Three Scenes One Year Ago and Today at Beizheng Street in Changsha

In two posts I shared photos of scenes from last year and of more recent scenes around Changsha's Beizheng Street--a neighborhood long marked for destruction and where one local man told me people had not been compensated enough by the government for their homes. So many buildings have been demolished during the past year that I could have taken photos from the same location this year and last year without noticing it, but there are at least three scenes where I can make a direct comparison.

One scene includes a Padaria New Mario--a bakery store chain with a number of locations in Changsha:

October, 2012

November, 2013

Last year the bakery remained open for business. Last month the building was empty except for rubble. Other changes in the scene can be found as well.

On the other side of the street, a building notable for its traditional-style architecture also remained, although part of a row of buildings behind it did not:

October, 2012

November, 2013

The clothes hanging on the third level suggest at least part of the building was still in use.

The above comparisons were easy to make since they included recognizable buildings which remained. The same can't be said for the final scene.

While walking around Beizheng Street, I recalled a winding narrow alley where I had chatted with some people last year:

October, 2012

I wondered whether I could find the same location. After relying on my navigation skills and walking through a lot of rubble, I found it:

November, 2013

Of all the scenes it stands out the most to me, partly because it touched on a brief personal experience, partly because the change is dramatic, and partly because it implies much more has changed than just buildings.

I don't know whether the people I met there last year ever returned to see what had become of the alley, but I did speak with some other people who returned to see their old neighborhood. And I probably would have never met them had it not been for how they decided to express themselves. I will say and show more about their art in an upcoming post.