Dragon and Phoenix

After a lazy morning in our city centre apartment, we hopped in the car and headed out to the countryside to spend the afternoon at a health spa with hot springs. The main building was grand and gilded and there were arches spread throughout the spa in a typically oriental style, pointing on each side, always in perfect alignment, the yin and yang in balance. It reminds me of the view as we flew into Beijing was dramatic; the mountains in which the capital is encapsulated are jagged and black, hostile looking with sheer drops that made my feet tingle as I gazed down from between the clouds. Joshy explained the story goes that the mountains are dragons, protecting the city. Bathing in the natural heat of the cave pools felt fitting with this story.

The dragon and the phoenix have evidently been important symbols for the Chinese, with murals and statues throughout the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Much like the phoenix, Beijing is a place that has grown from the dust; it has morphed into a metropolis of shiny skyscrapers, inhabited by the likes of PWC in the business district, and Gucci, Louis and Cartier in the central shopping malls. The yellow taxis and BMWs with blacked out windows play motorway tetris, beeping their way across the lanes, of which there are sometimes as many as five.

Joshy and Georgina explain that the import duties on the designer clothes and luxury cars are sky high. On our visit to a supermarket in a designer shopping mall, after a Costa coffee uoutside De Beers, Joshy took me in to Dior to check out the price tags and see for myself…over 50,000 ¥ for a leather jacket, the equivalent to about £5,000! Georgina used to get shopping lists to from her family before coming home from Newcastle during Uni holidays. It’s shocking to see the contrast between the temporary shelters where residents sell noodle bowls or slippers to survive, with shopping centres on the other side of the road.