Chapter 5 1. A city that is "arrogant without being too big"

Beijing is a city. Beijing is a very big city. Although, Beijing is not the only big city in China.In addition, Tianjin, Chongqing, Changsha and Guangzhou are all metropolises that should not be underestimated.Especially Shanghai.First of all, the population of Shanghai is more than that of Beijing, and with the development of Pudong, the land is not necessarily smaller than that of Beijing.What's more, Shanghai's "bigness" is far more than that.She has the largest industrial base and the largest foreign trade port in China, and has created and broken many of the world's highest and China's highest in the China World Records Association. At the same time, Shanghai is also a large taxpayer in the country. hot spot.Therefore, Shanghai has every right to be dubbed "Great Shanghai".

However, no matter how big Shanghai is, it cannot be "bigger" than Beijing.In the view of writer Wang Anyi, the wind blowing in Shanghai is the first to lose to Beijing: "On a windy day, the wind marches mightily in the sky of Beijing, and they seem to be nothing, quietly. However The transparent air has become grainy and rustling, and there is a whining sound that is omnipresent in the sky and the earth. The wind in Shanghai is much more trivial. They pass through the narrow streets and alleys, Hovering over the palm-sized open space, blowing paper scraps and fallen leaves around, and the branches and leaves of street trees are also shaking. When they squeezed between two buildings, they hit hard, with a bit of teasing mean."

No wonder Yi Zhongtian wanted to emphasize: "Shanghai has to add the word 'big' in front of its city name to become 'Big Shanghai', but Beijing is so big that it doesn't need to call itself 'Big Beijing'. When have you ever heard of "Big Beijing"? No. Beijingers don't say that, and neither do outsiders. It can be seen that in the eyes of all Chinese, Beijing is so big that it goes without saying that there is no need to add such a "snake foot". This is really a great sound, an elephant has no form, and a big city is not 'big'. Beijing is probably the only city in China that is 'arrogant without talking big'."

Beijing is big, and your feet will experience it first. There is a common saying called "seeing the mountain and running to a dead horse", which is a vivid description of the Beijing overpass.A father and son from other provinces, the son went to high school in a famous university in Beijing, and the old father sent him to enroll himself.When I arrived, the school sent a school bus to pick me up. When I came home, my father tried to make a new idea and asked me to "walk around", but as soon as I went out, I turned around with my head covered, and I couldn't find the north.The old father was filled with emotions, and when he got home, he posted a blog to complain:

"At that time, the landmark building deliberately remembered at the entrance is in front of you, but separated by: the vast, endlessly flowing, criss-crossing, insurmountable, dizzying Xizhimen Overpass. If it is a bridge in 'home', spanning Just pass, pass, pass, there is no doubt about it, but what should we do with the huge monster in front of us?" There is a text titled "Beijing Overpass" in the junior high school Chinese textbook, which has a more rational description of this "monster": "Xizhimen Overpass is very different from Jianguomen Bridge. The top motor vehicle lane is a circular turntable; the middle non-motorized lane It is an elliptical turntable. The outer diameter of the entire empty stomach turntable bridge is 140 meters from east to west, and 95 meters from north to south, which is larger than the football field of the Workers’ Stadium. From a bird’s-eye view, some people say it looks like a full moon, and some say it looks like a dragon.”

It is naturally impossible to cross such a "big" bridge in just a few steps.If you go around an overpass, even if you take a taxi, you will definitely skip the meter.Beijingers themselves put it even more utterly: Unless you are a cat at home, as long as you go out, you will have a feeling of "always on the road". The overpass is already like a "full moon" and a "coiling dragon", so the main road, which is the main artery of this big city, should not be ambiguous.According to the contents of the "Explanation of Beijing's General Planning (Draft)" in September 1958, the width of the three main arterial roads, East and West Chang'an Street, Qianmen Street, and Gulou South Street, was adjusted to 120 to 140 meters, and the width of the general arterial road was proposed to be 80 to 120 meters , the secondary arterial road is 60 to 80 meters wide.

What is the concept of such a "big road"? Liang Sicheng once made a humorous comment on the width of Chang'an Avenue. He said: "When West Chang'an Avenue was widened, many houses were demolished. As a result, the street was too wide, and the middle of the street was not used. It was reserved for a parking lot. I don't think it's appropriate to demolish the houses for a parking lot...West Chang'an Street is too wide. It takes eleven seconds to run home, and it takes more than a minute for ordinary people to walk, and it is even more difficult for an old woman with little feet to cross this street."

