Word: jie
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...Jie stands in the courtyard of her family's house in central Beijing, glancing up as a breeze flutters the leaves of a pomegranate tree. Except for the sounds of playing children in the alley outside, all is silence. "It's hard to believe we are in the center of a city of 15 million, isn't it?" she says. Hers is a traditional, single-story courtyard home in one of the city's ancient hutongs, the lanes that the city's Mongol designers intended as the heart of the metropolis when they planned it in 1272. There were once...
...once one of the world's best-preserved medieval cities. Numerous stories that make it into China's tightly controlled media about collusion between city officials and developers testify to the fact that regulatory control of Beijing's redevelopment was, for a while, almost non-existent. Still, Xia Jie's house was supposed to be safe, because of its setting within the city's second ring road, which follows the route once marked by the capital's 30-feet high city walls...
...theory, hutongs inside the ring are strictly protected. But last May, developers suddenly appeared on Xia Jie's doorstep, knocking down two houses and issuing a notice for 23 households to move out. The city had given permission for the construction of a 12-story office building and an adjacent apartment block, the builders said. "It was so offensive," says Xia. "They gave us 14 days to move out. It's like being a second-class citizen in your own country." She says she spoke to the other residents and many of them agreed with her that there...
...Back at Dongsibatiao, Xia Jie says things have taken a surprising turn for the better since residents received their eviction notices in May. Xia says she confronted the developer and brought evidence that proper legal procedures hadn't been followed, arguing that the permission granted by the city government for the project was therefore invalid. Soon after, there was a sudden change of attitude. The range of the project was scaled back so that it will now involve a smaller, six-story building to be sited on the edge of the hutong. Other buildings taken over by the developer...
...that the movie is over, what will you devote your time to? -Jie Yang, Lafayette, CAIt has been a long ride. It has been five years of real fighting. It has been a lot of exercising self-control and determination day after day. I haven't had enough time to make a transition. I have always been working. I haven't been living for this movie and it is not my movie. I have a lot of journalistic projects that I want to purse that I have already started and I will keep doing my work...