Chronology of Xianning Hou

During my ten years in Beijing, I have moved many times. My last stop is Houcun, Xianning, which is also my longest stop. The reason why I want to write it is that this is my destination in Beijing. Moreover, this village was pushed into ruins a month after I left, and it was destined to be nowhere to be found.

Xianning is the dirtiest village I have ever lived in Beijing. More than 90% of villages are self-built buildings. The blue-gray cement wall is not decorated, and the building is built very close. There is only a gap between fists, and it seems that no one is willing to make room for broadening the line of sight. Only two people can pass through the alley, and the main street is just enough for a van to pass through. The cement slab paved is incomplete and uneven. The main roads in the village are also bumpy and winding, and the west entrance of the village is often blocked when commuting. There are trash cans everywhere in the village, and the speed of garbage cleaning can't keep up with the speed of accumulation, and sewage often flows across. Especially in rainy days, rainwater and sewage are connected together, making people have nowhere to go.

How can there be such a shabby village in Beijing!

The villages in my hometown are clean and tidy, the houses are laid out horizontally and vertically, painted in uniform colors, the asphalt road runs through the east, west, north and south, and the roadside is a green belt with lush flowers and trees.

But who means it's not Beijing!

I chose this place only because the rent is cheap. This is the last self-built residential area in Beijing. Ignore these bad external environment, it's the same everywhere when I close the door. Inside the door is my life, but I am not disturbed and do not accommodate other people's lives. As the saying goes, hiding in a small building is unity, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Although the house is small, its layout is reasonable. The entrance is separated from the kitchen and bathroom, and there is a bedroom with a large window facing west. Fortunately, there is a bungalow next to us in the west. After noon, the sun can shine in, but the exposure time is very short, and it will be blocked by distant buildings in a short time. This is good for me. There is no shelter outside, I can see the blue sky and green trees. On the roof, I can bask in bask in the quilt and wander around in a daze.

After more than two years here, I have formed a fixed lifestyle.

Get up at 5: 30 in the morning, brush your teeth and drink water to practice yoga. At this time, a beam of morning light was just reflected by the distant glass, and this quiet hut was a little more Zen. The exercise ends at 6: 30, and the next half hour is breakfast time. At seven o'clock, I packed my things and got ready for work.

The morning in Xianning is lively, and people and cars flock outside the village. I rode my bike past a railway bridge, then a T-junction, and the third intersection was Shuangqiao subway station. I parked my bike at the car-watching place and hurried to the subway entrance to queue up.

There is a dog named Benben at the car inspection office. He lives happily all day. He knows many people and is very enthusiastic to meet them. If you touch it, it will play "Come and get me" with you. Benben is also a poor dog. His world is only half the size of a chain. He is hungry and full, and sometimes he is thirsty without water. He is accompanied by shit all day. Without the touch of his master and the pursuit of his companions, he will never know what it is like to run. I often bring it something to eat and touch it. Although my hands are stained with black oil, this is all I can give. I remember one morning in winter, I parked my car and went to see it as usual. I found that it had given birth to several puppies, just lying on the ground with nothing, and several puppies were nursing around it. I found its owner who sells breakfast and asked, "Do you know if your family is stupid enough to keep a puppy?" "Are you? I don't know! " The hand is still busy. I didn't realize I had a dog until Benben got off the dog. Poor Benben! I don't know if it's still there.

There are all kinds of shops on the way to the subway. Generally, if you go shopping, you will go to the supermarket, buy scented tea in that Zhang Yiyuan, eat cold dishes in jiaozi at Auntie Dumpling House, and there is a Beijing Bazhen, which sells braised dishes very delicious. Since the demolition of Houcun Village in Xianning, the bottom business along the road in the village has been difficult to do. Those "local armed forces" in uniform are more like devils coming into the village to check back and forth. Doing business is as difficult as doing underground work.

There are two breakfast stalls in the village that I am familiar with, and sometimes I go to eat if I don't want to cook. A family with an accent is my hometown. The fried dumplings made by their family are authentic and full, with soft skin and fragrant stuffing, and the side next to the bottom of the pot is slightly brown. I used to be able to eat eight buns, but I ate them once with my friends, only to find that my appetite was really terrible, so I reduced it to six at a time. Their hot soup is also good. There are many toppings in it, and many people come here to eat. There is also a "home" flavor. They sell many kinds, and all three people in the family are very busy and unhurried. There are many kinds of steamed buns in their family, as well as fried dough sticks and leek boxes, tofu and soybean milk, all of which are my favorite foods. This one is not as lively as the first one, but there are many old customers. I feel that many people in the village also come to eat. It's a big teahouse.

On weekends, I usually go to the eastern suburb market across the south street of the village to buy food. This is a big vegetable market, all kinds of daily necessities, vegetables and fruits, rice, grain and oil, clothing, seafood and meat, second-hand electrical appliances, both retail and wholesale. In the years when I lived in Xianning, I almost bought food from here. One bought it in buy buy for a week, then went out to buy it next weekend after eating, and hardly bought it from the village. I seldom eat out and never order takeout. Cooking by yourself is clean and hygienic, which is very affordable. I'm sorry to hear that this market has also been demolished, and many businesses have to make a living.

A city's vegetable market is always a place full of feelings, a place of red dust and fireworks, and a secular world. Beijing is developing too fast to accommodate those disgraceful corners. First, the fahai temple Morning Market when I lived in Shijingshan, then the Laoshan Morning Market, and now this eastern suburb market, all disappeared. We outsiders are still crying, not to mention those Beijing natives.

There is another good place to talk about at the weekend. On the west side of the village, within walking distance, there is a Eucommia ulmoides Park, which is quite large and a bit like a semi-wild park. In spring, you can also dig wild vegetables in it. There are few people outside the park, and it is also very leisurely to walk inside. Later, it was discovered that the area south of the park is also a garden in full of green, which is more suitable for cycling alone because there are fewer people. Unfortunately, it was discovered too late.

I don't have any friends here, but I know the second landlord who deals with me every month, and my friendship is limited to meeting and saying hello; One is the last landlord of the second landlord, which is the one that grows vegetables on the roof. This aunt gave me many warm memories. If I see her taking care of vegetables during the weekend break, I will go to her vegetable garden and have a chat. We talked about the weather, flowers and vegetables, and she generously asked me to share her vegetables. I have some potted flowers that can't be put into my room, but they are in her garden. Another is my neighbor, a girl younger than me and her son's husband. Her home is so busy that you can hear her calling her son with the door closed. When cooking with the door open, she occasionally comes out and leans against my doorframe to chat with me, telling me that the rent has gone up again and learning to cook with me. Now that I have left there, I want to know where all these passers-by have gone.

With the greening transformation of refractive road, Houcun Village in Xianning has become a ruin. The roof covered with clothes and quilts, the landlord's vegetable field on the roof, the windowsill covered with green plants, colorful gauze curtains raised with the wind, cooking alone, making tea alone, and being in a daze alone can only be recalled. The almost dry gutter in front of the building and the train lane that often whistles behind the building can't stop my love for it. Life here has slowed down. I live seriously, and my heart is calm and full.

How many times did you move in Beijing? Only the delivery address of Taobao can be recorded clearly. Xianning Hou gave me the last place to live, and with its endless stream of residents, scattered buildings and uneven stone roads, it formed a mirage in my heart.