I love to stumble upon information that leads directly to fascinating glimpses into whole new or - as in this case - rather old and nearly vanished worlds.
Last week, The Guardian had a very interesting piece, entitled 'Crouching trekker, hidden buildings: China's urban explorers', that was written by Beijing correspondent Tom Phillips. The article introduces two China-based representatives of the global community of so-called 'urban explorers' or 'urbexers' in short.
This tightly-knit and ever-growing group of like-minded souls is made up of true enthusiasts who wander around their respective urban environments tirelessly, tracking down largely forgotten corners, exploring the outskirts of cities or even travel to far-away foreign countries.
Equipped with cameras / smartphones and practical stuff (think gloves, torches, first aid kits or cigarettes to appease security guards), they search for thrilling hidden locations, such as derelict structures and interiors of deserted homes, apartment buildings, hospitals, mental institutions, schools, industrial sites, amusement parks or 'ghost houses' with their often shabby, agonizing or just plain creepy inventories.
True urbexers are really passionate about these relics of the recent or not so recent past as they can tell compelling stories if you look close enough.
One of the guys portrayed in the article is a Briton who currently works in the Chinese capital and is apparently one of the busiest and best-known members of China's urban explorers' network of around 200 people in total.
Brendan Connal, that's his name, is also the mastermind behind the amazing blog Burbex where he regularly posts marvellous pictures of Beijing's (and other Chinese cities') lost places. Over the years, he has discovered lots of slowly disintegrating, godforsaken spots and has painstakingly documented the dystopia and decay or, more specifically, the various disturbing consequences of frenzied mega-urbanization and ever-faster cycles of industrialization and de-industrialization.
The second urbexer interviewed by Phillips is the professional Chinese photographer Zhao Yang (赵阳) aka WhiteZ (怀特贼) who started his personal urban exploration project in 2006 and is stationed in Beijing as well.
In the course of action, Zhao Yang has set up an excellent (Chinese-language) site, named Cooling Plan (冷却计划), where he presents several samples of his ongoing photo project from different locations, such as the once famous Shougang iron and steel industrial area on the western fringes of the Chinese capital, for instance, as well as some short videos recently filmed on the scenes he visited.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that venturing forth into the unknown of China's urban 'wilderness' brings along certain health hazards and other less tangible dangers. Non-compliant guards, high fences, aggressive dogs, the imminent perils of natural habitats or the dire condition of buildings and sites can pose a lot of challenges.
But experienced urbexers are not so easily deterred; many begin to thrive when access is extremely difficult while the expected spoils seem especially rewarding.
Interestingly, the former recreational activity of urbexing has become serious business lately as tourists around the world are increasingly attracted to these unconventional journeys into the past and are thus willing to pay big bucks for the services of seasoned urban explorers.
(PS: If you ever thought about urbexing in the German capital, the surroundings or hinterlands, have a look first at the well-respected English-language site Abandoned Berlin. And no, this part of my post is not a promotional gig as I don't know the Irishman behind it personally - I just admire his work and general attitude.)
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