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Beijing is a place with such a history longer than your imagination can ever reach. Dynasties come and thrive, and they wither and perish too. Just like millions of lives that come and go and become part of the history. Story goes on forever until today and will last into the future. We are all passers-by, locals or travelers, in front of time. So were countless generations before us and after us.
Buildings last longer than us humans. They seem to witness several generations of us or even dynasties. Or so we tend to think of them so we feel that we can connect with the long passed ancients.
Yonghe Temple is definitely one of the historical buildings that can connect us to the Ching dynasty almost three hundred years ago. It originally served as an official residence for court eunuchs and then converted into the residence of Yinzhen (Prince Yong), the fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor. Emperors, supreme power, fights, wars, lives... this kind of history is too heavy for me, so we did not go in there.
Instead, we visited a hutong (alley) nearby - the Wudaoying Hutong that carries some casual ambiance. History is here too, but in a different way ...
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Inside this hutong, you can see more vividly what history is, or was. Not as big as the dynasties, you tend to see traces of real people living here maybe just decades ago. Just keep your eyes open and peek inside the open doors alongside the alley. They are like tunnels of time that seem to connect to the world thirty years ago at the other end. You seem to hear noises of people living inside the doors from decades ago, but actually you are just walking down a relatively quiet Beijing alley in an autumn afternoon.
They were here then and so are you now.
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So it is now. Now is the 21st century. Now is the era when China is the second largest economy on Earth. Now is the time when the Chinese is up again.
Beijing is no longer Peking, and even not Beijing in the 80s or 90s. It is Beijing in 2017. You don't see horses on the streets any more, you don't see long gowns and mandarin jackets any more, you don't see Red Guards any more, and you don't even see timid eyes any more. In such an old city, you can feel the desire to go after new things and to shout - look out, world! we are coming! This is the Beijing now.
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Not so fast. The history is still here. Lives don't change over night. Old people still live here, among the newly immigrated young adventurers. The strange mix of time therefore presents itself here. But this seems to be a common scenes all around China during the past few years. Old people move slowly but the youngsters run like there is no tomorrow. The new generation is trying to change the world while the older generation is trying to guard their way of life. Maybe the success from the last thirty years have educated the whole generation to embrace change and hence they become impatient with not-moving-forward ...
But the truth is - old people will still be here for quite some time. You need to understand and embrace them, not to despise and dismiss them. They were young and you will be old.
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There is nothing new under the sun. There is nothing new in the eyes of time.
Being young and having great goals are all good, but you cannot leap high without a ground to stand. Being young means you are given the chance to be creative. So be creative in balancing business and culture, in blending native livelihood and modern lifestyle, in connecting ancient assets and nowadays capitalism ...
When a traveler comes here to have a cup of coffee, please do let her taste the wisdom of the tea-drinking people for thousands of years ...
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Okay. Here is the information of this Wudaoying hutong/alley. See the map below and the nearest exist to it from the Subway Yungho Temple.
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Enjoy your time travel!
這篇照片集，主要是在雍和宮旁邊的五道營胡同裡拍攝的。有一些照片經過後製調整，才能讓我的手機照相機照片有點藝術感。:)
在雍和宮這樣深厚的歷史建築旁，這條胡同正在朝氣蓬勃的發展著，帶著幾許洋氣，帶著咖啡香氣，帶著國外塗鴉藝術的一點前衛感... 跟這上下幾千年的歷史，甚至跟這幾十年來老居民在巷弄深處的生活，有著極為對比的暈眩感。價值衝突與妥協與再前進，似乎是近代中國不缺的戲碼，更是這十幾二十年來在這塊大陸上最真實的人生常態。
身為旅人，在有偉大歷史的城市，我往往喜歡這樣的小巷風情，避開景觀熱點，不去看官方解說牌，就是到居民生活裡去，看看歷史如何在日常生活裡展現，甚至衝突。
每一天，都是我們的當代史。每一個地方，都是歷史的現場。這就是旅行吧！祝福胡同裡的人們，在生活的每一天。