After all, there is only one Bolt, and he is the only one who passes 100 meters at a speed of 9″72. If you live in Beijing and have to cross such a big road every day, I am afraid that even the flying people in the world will not be able to fly. In terms of urban planning and construction, Beijing puts its eyes on its forehead to become bigger and stronger, but it cannot see the "suffering" of the people below.As a cultured Hongkonger who settled in Beijing, Chen Guanzhong directly said that Beijing lacks "quality of life" and is "a desert full of oases". Chen Guanzhong feels that Beijing is not a city that can be walked. The roads are very wide, but there are no streets with a sense of life.The overall planning of Beijing has resulted in isolated island buildings. Each isolated island has its own shopping malls, office buildings, and residences.The island-shaped buildings are surrounded by unusable landscapes, such as fake green spaces. These green spaces cannot be used, let alone form interesting public spaces, so ordinary people cannot live in them.The urban structure is incoherent, causing businesses to suffer. "We used to think that overcrowding in Hong Kong was not good, but now it seems that it may be beneficial. For example, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay, all kinds of streets can be passed and walked by. There are very few commercial streets like this in Beijing. " Chen Guanzhong sighed.

Since such "broadness" is not convenient, it is a fact foreseen by Liang Sicheng and others.Why does the city of Beijing still insist on "the road is big to deceive people"? To put it bluntly, there is only one reason: we are the capital! Huaxia Shenzhou, a vast country, as the heart of the great Chinese nation - Beijing, can it afford to be small?It cannot be small, and it dare not be small.In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were various opinions on the plans for rebuilding and expanding the city of Beijing.The State Planning Commission has repeatedly questioned the width of roads in Beijing. Some people ridiculed that "a house must have five floors, and a road must be a hundred meters", and some people have criticized this as "big roadism".But Beijing's attitude is extremely firm.

On October 10, 1956, Peng Zhen, then vice chairman and secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the First National People's Congress, proposed at the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Committee: "The traffic in London, Tokyo, Paris, New York and other cities is very congested. It is said that taking a car is not necessarily faster than walking in some places. There are some narrow streets in Moscow, and this problem also exists. We should learn from this experience and lessons. The roads should not be too narrow In 1953, it was proposed that the street from Dongdan to Xidan should be 90 meters wide, and some people criticized it as a 'big road doctrine'. The big road doctrine is the big road doctrine. Don't be afraid, it depends on whether it meets the needs of development. The road is narrow, Isn't it a waste that a car only travels ten kilometers in an hour?

