The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
Michael Meyeramazon.com
The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
It is Beijing’s—if not the world’s—densest urban environment.
Michael Meyer • The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
Minnesota home. Here, I also met my future wife. For me, Beijing was simply love at first sight.
Michael Meyer • The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
The former campus—where I had spent two of the happiest years of my life—had been erased.
Michael Meyer • The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
Together, they are the backdrop to a vanishing way of life.
Michael Meyer • The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
A Beijing courtyard home, in contrast, turns its face inward, hiding its most attractive features behind gates and walls.
Michael Meyer • The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
British attaché recorded that in 1865 Lord Stanley sneered, “Peking’s a giant failure, isn’t it? Not a two-storied house in the whole place, eh?”
Michael Meyer • The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
Sichuan province. I was posted to a city named Neijiang (Inner River), located on a bend of the Tuo River.
Michael Meyer • The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
The most strident hutong defenders I had met were historians and tourists.