Residential vs Commercial - On the Road with Thomas 😎

Thomas (9) knows more than his mom about communities and zoning. At school he's recently been learning about what services (for example electricity, water, and sanitation) communities need, and he's also been building massive constructions in good old SIMCITY (see Thomas' blog). Thomas may also already know more than the Chinese government (no offense, dear censor) about urban development as he knows what residential, commercial, and industrial areas are, what they are good for, and why some need to be close together (commercial and residential) and others (industrial) perhaps a bit apart.

Still, he is only nine, so I was allowed to come on his field trip to explore a little patch of Beijing called MaiZiDian.


The last preparations in the classroom. Every morning the kids get instructions like this that are actually posted on a blog, just like this.

 

  
Here we are, in MaiZiDian. Time to find out what tasks to complete.

  
Thomas on a mission to mark down the types of businesses on the street.
 

 
Marking down the teashop (shown on right).
 

 
We had a chat with the ladies. It was supposed to be an interview...but let's just say that they loved to chat! They also asked the kids to sing a song, which led to a lot of consternation within the team!
 

 
More individuals in the community! Notice the various transport services.

 
I bet you haven't seen one of those in a long time! The picture on the right shows a little Kodak (柯达 or keda) Express shop.
 

 
I guess this guy is taking "bringing your smoking to the cleaners" too literally.

 
Delivery services and a long-haired blond Dutch-American.

 

 

More peeps in the community.

 

This lady was so kind to fix her hair for the photo.

 

 

I think this guy can break out into a Gangnam style dance any second. The last picture shows Thomas' school again, upon return. Also a very nice community!

 

In het Nederlands: I was gisteren even op excursie met Thomas. We gingen naar een wijkje met de naam MaiZiDian. Daar hebben de kinderen de gebouwen in kaart gebracht en met de bewoners gesproken over de veranderingen in hun wijk. Die veranderingen waren er wel, maar de dames waren meer geinteresseerd in kletsen met de kinderen dan in het beantwoorden van hun vragen!  

Tuesday Prayers in a Chinese Mosque

The thought of visiting a Chinese mosque never really crossed my mind, until recently when I signed up to go along with a field trip of Thomas' class. Thomas' current class work is all related to different belief systems and this week he is visiting a mosque, a catholic church, and a temple, covering Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism in one gigantic religious swoop.

 

I never quite realized how big Islam actually is in China. According to some research posted on Wikipedia, about 1-2 percent of the Chinese population is Muslim, which translates into about 20 million Chinese. And, as I learned today, the second largest Muslim area in Beijing is about 10 minutes from my house!

 

 

Here we are, pouring out of the school bus and onto the grounds of the mosque. The mosque was only built in 2011, to accommodate the residents of the brand new building complexes on the right. (When I arrived in Beijing four years ago, there was only a big field. Back then, in 2010, the old homes and villages had just been torn down.) Apparently 95 percent of the people in this little subset of the city (a couple blocks of apartment buildings like the one you see in the picture) are Muslim.

 

 

 

 

 

The imam welcomes us at the door.

 

Thomas is hard to see in his red "Washington Capitals" sweater.

 

We are allowed inside the main prayer room, which is very unusual. Women would normally also be on the other side of the screen that you see in the left of the picture. (The kids had lots of questions about the separation between men and women here.) 

 

The focus is Allah.

 

Inside of the dome.

 

Some autumn gardening and construction.

 

Through the women's shower and hand washing area.

  

Blue sky! Always a treat in Beijing.

 

 Reflection window.

 

 

In het Nederlands: Vandaag ben ik met een schoolreisje--weliswaar een heeeel kort schoolreisje-- van Thomas meegeweest. We hebben een moskee in de buurt van school (en ons huis) bezocht en van de Imam geleerd over Islam en de verschillende gebruiken van de moslims. Het was heel interessant de moskee eens een keer van binnen te zien.