China in the 90s

I visited China for the first time in 1998. I spent four days in Beijing en route to a global training event for Text 100, a burgeoning public relations consultancy I’d joined earlier in the year. The timing of my visit proved incredibly fortuitous. At the time, China was undergoing a period of rapid and transformative development. As a result, I saw unique aspects of daily life that were long gone when I returned in January 2003.

Decades later, my strongest memories are those of the city's dated and slightly shabby infrastructure. The ambience they generated reminded me of my travels through Eastern Europe in 1990. At the time, the Berlin Wall had recently fallen, and the Iron Curtain was gone.  However, the austere socialist architecture and infrastructure with its distinct 60s vibe were everywhere. Beijing was exactly the same. It was as if I'd travelled back in time to a world my parents had lived in at my age.

Perhaps the most dramatic contrast was the urban traffic I encountered. I vividly recall standing at the intersection of Zhengyi Road and Qianmen East Street, one block east of Tiananmen Square, on my first day in town. The intersection is one of central Beijing’s busiest crossroads as Zhengyi Road is a major north-south thoroughfare, while Qianmen Street is a major east-west boulevard.

As I stood waiting for the lights to change, I witnessed a sea of bicycles waiting patiently at the intersection, while another swarm of bikes passed through the multi-lane intersection. Incredibly, only a relatively light flow of motor vehicles was visible in either direction. Large, austere buses passed continuously, looking like they'd just been pulled from a grainy mid-Century newsreel.

All around the city, I saw bike racks overflowing with dozens and dozens of bikes. I’ve never seen so many bikes and cyclists in one location in my entire life. Incredibly, four short years later, when I revisited the same intersection, the bikes were gone, replaced by a sea of cars in either direction. Decades later, I still marvel at this extraordinary transformation in a few short years.

I flew into Beijing on 31 July 1998 on QF187. I then spent three days exploring the city before flying to London with British Airways on the morning of 4 August. My travel agent booked me into the Capital Hotel, located one block east of Tiananmen Square. This four-star hotel opened in 1989. At the time, it was one of Beijing's earliest premier hotels offering world-class facilities for foreign visitors. For my visit, its central location proved ideal for exploring many of the inner city’s iconic sights.

I packed a lot into my 3.5 days on the ground. I spent an hour with the hotel tour desk on my first morning, booking guided tours before venturing out on a self-guided tour of Tiananmen Square and popular sites around the inner city. I kicked things off with a subway ride to Yonghe Temple, also known as the Lama Temple, Beijing's largest Buddhist Temple.

I was keen to compare this temple with those I’d enjoyed in Japan five months earlier. It didn’t disappoint. It’s an impressive, ornate complex, but inevitably lacks some of Japan’s immaculate cleanliness and finesse. I later learned it was built in 1694, as part of the original city wall for Emperor Yongzheng, before he acceded to the throne in 1722.

I then returned to Tiananmen Square for a guided tour of the Great Hall of the People and a visit to the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. To get there, I hired a pedicab driver who'd been waiting patiently for a fare outside my hotel. I was duly transported two blocks to the square for less than three Australian dollars.

Tiananmen Square is enormous. It measures more than 765 metres long by 282 metres wide. It’s honestly hard to grasp just how vast it really is. The square’s southern flank is marked by Zhengyangmen, a restored gateway that once formed part of a long-gone inner-city wall. The northern perimeter is dominated by the iconic Tiananmen Square gate, renowned worldwide for its giant portrait of Chairman Mao.

I was keen to see Mao’s preserved body lying in state inside the Mausoleum, an imposing building in the middle of the square’s southern end. However, I discovered that the Memorial Hall containing Mao's crystal coffin was closed. I consoled myself with a visit to the North Great Hall, an outer sanctum traditionally used by visiting dignitaries to pay their respects to the late Chairman.

The hall is dominated by a 3.5-metre-high white marble statue of Mao surrounded by potted palms. On the opposing wall, an intricate silk tapestry called "The Vast Homeland" extends almost 24 metres along the hall. You’re not permitted to take photos inside. However, for a small fee, an official photographer will take a Polaroid snap to preserve your visit for posterity. Naturally, I couldn’t resist getting my own official photo. Incredibly, 26 years later, this photo is as sharp and clear as ever.

Tiananmen Square’s northern zone is flanked on either side by imposing civic buildings, including the collonaded Great Hall of the People. The open plaza is also a popular gathering place for locals. During my visit, at the height of Summer, vendors were selling colourful eagle kites that children took great delight in flying overhead. 

The open plaza also features several national icons, including the Monument to the People's Heroes, an austere white obelisk, and an honour guard standing vigil below a flagpole. A short ceremony sets the flag each morning, followed by a second ceremony to remove it in the evening. 

While I was there, I was lucky enough to witness a spectacular changing of the guard. An entire platoon of soldiers marched down Chang'an Street and entered the massive square. A sergeant-at-arms then shouted commands as individual flag guards swapped their posts. 

The Great Hall was astonishing. It contains three main zones, including The Great Hall, China's largest auditorium, plus a banquet hall and various plenary meeting rooms. The Great Hall lives up to its name, seating up to 10,000 people. This includes 3,693 seats on the lower floor, 3,515 on the balcony, 2,518 in the gallery and up to 500 on the elevated front dais. The ceiling with a distinctive backlit red star motif is equally impressive. The hall is honestly more akin to a mini-stadium.  

I took a tour of the building that included the hall, the State Banquet Hall with enough space to entertain 7,000 guests, and some of its more intimate provincial meeting rooms. Every administrative province in China has its own room. Each is decorated with a mural depicting an iconic local scene. The image above was taken in the Shanghai Hall with a mural depicting the Bund waterfront at night. However, the mural was updated with a view of the ultra-modern Pudong skyline a few months after my visit.

I completed my first visit to the Chinese capital with a walk through the hutong streets south of Zhengyangmen, and a ride on the subway to the Central Radio & TV Tower. However, I am trying to remember if I ventured up the tower. I suspect this happened on a subsequent business trip to China, as I remember visiting it at some point.

I count myself lucky to have seen China in the early years of its economic transformation.  The classic hallmarks of a socialist, centrally planned economy were still in place and very much visible. The Beijing I saw in 1998 was a time capsule of sorts, with architecture and infrastructure harking back to the 1960s and 1970s. Within a few short years, the urban landscape in Beijing (and elsewhere in China)  dramatically changed. The old world was gone.