China is an absolutely fascinating country! Its proud citizens are quick to boast of their 5000 years of history… but on the other hand, so much of that history has been unapologetically demolished to make way for new development.
The contrast is absolutely striking, with glass and steel skyscrapers popping up alongside the scant few temples and traditional hutong homes which have somehow managed to dodge the bulldozer. A few years ago, the traveling circus that pays my bills had assigned me to work in the Middle Kingdom, so I spent about three years of my life there. In all that time, nowhere was the past/present paradox more apparent than at Gubei Water Town (古北水镇).
Gubei Water Town might look like an ancient Chinese village, but it was actually just built this century. At the same time entire swaths of Beijing’s old city were being razed to clear room for new shopping malls and athletic stadiums in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Gubei was erected as a showpiece, to give international visitors a small glimpse into the country’s past. The village/theme park is meant to be a recreation of China’s old “water towns”, working communities which sprang up around active waterways. No expense was spared in the construction of this attraction, and several nearby rivers were effectively re-routed to create the spectacle. Still, the development makes for a fascinating contrast, standing in the shadows of the crumbling Simatai Great Wall.
And like many other parts of China, one of the best parts of Gubei Water Town is the people watching! No matter what time of year you visit, you’re guaranteed to see at least a few young couples posing for their wedding photos. And if you’re dressed sharply— or honestly, if you’re any other ethnicity than Han Chinese— there’s always a possibility that you might get dragged into somebody else’s family photo shoot.
Now this might just be one Westerner’s perspective, but a visit to Gubei Water Town seems about as authentic as a visit to Epcot’s Chinese pavilion. Yes, the place does offer a tiny view of the country’s past, but it’s been completely sanitized for Western viewing. Also, unlike most Chinese cities, there’s ample parking outside, along with plenty of working flush toilets. And in a nod of acknowledgement to us 外国人 visitors, there’s even a Starbucks kiosk just past the turnstiles! So don’t get me wrong, Gubei Water Town is definitely a fun experience— but it’s just not real.
At least in northern China, anyway, these “water towns” were never really a thing. Anyone who’s ever lived there can tell you, it’s just too cold! Most of the lakes and rivers here will freeze over during the wintertime, making them pretty much useless as waterways. Down in the southern part of the country, outside of Shanghai, there still are a precious few of these traditional villages which have somehow managed to survive demolition… although you’d have to travel thousands of miles from Beijing in order to see these cultural treasures.
But in some ways, visiting the Gubei Water Town is kind of like living in China. If you’re there for a very short period of time, and if you limit yourself to staying on the well-trod tourist path, then you could easily fall in love with the place.
But the longer you stay— and the more you start thinking critically about what you’ve seen there— the more tempted you’ll be to risk a peek behind the curtain, and catch a glimpse of what’s really going on…