“I don’t understand,” Victoria snapped. “Just what about us screams ‘We don’t need a taxi?’”

“I don’t know,” Amber replied, leaning against her suitcase, “Maybe you just look like the type of girl who would stick her arm out for no reason.”

Victoria shot her sister a death glare, to which Amber responded with a grin.

They’d been trying to catch a cab for nearly twenty minutes now. No easy feat during rush hour.

Sticking out her hand, Victoria dropped it again, dismayed to find that the whole row of taxis were occupied. After a plane trip and a shuttle ride, the only thing she wanted was to go home. Except this city wasn’t keen on letting her.

Amber, on the other hand, didn’t care much either way. It had been awhile since she’d come back to China and she was enjoying the commotion. Sure loud car horns and people yelling were no things to take pleasure in but to her, it meant home. Kinda.

Standing watch by their luggage, Amber watched as her sister got rejected by yet again. She scoffed when the driver waved her off like she was some sort of pest. These taxis, they were too arrogant. Picking and choosing who they wanted to take. It was especially bad during the shift change when they could just pretend your location was too far.

“You spent the last year in Beijing; shouldn’t you be better at this?” Amber called out to her as she walked back, irate.

"Don’t start with me, Amber. I’ll make us take the bus if we have to.”

The shorter rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah; like we could fit on the bus.”

It was probably true. They had three suitcases and a backpack. Given that they could somehow manage to stuff themselves into the anchovy can, it was unlikely they’d be able to get off.

Suddenly, just on the other side of the street was something Amber thought she’d never see again.

“Hey, Vic! Look!” Amber gestured excitedly over her shoulder.

Victoria turned around, eyes widening. “Oh no, no, no. We are not taking that thing home.”

“Why not?” Amber was already waving the driver over. “It’s an empty car.”

“It’s not safe and we have luggage.”

“It’s a short ride,” Amber reasoned.

“But we have luggage!”

Victoria’s argument was easily ignored as the cycle rickshaw pulled up against the curb.

“Where to?” asked the man on the bike.

“PuDong. The apartments along the river,” Amber called, knowing it was close enough for him to take them. The driver nodded and Amber looked back at Victoria. “You coming?”

 Her sister almost looked like she wanted to keep arguing for a second, but then she sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

They grabbed their suitcases and tossed them on the base of the rickshaw. Amber was the first to hop in, setting her feet on the luggage and getting comfortable in the tiny seat. With great reluctance, Victoria joined her and they were off.

Slowly, the cyclist began to pick up speed. Along the crowded street, they dove in and out of lanes until escaping into the bike path. Amber could feel every bump of the road. Every dip and every curve. She laughed when they hit a pothole and Victoria nearly lost her purse. She’d dove forward with a look of sheer panic.

Clutching the bag to her chest, the long haired girl almost snapped that that was “so not funny” when suddenly she caught sight of her sister’s laughing face. And then Victoria broke out into a grin and in no time at all the two girls were laughing mess in the backseat of the rickshaw.

Amber loved this the most. A strong wind on her face with a whole city rushing by. They dove around other bicyclists and stopped scooters, feeling the humidity fall behind.

The experience of riding a rickshaw, she swore, was one of the simple joys in life. When their popularity had died out, she’d thought she would lose that joy forever. But, as long as the government didn’t ban them it seemed the rickshaw would be around for a while.

Just as she leaned forward to get a better view of the city, Amber got a mouthful of black hair.

“Blegh!” she spat out. Gross!

Victoria yanked her hair back, just as grossed out as she was. “Sorry!” she yelled, tucking her hair behind her ear even though the wind continued to play. It was times like this Amber was glad she had short hair. Her sister’s expression quickly changed though, from apologetic to amazed. “Amber, look.”

Her sister turned around without thinking. And she hardly understood what she saw.

Now, most foreigners would not have understood what they were looking at. They would be quite confused but not for the same reason Amber or Victoria were confused. Other foreigners would be confused because they had no idea why they were looking at giant apartment buildings like they were some source of amazement. But the two sisters were confused because they were wondering where the heck their old neighborhoods had gone.

