Eric's Beijing Diary

Went to my favorite Hunan restaurant this evening with some students. They told me that the place is going to be torn down. I had hoped this one might be spared, but it now appears that the whole west side is going to be demolished. Most of it is already gone. Hard to believe, really. The west side is like a ghost town now. A paved ghost town. A nice new road will look better for the Olympics, I guess.

I hate change. I guess you have to expect change, especially when there is so much money flowing into this country. But this change is harder to accept, because it is not really related to progress. It is change for the sake of cosmetics. Perhaps I shouldn't judge too quickly, but I don't think I'm going to like what replaces it.