Blending the old and new in China

If you want to see a vision of the future, go to Beijing. 

Nearly unrecognizable from my last trip there 13 years ago, I found the place at the end of 2025 to be fluidly modern and easy to navigate. Despite the rush to embrace technologies and alternative energy sources, some ancient customs survive and warm your heart.

My fascination with China dates to studying traditional bookbinding there late last century, then working at one of Beijing’s first independent weeklies. The capital had teemed with cyclists, hard-bargaining taxi drivers and, especially in winter, so much pollution you sneezed black. 

No longer. All our days in Beijing the sky beamed periwinkle. From the highest point in Jingshan Park (tickets ranged from 14 to 28 cents) we could see miles beyond the adjacent Forbidden City, the imperial home constructed in the early 1400s. We spent a morning visiting maybe seven of its 8,886 rooms. 

The vastness of China hasn’t changed, but traversing it is a snap. Where I once pedaled a bicycle miles in a sooty pall, we sped along smooth roads and looping overpasses in electric cars. 

We booked transport through the DiDi app. A driver and car would roll up in minutes and take us across town for a couple of dollars, all paid with the push of a button at the end of the ride. Often the car was a new BYD or other EV. Only one of those drivers took us the wrong way down a one-way street.  

We also made almost all our purchases by a tap of the smartphone, even at the smallest market stall.  

We rocked out to bands in the basement of a dystopian otherwise abandoned mall full of Russian signage and took an overnight train to southern China, where we “hiked” 10 miles on a graded paved trail along the bucolic Yulong River and stayed in a refined repurposed sugarcane factory. 

After another massive meal hosted at a Beijing restaurant by Chinese friends, who also brought special tea for the occasion, my teenage son stood at the curb as city life swirled around. His face registered adventure and excitement as he said, “Maybe I should go to school here.” 

Our friends showed us the VPN (virtual private network) toggle on their phones, which allows them to circumvent the government’s great firewall and access news on YouTube. That’s how they learn about world current events. One of them explained, “America from the beginning known to be the place with the most freedom” and so (for now) it is the country that produces most of the news they seek. 

While the U.S. middle class shrinks, the Chinese one comes into its own. With both disposable income and leisure time, the Chinese pack the shops and pursue independent travel.  

As one of our friends drove us back to our hotel in his luxury EV, I could tell he was bothered by something. “In America, is it still OK to talk, I mean, free to talk?” He meant freedom of speech. 

I didn’t know how to answer. 

Both our countries stand at a crossroads. 

Margaret E. Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, can be reached at mdavis@dailyinterlake.com.