Three days in Beijing: where history and modernity collide, seen through the eyes of a returning volunteer.
This tells the story of my own exploration of Beijing over three days in the early 2000s, after living in a small, rural area on the other side of the country for five years as a volunteer with VSO.
The story blends history with personal experience and exposes some of the many contradictions in China’s capital city at the time: ancient and modern, rural and urban, national and international, commercial and domestic.
I met some fascinating people came to a partial understanding of how such a mixed environment can foster a sense of community.