Many people say that Beijing is very big and it is easy to get lost, but I want to say that Beijing is very small and it is easy to get lost.

Beijing is really small.

Whenever I walk on a long street and look around, I am always blocked by countless high and low buildings. It seems that all that is left in the world is the narrow square streets in front of me and the palm-sized sky above my head.

Someone told me to go to the Forbidden City! There you see true majesty. So, I went to the Forbidden City, but in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, all I could feel was crowding. It was no longer possible to relive the majesty and solemnity of the emperor when he went to court.

This is probably the sorrow of this world.

The literati in the late Qing Dynasty lamented the weakness of the country, deplored the poverty of the people, and resented the corruption of society. However, with the continuous advancement of science and technology and the continuous overflow of material civilization, people have gradually lost their original heart and the space of their souls.

Beijing is small. Prices continue to rise, housing prices continue to hover at high levels, and people's space continues to be compressed. In this materialistic city, many ancient traditions have lost their original charm and have become just a formality. Some of them are even used by smart businessmen as a means of making money and promotion, and they seem to be strangers outside the neighborhood. In this way, people's souls continue to get lost and lost in the narrow spaces of this city, but their bodies have to continue to survive. What a tragedy!

I am a southerner, from a very unknown small town. It is not even as big as Haidian District in Beijing, but the folk customs are warm and simple. Our rhythm is slow and long, like a collective. People in the town are familiar to each other, and everyone has more or less connections with each other. Maybe it is not prosperous, nor does it have many tourist attractions or majestic palace buildings, but the space of the soul is as free and unrestrained as living in the ocean.

It’s not that you can only have this feeling in small towns. In fact, you have more advantages in cultural cities like Beijing. Among them, in the past few months I have lived, I have also met many Beijingers with extremely broad hearts.

In the Summer Palace, an elderly couple sat on a bench and looked at the pond full of withered yellow reeds. They just sat quietly. The wind was very light and there was very little sunshine. However, I was unwilling to leave as if fascinated. I just stared blankly. It felt like I had seen my whole life.

At that moment, I knew that I fell in love with this city, not because of its modernity, its prosperity, or its fast pace, but just because its spirit was still struggling under the rhythm of modernization and constantly fighting for it, calling for the return of people's hearts.

This is also the charm of the ancient city of Beijing! Complexity, high speed, and change may have become the main features of this city, and they have also continuously squeezed and divided this city. However, those deep-seated things will never be lost, and these deep-seated things, I think, should be the true origin of Beijingers!

Our world is getting smaller, and our living space is getting smaller as urbanization continues to deepen, but I really don’t want to lose my way in this city. Just like people who have found jobs in Beijing, they are financially secure, but spiritually lost. I begged endlessly, hoping that I could still see my true heart in this ancient capital and find my way home.

Beijing is very small, and it can only let your heart rest in a small corner. However, please don't let your heart park even in this corner, otherwise, your heart will get lost.