Last night I got a phone call from my friend Grace who has lived here for over ten years. Her housekeeper (also called Ayi, the Chinese word for aunt) wanted my help to make a video of her house. Grace explained to me that the Chengguan, or city managers, are making her take down her nearly finished addition.
This year is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China; apparently for this small area near Chaoyang Park just east of the fourth ring road all building projects have to not only be stopped, but for second floor additions that are unfinished they have to be completely torn down. Why this is, no one is exactly sure, but it's accepted as "mei banfa de" -- "nothing can be done about it." Ayi's house, while far from being finished and livable, is only about three days from finishing off the roof of the second floor. The Chengguan showed up yesterday and told her they were going to tear it down today because it isn't finished. They will pay her about 30,000 RMB (about 4,400 USD) for the destruction of her nearly finished second floor, but that amount is lowballed compared to what it should be worth, considering construction time and destruction of materials, among other things.
Ayi wants to sue the Chengguan for 130,000 RMB (about 19,000 USD) and they will probably settle at a price in between those two. In order to do that she needs to document the work that's been done on her house as well as other houses with and building second floors in her neighborhood. The Chengguan showed up at her house without any permits or written orders, just their word that they would have to tear down her house and didn't go to all the houses with second floors under construction, so it's all a little fishy.
So after Grace explained this to me, I agreed to help out, but told her I didn't have a video camera, just a digital camera. Grace said that should be ok, Ayi just wants to get some documentation. Grace also reminded me that if the Chengguan show up I should get out of there. Chengguan are becoming more and more notorious for beatings and taking a lot of power. They are basically below police, but with the power to enforce laws. Stories online depict street sellers in other parts of China brutally beaten by Chengguan and fights usually revolving around them. I assured her that I want nothing to do with them. After getting my number from Grace Ayi called me to ask officially. I agreed to help her, letting her know at most I could record some video, but my camera wasn't a video camera, just a digital camera. She didn't mind and she asked if I could come over early. I said, "like around 7:30 - 8?" She said, "how about 7 - 7:30?" Knowing she was under a time crunch I agreed, saying it'd be better for me to be out of there before the Chengguan show up to tear down the place at 10. She then told me they told her they weren't coming to tear it down tomorrow, but at a later date. Apparently that was the latest news.
I had to get my camera from my Hutong (I haven't moved all my stuff over yet, and still have a chest of some books and electronics and other random things there). At about 6:45 I got a call from Ayi while I was on my way over, "we're already here, are you still asleep?" I said, I'm on my way, I just have to get my camera! Well, the bad news was my camera was out of electricity, and upon seeing the camera I was talking about, Ayi was a little disappointed, she kept asking where my camera with the big lens was! I said, that doesn't have the ability to record video. She didn't seem to understand that all, and was then trying to figure out what to do to get a camera or some other method to record.
So I felt really bad wasting their time, but it was interesting to go to Ayi's house. It's inside this area of Beijing that feels like the countryside, dirt roads, small Chinese town atmosphere that is straight out of the countryside. It's really interesting that it's only about a 15 minute drive from the Central Business District. Everyone in this community is doing construction on their houses but only a few are building second floors, and Ayi's seems to be the first or second to have to be torn down, but the Chengguan wasn't specific about who's houses were going to be torn down.
It was interesting to hear Ayi's husbands frustration with lack of rights and the fact that the Chengguan (though he identified it as the Party) can walk up to their house with no papers or legal justification other than their word (and a very suspicious word, at that) and announce that the upper floor has to be torn down. Originally they said today at 10 am, then told Ayi it wouldn't be today, but when we got to their community a Chengguan van was parked out on the road. Anger with Chinese policy in China usually results in the words "There's nothing we can do about it."
"mei banfa de"
"jiu mei banfa."
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