[00:03.35]in the last twenty years or so.
[00:05.34]Travellers of the 1920s remember it
[00:07.84]mainly as a city of busy lanes
[00:09.76]with homes built around courtyards,
[00:12.29]but these have given way to the high-rise
[00:14.30]apartment blocks of the 21st century.
[00:17.50]TV sets and washing machines--
[00:19.57]unimaginable luxuries in the 1970s--
[00:22.27]are now commonplace and the bicycles
[00:24.63]that were the main form of transport
[00:26.35]a few decades ago are now prohibited
[00:28.70]on the highways that circle the city.
[00:31.04]Luxury products that were not even
[00:33.02]imagined 30 years ago,
[00:34.65]are now available to anyone who has the desire
[00:37.51]and spare cash to buy them.
[00:39.82]The Beijing of today is still changing,
[00:42.88]so rapidly in fact,
[00:44.37]that maps of the ticy go out of date almost
[00:47.16]as soon as they are published!
[00:49.22]A street that had two restaurants last month,
[00:51.77]may have four or more this month!
[00:51.77]
