The winds of change blow through our neighborhood

I know everyone is always hearing about how fast China is changing. Our local experience of this is the destruction of the shopping street and produce market near the south gate of the campus. The university has owned the land for a while, and now plans to widen the street, build parking and add some green space. I will be the first to admit that it is a very congested street, because at our end of it, just outside the gate, is a bus terminal for about 10 city bus routes. There is also a taxi stand and a vehicle entrance gate for cars entering the campus. When the temple next door has a busy weekend, you can hardly get down the street, cars park on the sidewalk and it gets a little crazy. So a wider road and some parking makes sense, right?

The problem is -- it does not make sense to me anymore after living here. Cars are the enemy of modern life. Not having a car for a year has done more to improve our quality of life than almost any other factor. We walk and bike more and are in much better shape. A wide variety of very fresh produce has been available only a few minutes walk away, much better quality than the supermarket (a 10-15 minute walk away). So we ate more vegetables and fruit. There was almost every daily necessity on that street -- bakery, optometrist, clothing, restaurants, books, office supplies, crafts, shoes...even the "scarves in winter, umbrellas in spring, swimsuits in summer" store.

Here is a shot of the street on a slow morning before the destruction began.

You could buy money to burn for the dead at the temple...




Or all kinds of trinkets form the temporary vendors who wold set up on the sidewalk..last fall, you could not get down this street on a Friday night because of the crowds of shoppers.



Here is my favorite clothing store, where I found some clothes that even fit me! Below is the entrance to the wet market...


As you will see in the video below..the "wet market", called so because it had meat and seafood in addition to fruit and vegetables, was not the most hygienic-looking place. Now that the demolition has begun, more than one displaced rat has been seen leaving the premises. And I never could bring myself to buy the meat they display on pieces of cardboard at the butcher's stand, even though I realize it is probably fresher that the supermarket's supply (no role models of food handling there either). But you could buy eggs, tofu and simple groceries in addition to produce. You could haggle with the vendors if desired -- although after a few weeks of shopping there I was getting the "regular" price -- so ridiculously low that I would never haggle. And over the months I had struck up an acquaintance with several of the vendors, who would try to speak Chinese with me as my vocabulary improved, who gave me tips on which fruits were fresh, how to prepare vegetable I didn't recognize, and put up with my pantomiming when all else failed...(how do you act out "cilantro"? as it turns out, it is possible!)

Now, most of them are gone, and as the demolition progresses up the block, every day there is less to buy. My favorite one -- Deborah will remember the "clean vegetable lady"-- told me she had no other place lined up to sell produce and so would return to her village an hour away. My "fruit family" (mom, dad and cute new baby) were still hoping to stay in Xiamen and set up someplace new. But in truth, it seems the city is trying its best to "clean up" its image by driving out these markets and replacing them with shopping centers and supermarkets. And while I like the convenience of those places, I liked shopping on my little street even more. I know that many of the locals feel the same way--especially those without cars, which is still most of China. I wonder if Chinese urban life will end up like the US -- where we drive all day and shop in the suburbs. I hope not! And with fuel prices the way they are, it seems like a doomed prospect.

Anyway here are some "after" photos for you...


what's left of our KFC..believe me, the students are hurting without it!

The bulldozers begin...


Behind the rubble is the campus.

This last picture has that urban blight feeling, doesn't it? But actually I took it to illustrate "nap time" when all the workers stop after lunch for a nap, right wherever they are...

Finally -- a video tour of the market that is gone, and a slice of life in China that is fast disappearing..