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!