Comments on: How Love And Money Conquered Communism At The Beijing Olympics http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/09/01/how-love-and-money-conquered-communism-at-the-beijing-olympics/ Online travel magazine dedicated to exploring travel in the 21st century. Offering travel news, compelling interviews, online travel tools, and more. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:59:20 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Recent Links Tagged With "mainstream" - JabberTags http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/09/01/how-love-and-money-conquered-communism-at-the-beijing-olympics/comment-page-1/#comment-81096 Recent Links Tagged With "mainstream" - JabberTags Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:34:19 +0000 http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/?p=650#comment-81096 [...] 06-1-2009 Liberal Hate Site Daily Kos Smears Sarah Palin Saved by emoxforxlife on Sat 03-1-2009 How Love And Money Conquered Communism At The Beijing Olympics Saved by travisn000 on Fri 26-12-2008 Conservative Librarian : No to Lieberman as McCain Running [...] [...] 06-1-2009 Liberal Hate Site Daily Kos Smears Sarah Palin Saved by emoxforxlife on Sat 03-1-2009 How Love And Money Conquered Communism At The Beijing Olympics Saved by travisn000 on Fri 26-12-2008 Conservative Librarian : No to Lieberman as McCain Running [...]

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]]> By: Sarah Menkedick http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/09/01/how-love-and-money-conquered-communism-at-the-beijing-olympics/comment-page-1/#comment-77821 Sarah Menkedick Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:48:26 +0000 http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/?p=650#comment-77821 I`m sorry, I have to disagree with most of this article. After having lived in Beijing for the past year, I think your ode to "pure, raw capitalism" and its somehow romantic power for cultural exchange rings extremely false. This type of capitalism is what is driving the biggest human migration in history; millions of rural migrants who live in packed tents working 12 hours a day for about 100-150 dollars a month. These migrants were being ejected from the city as I was leaving, right before the Olympics. This type of scalping is yet another demonstration of the type of unscrupulous capitalism, combined with authoritarian Communism, that rules China at the moment. Don´t get me wrong, I loved my students over there and I met wonderful Chinese people, but I think China is really troubling, morally, economically, politically, environmentally. And as for the lovefest you mention, when I was there, San Li Tun bar street was known as the center of prostitution in the city. There were hundreds of prostitutes whenever my husband and I went there, and I´m sure there was plenty of loving going on between expats and tourists, but it has a seedy underside. The cops are also notorious for doing drug busts there, and literally arresting every black person in the bars. This happened twice while I was in Beijing. So I´m sorry if I sound harsh, but your story sounds like a highly romanticized view of certain aspects of China and Beijing. I`m sorry, I have to disagree with most of this article. After having lived in Beijing for the past year, I think your ode to "pure, raw capitalism" and its somehow romantic power for cultural exchange rings extremely false. This type of capitalism is what is driving the biggest human migration in history; millions of rural migrants who live in packed tents working 12 hours a day for about 100-150 dollars a month. These migrants were being ejected from the city as I was leaving, right before the Olympics. This type of scalping is yet another demonstration of the type of unscrupulous capitalism, combined with authoritarian Communism, that rules China at the moment. Don´t get me wrong, I loved my students over there and I met wonderful Chinese people, but I think China is really troubling, morally, economically, politically, environmentally. And as for the lovefest you mention, when I was there, San Li Tun bar street was known as the center of prostitution in the city. There were hundreds of prostitutes whenever my husband and I went there, and I´m sure there was plenty of loving going on between expats and tourists, but it has a seedy underside. The cops are also notorious for doing drug busts there, and literally arresting every black person in the bars. This happened twice while I was in Beijing. So I´m sorry if I sound harsh, but your story sounds like a highly romanticized view of certain aspects of China and Beijing.

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