Quotes About Beijing

Beijing has organised for itself the best of all three worlds: First World armed power, Second World economic strength and Third World handouts.

Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo all mean 'capital' in their respective languages.

The North Beijing train station was a vivid example of the kind of pervasive poverty the Chinese people were willing to concede their political freedom to escape. It looked like a refugee camp after a war of ethnic cleansing. Actually, a refugee camp looks better, because at least it has Red Cross tents.

Maybe Beijing kept tearing itself down to bury its unexamined past. Memories didn't stick to the sleek sides of skyscrapers. Make the sofas thick, the music loud, the televisions large, the cars fast. Blur and round and smooth the past until it becomes as rumored as this disappearing hútòng. Older people will say it was there, they saw it. Their younger listeners will nod politely, unable to imagine something they'd never seen.

Lia made her way to one of the theme restaurants currently popular in Beijing. She liked them. Some were based on gimmicks. There was a place called Fatty's, for instance, with a big triple-beam scale right inside the door. Anybody who weighed over one hundred kilos got thirty percent off for their whole table.