ABSTRACT
In the post-Mao period, the only absolute characteristic of Beijing’s rapidly changing urban environment has been the characteristic of change itself. Skyscrapers, suburbs and shopping malls dominate different areas of the city, inching out the traditional hutong 胡同 and rendering the landscape in many places unrecognizable. However, features of Beijing’s imperial past remain visible: the Forbidden City maintains a central space and other imperial leftovers, such as temples, have been transformed into new secular spaces, such as parks. Here, then, religion and secularism live in close quarters without simplistic binaries.
