I worked in Beijing, China for a few years. And before I left Beijing for Vancouver BC, I thought I should have a closure with Beijing, a city that was my home for five years. I decided to make a video about Beijing through my eyes because people lead different lives in the same city and I wanted to share mine with you.
A corner of the ancient city wall in Beijing, a snapshot from the video
I shot the video using various methods with my Gopro - mounted the camera on different parts of my bike, carried it on a gimbal and walked around, and placed it on a tripod.
This is a very personal video and because I was leaving, it's also a sad video.
A little bit of background info might help you to understand lives or at least my life in Beijing.
In short, China was dirt poor when the Communist Party came to power in 1949 and Beijing was made the capital city. The country then went through turmoils like the Great Leap, Cultural Revolution, Tian An Men Incident (borrowed term from my history book in school). But since 1978, when the Reforming and Opening Up policy started, China has made tremendous economical development and now is the second biggest economy in the world. Top tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen become huge international cities that hold tens of millions of people.
Beijing on a good air day
Skyline of The Bund in Shanghai
But fast increase in GDP numbers come at a cost, be it pollution, long working hours, poor food safety, traffic congestion, high inflation, or super intense job market competition. Any of the above can cause serious issues to people's physical and mental health, and the situation is much worse in cities like Beijing. Working class, including myself, often finds themselves struggling financially, physically, or mentally. As beautiful and amazing as Beijing is in so many ways, it's just not easy to feel secure, belonged, or simply happy; but rather helpless, anxious, or even filled with despair, especially for young people who came to Beijing to pursue their dreams.
View from my apartment in Beijing on a smoggy day
People waiting to get on subway during rush hour, photo by CCTV News
Beijing is like a stunning rose that attracts you and can make you bleed when you hold it.
With all that said, I hope you can make more sense of the video and I truly hope you like it.
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I LOVE THE ORIGINALITY
This Video is indeed exceptional.... you used the video to explain everything One could think about in Beijing. I really really appreciate your efforts in putting this together. Every scene had a lot of stories to tell.
Many thanks for the kind encouragement! It seems you can really feel what I'm trying to convey by this video.
Yes, Nateren. I really felt it.
very amazing. I can feel you man from the video
Thanks my friend. That means there was some level of success in the video.
i hope that you will keep posting like this. do you have a facebook :)
I have a couple of more videos from traveling in the US and I do plan to make more! I don't really use FB a lot but here it is, I would love to connect :)
https://www.facebook.com/nateren1986
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Thanks for the information!