Storied past still alive in many corners of Beijing

I got some "postcards" recently from the distant past. And what is most impressive is how Beijing, a city that continually modernizes while keeping one foot solidly in its ancient past, still exhibits many of the traits conveyed by Swallow's descriptions. Recently, for instance, I was chatting with a friend near my Beijing apartment when a street vendor, peddling either window screens or a knife-sharpening service, made a distinctive and very loud sound via a handheld clapper of various small steel plates that struck each other as he made rapid motions with his hand. Rich insights on Chinese customs and culture, and glimpses of life in the city's maze of characteristic residential and commercial alleys known as hutong, also are to be found in the 135 pages of Sidelights, in such chapters as "Feasts and Restaurants", "Actors and the Theatre", and "Tales of the Spirit World". "This at once takes us back to the days when princes were among the great ones in the land," Swallow writes in 1927, "and we can visualize the stately figures strolling round the beautiful garden, while busy hands drew up water from the well, which still remains undisturbed by the vicissitudes of time, though it is neglected and out of use."