2019 Year in Review: The News That Kept Beijing Rapt
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Getting to the end of a year in Beijing tends to leave you with more questions than answers, and when you're not searching in vain for that long-gone jianbing seller, you're dealing with quiet closures, noisy neighbors, and if you're really lucky, surprise laduzi. One thing's for sure: there's never a dull day in China's capital, and we hope for nothing less from 2020. For now, however, let's take a look back at the year that was 2019.
If the decimation of businesses in the hutongs as a side effect of Beijing's sprawling redevelopment campaign was the overarching theme of 2017-2018 then the main thread to 2019's news is a little harder to define. While there were still some big closures (more on those below), the city generally kept on keeping on, albeit mostly in the city's highly sanitized "lifestyle hubs" and malls.
It was also a time when the tables finally started to turn on the city's long-time scourge, pollution, with August 2019 enjoying the cleanest air ever on record for the capital. Failing to even break into the world's top 100 most polluted city's list, Beijing finally seems to be shedding its smoggy reputation in the eyes of the world.
2019 was also the year when technology went into overdrive: 5G was launched, and tech-based monitoring started to have real-life consequences as the first big victims of China's sesame credit were named and shamed. Facial recognition cameras around the city proliferated and are now seeing their first applications on public transport systems under the guise of streamlining access, and mobile phone users must now have their faces scanned when registering a new sim card. The list goes on.
It's easy to sound alarmist given such circumstances, but we're not here to ruin the party. Beijing continues to be a glorious melting pot of cultures and people, where anything seems possible whether it's kickstarting your own business, opening that bar you've always dreamed of, or simply exploring the exceptional historical sights dotted throughout the city. Beijing will always be the beating heart of China, which means there'll be plenty of news – good and bad – to keep things lively along the way.
Prepare for (Even) More Road Closures
For most Beijingers, the National Day holiday is prime GTFO time, so you can imagine the rush to buy tickets when we eventually remembered this year was extra, extra special as it would be marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of CCP. But leaving the city for a break didn't mean you got off scot-free, as for weeks leading up to Oct 1, we were stymied with frequent street closures and mysterious curfews as the government prepared for the biggest show of the year. In the end, the whole thing went off without the slightest hitch (all the action was happening elsewhere, after all) and we were left feeling privileged to once again be able to cross Beijing's east-west axis without bumping into a tank.
Arguably the most heartbreaking news of the year came just last month, when The Bookworm, de facto home for Beijing bibliophiles, suddenly announced that they were being forced to close. The reason? "The ongoing cleanup of 'illegal structures.'" Whether you believed that half-cocked reason or not most likely depended on how much red you were seeing at the time. A few weeks on and there's still a huge book-shaped hole in our heart but also a whole lot of hope that they'll find a new venue soon. For now, you can read the many memories that The Bookworm's nearest and dearest shared with us.
Perhaps just to remind us who's really in power, this year the government decided to play a game of tic-tac-toe with China's annual holiday, waiting until late March to inform everyone that they'd actually booked the wrong days off for May holiday. We didn't complain too much however since the change actually gave us an extra day off. Still yet to book your May Day holiday for next year? What the hell are you waiting for?
Beijing Not Even in Top 100 Most Polluted Cities in the World
Blah blah blah, Beijing is so polluted, blah blah. Actually, wait, no it's not! 2019 was the year when we could truly lift our heads high and say "we're no longer the most polluted place on the planet!" before turning our sympathetic gaze to poor old India. Sadly, although Beijing now ranks as the 122nd most polluted city in the world, there's still some way to go, as we still place eighth when it comes to the most polluted capitals, behind the likes of Delhi, Ulaanbaatar, Kabul, and Kuwait.
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Beijing Places Second to Last in Quality of Life Index
That may then explain why Beijing ranked second to last on the Deutsche Bank's annual quality of life index, losing only to the Nigerian city of Lagos. Meanwhile, Manila, Dhaka, Jakarta, and Mumbai, were all major cities to outperform Beijing. Zurich, Switzerland topped the list. Welp, you can't win them all – at least we can breathe!
2019 China Cities Tier Rankings Released, Beijing Trumps Shanghai Once Again
Better yet, we stuck it to Shanghai, taking back our top spot on China's unofficial official list of the country's tier ranking system. The list is determined by ranking each city in terms of the concentration of commercial resources, ease of transportation, citizen activity as evaluated via food delivery and online shopping data, diversity of lifestyle, and overall city development. Despite Beijing coming first, the overwhelming majority of the best cities (ten out of 15) are located in the south, reflecting the distinct and growing economic gap between the two halves of the country.
Of course one of the biggest stories of the year was the unveiling of Beijing's brand-spanking-new Daxing International Airport way out in the southern sticks. The grand opening of the Zaha Hadid-designed mega-structure in parallel with the Oct 1 celebrations also sounded the death knell for Beijing's oldest airport: Nanyuan. We're still awaiting further announcements, but the airport has already been earmarked as the site of a spiffy new aviation museum.
23 Restaurants Receive Michelin Stars in First-Ever Beijing Guide
If news of Michelin's arrival into Beijing was met with mixed reactions, then the restaurants then it chose to award with its first-ever round of stars was positively divisive. Some in the industry welcomed the century-old by-way-of-selling-tires French restaurant guide, saying that it helped vindicate the hard work taking place in their kitchens, others however, were incredulous that a Shanghainese restaurant received one of the highest honors while TRB received a mere hat tip. Wherever you stand on the guide, it has for now invigorated the Beijing dining scene and given plenty of food for thought as to what legacy its prized establishments will eventually leave. For those of us a little more strapped for cash, it also provided a nice little list to run down for cheaper eats in the city in form of its Bib Gourmand nominations.
While many of us were grumbling through our winter colds, we received a second unwelcome jolt to the system: news that the plague was alive and well and in Beijing. After frantically typing "plague symptoms what" into Google, we had calmed down enough to learn that the two victims had not in fact contracted the disease here but had been brought from Inner Mongolia to the capital for treatment. A fourth person has since been diagnosed with the disease in Inner Mongolia, where the local government is currently heading a large-scale culling of rats. All of a sudden, our colds didn't seem so bad.
Yugong Yishan Officially Closes After 11 Years of Groundbreaking Gigs
Finally, the other biggest loss to the city's arts arena left Dongcheng a whole lot quieter. Long-time rock haven Yugong Yishan had apparently angered the music gods and were unable to renew their events license after more than a decade in the biz, leaving a conspicuous void in the city's music scene. Once home to gigs from huge Western acts like Swans, Tortoise, and St. Vincent, the venue also provided one of the best mid-sized stages for local bands to cut their teeth. Management has yet to find a replacement venue, but we, the fans, hold out hope that the big, noisy revival will come in 2020.
Read: Official 2020 Holiday Calendar Has Record 7 Makeup Days
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