Ask a Laobeijing: What will Beijing look like in the future?

We met 46-year-old Mo while traveling in his taxi from Panjiyuan to Sanlitun.

What do you think Beijing will look like in the future?

“I think the future will be much better! I’ve heard that between they will relocate a lot of the government offices out beyond the Fifth Ring Road. If lots of offices begin to move outside of the Fifth Ring, the inner city will become a purely cultural place – and traffic will be directed outwards. At the moment, Beijing is both China’s cultural and government center. But in the future, these will be separate, like in American cities. Though Beijing will probably be even better than American cities.

I’ve never been outside China, but I think that if you look at Beijing’s history, it’s already changed so much, so I think the future will be full of change too – and for the better. Definitely, right?

Beijing has a lot of people that are interested in culture and arts. Many of them leave China, but maybe in the future the government will not allow them to leave so easily, and, if they are forced to stay, this will increase the culture here even more.

There will always be a lot of young people from other places coming to Beijing to study, because they don’t have the same opportunities in their hometowns as they can find here. That’s guaranteed. There will be more and more foreigners coming to Beijing too. Do you know why? Because their countries are already developed, yet China is still developing, so they want to make the most of these new opportunities while they can. And that’s fine by me! Even Chinese-born people who left are coming back. Lots of my passengers are from overseas.

But I also think a lots of people will begin to leave too, and go to other cities like Tianjin for business, because Beijing isn’t China’s business hub. If they do, Beijing will become cleaner and easier to move around. 

I think overall the economy is getting better. There’s no way we’ll ever have an economic crisis like Japan or the USA! China has a lot of people, so we can just start our own businesses, and make our own products. We don't need to rely on foreigners. Of course, wages will increase and people will spend more too.

We don't need to worry about losing Beijing’s traditions or its culture either. The government is very good at protecting these things. Everyone is worried about Beijing’s hutongs, but these will always be around too, because they’re part of our history – and tourists love them. They don’t want to see high rises, because they can see it in their own towns and cities. They want to see something unique to Beijing. The government is smart, it knows how to make money from tourists.”