Beijing Street Witnesses Sino-Russian Relations

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, July 21, 2002

Beijing Street Witnesses Sino-Russian Relations

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Dongzhimen Beizhong Street, in northeastern downtown Beijing, looks just an ordinary shaded path,but has witnessed the ups and downs in Sino-Russian relations due to the Russian Embassy to China located at the northern end of the street.

Right now, the street, 500 meters long and 20 meters wide, has become a construction site. Chinese workers have cut open the road surface and are busying laying pipelines beneath the road to improve sewage discharge from the embassy.

At one food shop on the street, a middle-aged Russian man, a customer, walks straight into a warehouse behind the counter, searching for what he wants to buy after having exchanged greetings with the female shop owner in Chinese.

"Russians from embassy are frequent visitors to our shop," saidthe shop owner Yu Suhua, "They often come to buy bread, yogurt and beer at my shop."

"Russians are very friendly," Yu went on, "a little Russian girl even asked her mother to write down in Russian the words on the business nameplate in the front of the shop."

The Russian man emerges with several bottles of beer produced in Beijing. "Good beer," he mutters as he walks away.

Having moved his business away to a nearby park, Tang Jun, a tailor who had been working from Dongzhimen Beizhong Street since 1980s, still gets a lot of work from the Russian embassy staff.

Many people from the Russian embassy come to me and ask me to make dresses for them," said Tang, "They always pay a friendly compliment on my tailoring by calling me Pierre Cardin." Pierre Cardin is a well-known French dress designer.

All of Tang's work is prepaid. "They trust me for my skills and I also know their requirements," Tang explained.

A female Russian client said that she hoped the Chinese "Pierre Cardin" would come back to the embassy street soon. "Good neighbors are important to us, as the Chinese saying goes 'good neighbors are better than faraway relatives'."

According to historical records, the street housed Beijing'sfirst Orthodox Church built for the Russians in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. The church was later rebuilt into the former Soviet Union's embassy to China.

A 75-year-old Chinese man surnamed Bai, who has lived on the street for about 50 years, said the street was widened when the former Soviet Union's embassy was built.

In the early years when China and Soviet Union established diplomatic relations, Chinese cars were often seen traveling the road to attend functions held at the embassy, said Bai.

"However, in 1960s when the relations between China and former Soviet Union became tense, the street calmed down and was renamed 'Anti-Revisionist Road' during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), " said Bai.

The road took its present name in 1979.

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