Main entry:

Meyer, Michael, 1972-

Title & Author:

The last days of old Beijing : life in the vanishing backstreets of a city transformed / Michael Meyer.

Edition:

1st U.S. ed.

Publication:

New York : Walker & Co., 2008.

Description:

vii, 355 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-339) and index.
Through the front gate -- Becoming teacher plumblossom -- Mocky & me -- "Say farewell to dangerous housing" -- Wintertime -- A brief history of part one: traces of pre-Beijing -- The evening news -- High times in happiness city -- Preserving a sense of place -- Springtime -- A brief history of part two: the rise and fall of Imperial Beijing -- The unslumming slum -- Saving the old street -- A summer of recycling -- Past tense vs. future tense -- A brief history of part three: the modernization of Republican Beijing -- Miss Zhu remembers the trees -- "If someone is sick and you do not aid him, it is your fault, not his" -- The widow's story -- A brief history of part four: the industrialization of Maoist Beijing -- Echo wall.

Summary:

A fascinating, intimate portrait of Beijing through the lens of its oldest neighborhood, Dazhalan. Meyer examines how the bonds that hold the neighborhood together are being torn by forced evictions as century-old houses and ways of life are increasingly destroyed to make way for shopping malls, the capital's first Wal-Mart, high-rise buildings, and widened streets for cars replacing bicycles. Beijing has gone through this cycle many times, as Meyer reveals, but never with the kind of dislocation and overturning of its storied culture now occurring as the city prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics--From publisher description.

Resources:
Table of contents
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

9780802716521
0802716520

Subject:

Alleys China Beijing.
Streets China Beijing History.
Urban renewal China Beijing.
Ruelles Chine Pékin.
Rues Chine Pékin Histoire.
Rénovation urbaine Chine Pékin.
Alleys
Manners and customs
Streets
Urban renewal
Altstadt
Stadtsanierung
Beijing (China) Social life and customs.
Pékin (Chine) Moeurs et coutumes.
China Beijing
Peking

Form/genre:

Nonfiction.
travelers' writings.
travelog (performed works genre)
Travel writing
History
Récits de voyages.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 261475
Call No.: BIB 192483
Status: Available