life in the B I G city

Another shot from our window. This alley is in one of the hutong neighborhoods that are "endangered" now. They are of a human scale. The high rises and gleaming office buildings that are currently in favor are not. This alley is quite gentrified and definitely geared to the tourist trade. But, down the side alleys, life goes on as it has for generations. If the tourist dollars help keep that life alive, I'm glad.This is an ungentrified entrance to "hutongren" life. 

Here's what's happening right down the street.
And not too far away.
All to make room for this. I call this corporate scale. It's actually something of a political issue; people are organizing to keep the wrecking balls at bay. The Olympics has not been a good thing for the old Beijing way of life. The rich get richer and the poor get shuffled out of  their neighborhoods. 
It's clean, but not very soulful and definitely NOT human-oriented.

I guess the US doesn't have a patent on this kind of foolishness.