Beijing Water Oral Histories

In the early chilly part of the spring of 1971, after I finished ninth grade, I was sent with nine school friends to Jiayukou Village, which was on Great Rock River (Da shi he) in Fangshan County. Our group of “educated youth” went there to live for three years and be “re-educated.”  read more »

Our village, Magic Water Village, is right next to a mountain, which doesn’t belong to any of the surrounding mountain ranges, so we call it Solitary Mountain or Dushan. Looking down from a plane, it looks similar to a lotus petal, so we also call it Lotus Flower Mountain or Lianhua Shan. It is made of really hard rock, quite unlike limestone and because it has never weathered over the years, the mountain is called “Inspired Volcanic Rock.” How this rock could be put to use in the future, no one knows yet.  read more »

Seventy years ago, when I was very young, we lived right near a place called Lucao yuan or Reed-Grass Gardens in Chongwenmen District. You might ask why it was called Lucao yuan. The reason is that in those days there was a large lake with a lot of reeds in that area. Xianyu kou or Fresh Fish Junction was close to our home. Many of the old hutong (laneways) were arranged on an angle because they followed the direction of the old river, and all the houses had been built along its banks.  read more »