For east is east, and west is....
By Diego Montero and Wang Shanshan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-29 16:02
"A mixture of homesickness and a longing to speak with fellow Europeans led
to me flee (west Beijing) within two weeks of moving there."
Since 1949,
foreign embassies have been located in Jianguomen and Sanlitun in east Beijing,
after moving from Nanjing, earlier the nation's capital.
Although
Sanlitun, which literally means "a village 3 li (1.5 kilometres) away from the
town," was given the chance to develop after the founding of the People's
Republic of China, it didn't change very much from the 1950s to the
'80s.
Before the '80s, west Beijing was considered the centre of
progress. Both the central and municipal governments built most of their offices
there, and almost all the major universities had their campuses
there.
The Moscow Restaurant, where the best Western food in the town was
served, the Beijing Exhibition Centre, where ballets were performed and most of
the "Ten Best Architectural Examples" built in the 1950s were all in west
Beijing.
Wu Heyuan, a 37-year-old businessman, who came from Jiangsu
said: "East Beijing developed fast only in the 1980s. Where there are bar
streets and office towers (now), cabbages and potatoes used to be
grown.
"The western part was believed to be where people with taste
should live," Wu said.
But when foreign investment began to pour into
Beijing in the 1980s after the country's opening-up, it was directed to the
eastern side, where there was greater space for development.
Upper-scale
facilities blossomed in east Beijing in the '80s, marking the beginning of the
area's continuing economic boom.
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