cars

Only three days till the marathon, so I’m tapering now.  The race starts here:

and ends here: 

 This is a map of the course:

I did my last long run on Saturday, about 10 miles in the Olympic Forest Park, which seems to be one of the two chief benefits that ordinary Beijingers ultimately received from hosting the Olympics in 2008 (the other being a substantial expansion of the subway system—more on that below).  The park is really quite lovely, with marked paths of varying distances making it the best place for running in this vast city.  Other than this, I’m not sure what Beijing got from the Olympics.  The pollution went away for awhile, mostly because the government forced industries to move or close down during the Games, but now of course is back.  I suppose they received an infusion of happy self-esteem, but it seems to be akin to the kind that one might get by buying a really nice dress, wearing it with the tags still attached, and returning it after the party, subsequently returning to wearing regular, more mundane frocks.

I spent most of my run in the Olympic Park with a Chinese man who is also running the marathon, his fourth.  I asked if roads were closed for the race and he said yes.  I think that this will potentially be the most politically or sociologically interesting part of the race.  It’s hard to imagine Beijing drivers patiently waiting for runners to trundle by at various paces, since there is a constant low-intensity conflict here between pedestrians and drivers that sometimes erupts into outright aggression, or at least angry words uttered with raised voices.  

This is mostly a consequence of major and rapid changes in lifestyles.  Beijing used to be a city of bicycles.  When Jim and I lived here in the mid-‘90s, we rode our bikes frequently for transportation.  One day I even had the brilliant idea that I could ride my bike to conduct some business all the way on the other side of town.   We lived far northwest of the 3rd ring road, in Shangdi, which at that time was considered to be the back of beyond, and I rode all the way to the central-eastern third ring road.  I didn’t think it would be such a bad ride—Beijing is an incredibly flat city, built on a massive plain.  According to Google maps, that ride was a distance of about 30 km one way, so 60 km (about 36 miles) roundtrip.  More than I was used to riding.   The map does not really prepare you for the distances here.  The city is a landscape of broad boulevards, making distances deceptively long.  What appears to be a simple walk to the nearest subway stop can actually be a trek of 45 minutes or so.  

The plain on which Beijing is located is part of its problem.  It can expand seemingly infinitely outwards, at least until it hits the hills on which the Great Wall rests to its north, thus converging with the barbarians beyond who were supposed to be kept at a distance.  When we lived here there were two ring roads (like the Washington beltway but in the city), the 2nd and the 3rd (not sure what happened to #1).  Now, they’ve added numbers 4, 5, and 6, concentrically expanding outwards.

I used to have a theory that it took an hour to get anywhere in Beijing.  Shorter distances you would walk and, like I said above, that can itself take about an hour.  Medium distances, perhaps the bus, and, again an hour.  Long distances, taxi, voilà, one hour again.  That has somewhat changed due to the helpful expansion of the subway system.  In the ‘90s, there were only two subway lines.  It felt a bit like I must imagine Pyongyang, North Korea must feel today—“look at our awesome modern subway!  too bad it only covers a fraction of the distance that it should!”     Now, there are some 12 lines.  Most of the time it is a useful mode of transportation, except for morning and evening rush hour, when it can be horribly crowded (acknowledged recently when London mayor Boris Johnson took a ride on it).

Despite the broad boulevards, it is not a city that was fundamentally designed for everyone to have their own car.  Now that most people do have them, it has changed the city's feel in profound ways.  For one thing, there aren’t clear places to park, so people just park wherever they like, including on the sidewalk.  This creates a vicious circle—walking is harder because of sidewalks being blocked, so you need a car even more.   Clearly, officials here have not considered all contingencies of developing the auto market.  Years ago, I had a conversation with a Beijing cab driver who was waxing rhapsodically regarding the joys of Beijingers owning cars (not sure why, since it would mean less business for him).    But, I asked, where will they all be parked?

“In the countryside!”