most dynasties lasted about 300 years, and they say the cycle just repeats itself. Modern Beijing has taken down the walls, and has opened up to the world. And modern Beijing sells knock-off Mao memorabilia and $1 t-shirts at every tourist attraction around.

The hutongs seem to be the heart of "real" China - winding, twisty neighborhoods of gray walls that house the homes and courtyards of ordinary folks, just living their lives in the shadow of both imperial and contemporary Beijing. This is the way the Chinese have lived for centuries, no matter who was in power. But winning the bid for the Olympics this year has resulted in the government razing many of these little neighborhoods to make way for more tall, gleaming towers.

I hope Beijing can stay a tale of three cities, but only time will tell.