> Chinese cities are ghost towns. Not in the sense of real estate boondoggles – vast complexes built prematurely, lying empty, and crumbling – though there are

> Chinese cities are ghost towns. Not in the sense of real estate boondoggles – vast complexes built prematurely, lying empty, and crumbling – though there are some of those. Instead, the country’s urban centres are built on an obliterated past, which only sometimes seeps into the present through strange-sounding names for streets, parks, and subway stops. In Beijing, like scores of cities across the country, streets are very often named after their relationship to things that no longer exist, ghostly landmarks, such as city gates, temples, memorial arches, and forgotten historical events. In the capital, for example, the Foreign Ministry is located on Chaoyangmenwai, or the Street Outside the Chaoyang Gate. Just a few hundred metres west, the street changes name to Chaoyangmennei, or the Street Inside the Chaoyang Gate. In between is the Second Ring Road. The streets’ names only make sense if you realise that the ring road was built on the site of the city walls, which had a passageway right there, Chaoyangmen, the Chaoyang Gate. The wall has become a highway and the gate an interchange. Nothing beyond the street names exists in the neighbourhood to remind you of either spectral structure.[..] I found the above paragraph evocative..touching almost. you can almost imagine a china 500-1000 years from now...still bearing the names of the streets and only stories to tell you what it used to be.. in a way, isnt that true for all cities? but how far can we go back? i am trying to overlay this upon ancient civilisations. India is just as old. streets are new..never mind new names..even the streets are modern. they are named after modern politicians and oddly enough, some of the british colonisers. but temples exist in india because religion exists. names weave time and even secularisation doesnt erase that. the islamic invasions got us muslim and moghal names and missionaries changed names too..and that too is part of history. unlike china where the cultural revolution froze slices of time before mao. today, villages and townships in india that are more rural still bear the names and stories of their past. i wonder how it is in iraq or egypt or in latin america. i have never thought of 'the other places' before.