"The problem in the future is that the roads are too narrow, not too wide. We should not only see that there are less than 10,000 cars in Beijing, but imagine that there will be hundreds of thousands or millions of cars in the future. What it looks like. One day it will grow to hundreds of thousands or millions of vehicles. The main road is 90 meters wide, which is not too wide. Helicopters also need space. Young comrades here, wait for your live When you are eighty or ninety years old, let’s see who is right and who is wrong, and then you will draw conclusions.” How wide the roads in Beijing should be is, to some extent, a political issue. In the early days of the founding of New China, everything was waiting to be done. As the capital, Beijing, in that era when the ideology was still very strong, its urban development also referred to the "Soviet Big Brother" model at that time - using a single-center plus radial road network structure model . Twenty years later, the "Beijing Construction Master Plan" was promulgated, and Beijing's second, third, fourth, and fifth rings were outlined at this time. This plan established the spatial development pattern of Beijing's main urban area today.This development model is later often referred to as the "spreading of the pie" model. Obviously, it is hard to explain the current "big road bullying" in Beijing without leaving the political and military environment at that time.Let’s take a look now at the end of the 1950s, just after the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, when soliciting opinions on Beijing’s overall plan, a suggestion from the military: “From the perspective of national defense, for example, the roads are very wide and the wires are placed Underground, so that during the war, any road can be used as a runway, and helicopters can land freely. If an atomic bomb exploded over Tiananmen Square, if the road is narrow and the underground water pipes are also damaged, it will cause irreparable damage. For fire, if the road is wide, it can be used as an isolation zone to prevent the fire from burning from one area to another." Therefore, because Beijing is the capital and the heart of China, it has never been as simple as just a city.When was the city of Beijing easier? As Yi Zhongtian mentioned in his article: "Beijing is an all-round city integrating politics, economy, military, diplomacy, science and technology, culture, education, sports, information and other centers. Here is the largest party and government Military agencies, the largest financial and commercial institutions, the largest scientific research units, the largest colleges and universities, the largest information network, the largest stadium, publishing house, newspaper office, radio station, TV station and the largest international airport. Embassies of all countries in the world are located in Here, elite figures and important information from all over the world also come in and out here. If there are other places, Beijing has them; if there are no other places, Beijing also has them; Beijing can go in and out. In terms of capacity and throughput alone, Beijing is so big that other cities cannot compare." So, even though Beijing's downtown area doesn't have the skyscrapers of Shanghai, you still have to look up at the city.Because "the sun rises on Tiananmen Square". Undoubtedly, Tiananmen Square is a symbol of Beijing. As long as Beijing is mentioned, we Chinese, especially new Chinese, will first think of Tiananmen Square.This is the largest and most unparalleled Grand Place in the world.Covering an area of ​​54 hectares, it can accommodate 500,000 people for group activities. "Everyone who has been there is amazed by her solemnity, solemnity, magnificence, and grandeur. Compared with her, the so-called squares in many Western cities have to be called 'crossings'. The 'big' in Beijing is in Tiananmen Square. and Tiananmen Square are best represented." Many Chinese and foreign scholars have interpreted the important position of Tiananmen Square.But the person who gave the most vivid description of this door may be that Shanghai native——Zhou Libo.When explaining the Shanghainese word "qintou" in his "Hui Dictionary", he gave the following example: "When I was young, I was in the middle and late stages of the Cultural Revolution. Once I went to Tiananmen Square with my mother. It was the first time in my life that I saw the real Tiananmen Square. However, Tiananmen Square was completely different from what I imagined. The Tiananmen Square in my impression should be It is golden, but Tiananmen Square in front of me can't see a trace of golden light, so I cried loudly in front of Tiananmen Square: "Mom, there is no golden light in Tiananmen Square-" My mother was nervous, and quickly said: "There is a golden light!" , with golden light.’ I looked again and there was still nothing, so I continued to cry and said: “There is no golden light, there is no golden light, it’s a lie——” Mom saw that many people around were looking at us, and she was very anxious. I slapped me and asked, "Did you see it?" I said in a daze, "I saw it, I saw it, I saw not only the golden light but also many gold stars." In the age, not everything can be said." The political status of Tiananmen is self-evident - the May 4th Movement, the opening ceremony of China's new culture, broke out in Tiananmen Square; the founding of the People's Republic of China was also announced by Chairman Mao Zedong on the Tiananmen Rostrum; , were also staged in front of Tiananmen Square.Although today's children will no longer delve into the question of whether Tiananmen Square is shining with gold or not, more and more grown-up friends bring their children to Tiananmen Square to watch the flag-raising ceremony.According to statistics, from May 1, 1991 when the new flag-raising ceremony was implemented in Tiananmen Square to May 1, 2001, the number of people who watched the flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square reached 110 million. What is the difference between raising the national flag on Tiananmen Square in Beijing and raising the national flag on a flagpole in Lujiazui, Shanghai?You must think this is a silly question.why?Because they are from Beijing!Only Tiananmen Square in Beijing has this qualification, the qualification to be looked up to by the people of the whole country from thousands of miles away. In order to ensure that a considerable number of "audience" is present, the official has spared no effort in this regard.First, carefully design and plan the flag-raising ceremony, and publicize it to the people of the country through the mass media, and then formulate the "National Flag Law" to make the flag-raising ceremony on Tiananmen Square a legal political ceremony. The flag-raising ceremony in front of Tiananmen Square is to "stimulate people's patriotic feelings and enhance people's national concept". It is the official definition and public expression of the function of the flag-raising ceremony.In fact, you can think about it a little deeper——Mao Zedong believed that the five-star red flag pattern is good, and the victory of the Chinese revolution was achieved under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, based on the alliance of workers and peasants, uniting the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, and fighting together , it is a true portrayal of the history of the Chinese revolution; therefore, when the government conducts socialized education, it always repeatedly recommends "the rising of the five-star red flag" to the public as a successful achievement of the Chinese revolution, and "March of the Volunteers" reinforces the The revolutionary significance of the five-star red flag.Therefore, strengthening people's awareness of the national flag is also to strengthen people's memory of the revolutionary history of the Communist Party of China.And this kind of memory is the historical basis for the ruling of the Communist Party of China. Don't think that raising the national flag is just a simple action. This action is no longer so simple when it comes to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. This is what makes Beijing different.As the heart of China, the city of Beijing is nothing small. Beijing's central axis starts from Yongdingmen in the south and ends at the Drum Tower and Bell Tower in the north.In addition to Zhengyang Gate, memorial halls, monuments, national flag poles, Tiananmen Square, Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City, Xuanwu Gate and Jingshan Zhongfeng, from south to north, straddle this central axis in turn.To understand Beijing and even China, one must understand this central axis.Because on this central axis, the power and belief of the land of China for thousands of years are intertwined. Volume 332 of "Yuanjian Leihan" quotes "Gongyang Zhuan": "The capital is the residence of the emperor. The teacher is the public; the capital is the grandeur. The residence of the emperor must be spoken by the words of the great." He also quoted "Zuo Zhuan": "Every city has a ancestral temple and the lord of the ancestors is called the capital." These few words made Xi Chuan ("Imagine the City I Live") think of the empty house on the central axis of Beijing: "It is strange to say: Beijing is such a crowded city, with a fixed population of 12 million and a floating population of about 7 million , but its center is empty. Its core, that is, the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine and a half houses in the Forbidden City are completely lonely and silent. "The traditional Chinese definition of the capital as a city is actually an affirmation of order, hierarchy, ritual, system, custom, and law, and the resulting language, spiritual lifestyle, and cultural product style must be different from The output of Western urban civilization. Therefore, in the final analysis, the regulation of a city like Beijing traces back to the brains of the Chinese people, from ideology; this is a city of ideology. It may be suitable for viewing, suitable for Walking in the guard of honor, it is suitable for royal carriages to pass through the city, but it is not suitable for living in cities that grow naturally."