South Africa

Singapore & Malaysia

Japan

Hong Kong & Macau

:: China

Tibet & Nepal

Myanmar

Australia

New-Zealand

Tahiti

Easter Island

Chile

Bolivia & Peru

Argentina

Beijing

Beijing shows all the contrasts of modern China, especially since the city is undergoing relentless modernisation for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Modern buildings are under construction everywhere; there are now more motorized vehicles (mostly taxis) than bicycles on the large boulevards, there are luxury hotels everywhere, transportation is undergoing transformation…

...and even the mythical and odorous toilets are getting replaced by modern (but still odorous) ones.

We do appreciate leaving the modern areas and wandering through Beijing's narrow alleyways (hutongs).

There are houses, homes, alleys, large gates that are sometimes opened, giving the opportunity to discover courtyards, kids playing, bicycles, and coal bricks waiting to be burnt for the heating.

And also meat suspended to hooks in the sun, old people with no teeth smoking in front of their homes, and dishes on the ground, waiting to be cleaned up.

In Beijing, there are modern buildings and brick houses, an efficient subway and rickshaws for tourists, clean shopping malls and streets full of dust, chic restaurants and food stalls on the streets, a recent opera house and couple dancing in public parks every evening.

The city is getting developed very fast, following a "pushed to its limits" capitalist pattern.

Beijing is a window of modernity, but the glass and steel constructions can't hide the dust and dirtiness. Some inhabitants do live with the only aim of earning money, but their arrogant attitude doesn't hide the general poverty.