The Rat Tribe of Beijing | Hacker News Reader

The Rat Tribe of Beijing

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It's been posted a million times before, but if you missed it Hong Kong's walled city was amazing:

http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2014/10/28/detailed-cross-sectio...

http://www.mascontext.com/issues/19-trace-fall-13/kowloon-wa...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139914/A-rare-insig...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8580136

I remember 5 years ago, some of my musician friends were living in a condo out on the edge of the city too. They used to do rehearsal late at night and neighbors always came the next day to complain. Actually not Beijing, most large cities in China have people like these. One of my best friends is now a designer in Tsingtao (yes, the brand of the beer). He used to hang out with a group of painters, who graduated from top art schools in China, but decided to paint, so they rent a very large room by the street, those kind of room people would think of as a forever 21 shop or GNC shop. And they each have their own tent to sleep in, their paintings were hanging all over the wall. They had boxes of beers, cokes, and cigarettes. Some of their paintings are fantastic, but some are just commercial paint for sale. The point is, some of these guys will make it and create cool stuff out there, some will fail and become a nobody. That's the beauty and the cruelty of the real world...

IIRC, of all these artists I know, only one Beijinger is still trying to make art now, others are all busy making money, because I guess in China, surviving is the most important thing in people's life.

Many migrant workers live in the catacombs beneath my apartment building. It is an upscale place, so the contrast is very strange; also these rooms lack windows and are technically illegal (they would never be considered livable in the west, it is like living in a car garage).

What happens during the 1-2 days per year when there's heavy rain and flooding? I remember a couple of years ago walking in Beijing almost knee-deep in water (near nanluoguxiang). Is the drainage better near you?

Honestly, I just assume they find somewhere else to live until the water table goes back down. A temporary inconvenience. It always smells moldy down there anyways; that can't be healthy.

Plenty of people live in the shops/restaurants they work at, which is why they put makeshift blinds over their windows at night. A lot of dodgy things like that going on in the 'jing.

> A lot of dodgy things like that going on in the 'jing.

Indeed, like Gutter oil [0].

I really wish I had read that article prior to my trip to China.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil

I used to eat at cheap xiaochi's for lunch...but not anymore.

So if I want to be a first time tourist, how do I avoid it?

Don't eat oily food and eat in buddhist vegetarian restaurants.

Even expensive hot pot restaurants got temp closed for using oil from questionable sources, so just paying more is not a guarantee for better quality ingredients, although eating fried food from makeshift street restaurants is almost a swill oil guarantee.

Sunshine kitchen and bellagio's are probably all right. It is probably the only time to prefer chain resteraunts, especially ones that aren't franchised. Element fresh is pretty safe, and...well, just remember you get what you pay for.

Had the runs from Bellagio once, not sure if it was due to the ever present unsanitary food handling everywhere or due to the food itself.

I have never heard of sunshine kitchen, but I don't live in BJ, so that might be why.

Western countries have their own questionable oil though:

http://www.businessinsider.com/fake-olive-oil-2012-1?IR=T&op...

http://kellythekitchenkop.com/the-olive-oil-mafia-be-aware-o...

Cutting olive oil with cheaper vegetable oils is much more acceptable in my books then boiling down rancid sewage grease and selling it as new cooking oil.

But you're right, capitalism causes cost-cutting measures all over the world. However dangerous. Not just in Asia.

not sure it's possible. When I was there there was a big scandal with bad meat at McDonalds and PizzaHut. I just accept it as a part of the background, like the pollution.

The gov is more likely to go after western brands (McD's, KFC, Walmart) for quality problems as a way to distract from the real systematic problems. The real problem is that it is all very rotten from the suppliers on up.

Go to Taiwan.

No jobs in Taiwan, which is why the Taiwanese are coming here to work.

Have you been to Taiwan? There is a booming economy there.

Oh god the health effects section...

Add those to the health consequences of breathing in extremely polluted BJ air all day and you're on your way to chronic illness and early death.

Some of the giant underpasses fill up at night with people, who I assume are migrant workers. I imagine these underpasses provide a sensible place to go when the flooding happens.

Also, the more official-looking temporary housing for construction workers has windows, but it's pretty dense. All those dudes can fit their whole lives into a single duffle.

I used to rent a two-room "suite" on the top floor of a shop house. On the middle floor were three bedrooms, each half the size of my own. One had a waitress in it, one had two guys who used to work opposite shifts at a car factory, and the third one had two sisters, their mother, their brother, and the brother's girlfriend living in it. This was in Oxford, England, and all the rest of the inhabitants were Polish.

A great article, definitely, but I'm sure people can find cramped immigrants closer to home if they look...

Not windowless beneath ground, it typically isn't allowed by western building codes.

My dad (who lives in the states) was renovating his basement and had a sink a few windows just to pass inspection.

That's right, in all US states as I understand it. Windowless underground warrens are firetraps.

One time when I was house-hunting I came across a place in SF where the ground floor had been converted into 18 individual rooms of 36-60 square feet each.The real estate agent was extremely evasive; my wife is still convinced someone had died there and she's probably right.