Authenticity is an issue that I run into frequently here in China. For one thing, China is certainly known the world over for its fakes - fake DVDs, fake name-brand clothes and so on. Even the recent tainted milk issues were based on the idea of producing "fake" milk - that is, using filler to trick quality control and get the poisoned milk onto shelves. But authenticity operates in a lot of ways in a place changing as fast and with as long a history as China.

For instance, many of you are familiar with the hutongs or traditional style of housing in Beijing - four or more families arranged around a courtyard, each courtyard opening through an arch onto the alleyway or street. These dwellings have been rapidly demolished, especially in the run up to the Olympic Games this year. Two years ago I travelled through a Beijing in which entire blocks were marked with "chai," the Chinese character for "demolish." This year I haven't seen a single "chai," but I have seen plenty of widened avenues and newly built commercial complexes named after the hutongs that previously stood in their place. Is the Beijing I see today less authentic than that which existed two or twenty years ago?

Another example is that of the traditional tourist sights and their restorations. The Forbidden City has been totally repainted in the last couple years to look like it was built yesterday. Large sections of the Great Wall have been totally rebuilt since their destruction, which sometimes was as recent as the Cultural Revolution. Tourists can walk along a Great Wall that is only twenty years old. Are these things diminished by their newness?

In most cases I don't think they are. The Temple of Heaven has been rebuilt something like thirty times over the past six centuries - wooden construction lends itself to frequent fire / rebuilding cycles. Each time, that place remained the place where Emperors offered sacrifices for the harvest. Today the thirty-oddth Temple stands as a center of Beijing tourism, Beijing history and Beijing's civic life as a park space used daily by thousands of residents and visitors. Similarly with the Great Wall and Forbidden City - the particular wood or bricks aren't as important as the form and location.

The hutong situation is definitely more difficult, partly because other cities have done a much better job of preserving their ancient core while still modernizing. Xi'an and Luoyang are two cities in China that managed to entirely preserve or at least reconstruct the old city walls and gates, with the areas insides reflecting the traditional architecture, dwellings etc. while the high rises go up outside. Given their success, Beijing has certainly failed - but I have trouble declaring this inauthentic. Beijing is the capital and a symbol of where China is and is going, and while I mourn the fact that so much history has been wiped out, the Beijing that exists right now is as authentically turn of the century urban China as anyplace else.

Anyway, these are just a few of the thoughts bouncing around my mind as I visit the sights and live day to day in a place with 3,500 years of recorded history.