Amber turned back to Victoria and the two exchanged a look.

“Um, we are on LuiYi Street, right?” Amber asked gawking at the alien structures lining the outer road.

Victoria answered in the only way she could: “I have no idea.”

The new buildings were tall. Taller than the old ones. Lofty edifices that were reaching for the sky, that’s what they were. They looked fresh too. With bright colors that appeared recently painted (along with some slanted rooftops and unbarred windows) were rows of new living space leaps and bounds more advanced than the first.

Even when a nearby street sign confirmed that it was indeed their street, the girls still couldn’t believe it was true. This entire street, from the cracked sidewalks to the crumbling apartments had been remodeled. And it looked good.

Amber gaped at the strange structures and storefronts. “What the heck happened to this place?”

“I think they…rebuilt it?” Victoria squinted up at the towering structures.

“There is just no way,” her sister mumbled beside her. Victoria could wholeheartedly agree.

Maybe if they looked hard enough, they would realize that the buildings were only painted versions of their previous houses and that the height and windows were only facets of their imagination. After all, these couldn’t be all new buildings. She had just been here last year.

“I guess the stereotypes are true; we do build things insanely fast,” Victoria joked.

“Only if we're making money off of it." That was true. 

Both were silent now. Amber had leaned back into the rickshaw, feeling a slight sense of unease. Something didn’t seem right.

They watched as the street they grew up on passed them by, now completely unfamiliar to their eyes. All that was left were the trees.

When they to the smaller lanes of PuDong, Victoria let out a small breath of relief. Although the main street had changed, their little neighborhood had not. The river was still rotten green, the buildings across the river still nearly rotting; a familiar view if any. For Victoria, that was enough.

Amber though, stared curiously at the buildings on the other side of the river. An odd pattern seemed to emerge the longer she stared.

Several bridges extended across the river. Beside each bridge on either side were two brand new houses. The ones not next to the bridge were old and self-built. The result was something of a sandwich, with new buildings on each end and crumbling structures in between. And she could only see one logical reason for that.

“Oh my gosh,” Amber breathed. “Vic, this is all remodeling for the face! They didn’t rebuild neighborhoods; they rebuilt buildings that you could see from the main street! Can you believe this!?”

“I’d sure like to believe it.”

Amber whipped around, about to ask Victoria about that answer when her eyes nearly popped out of her head. There were bright, shiny new buildings standing in their gated community.

“I swear, if they rebuilt our building without even telling us about it I am going to kick some contractor ,” Victoria deadpanned. Personally, Amber felt pretty outraged herself.

Telling the rickshaw driver to stop them right there, the girls quickly scrambled off after paying. Dragging the luggage behind them, Amber nearly jogged to keep up with Victoria in her pointy high heels.

“This is ridiculous. This is so ridiculous. You don’t just tear down somebody’s apartment without even calling them first. That is just ridiculous!”

“You got that right,” Amber mumbled.

It was as clear as day now that they’d realized it. Their city hadn’t been remodeled; their street hadn’t been remodeled. If anything, their street had been repainted! The new buildings, the new roads: all a show for the surface.

It didn’t take much more than a glance past the gates to see that the buildings inside were still ancient and the paths were still broken. But, she supposed that hardly mattered as long as the buildings facing the street were sparkly new and wall outside was nice and clean. Speaking of the cement wall, Amber didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry when she saw some workers tiling it to make it look like it was built of bricks.

The two sisters rushed the rest of the way home. Near the middle of that row of new buildings was their gate, which also had a new building. All that was left was the hope that their apartment was too far inside.

Swinging open the new iron gate, they walked past the new tiled walls and swung around the newly painted guard post and –

Relief.

Their building was still there. Still grey, ugly, and short just like they remembered it. And Amber did start to laugh this time because oh my gosh, the only reason their stumpy little apartment was still standing and all those years of memories stayed with it was because they were one just house too far from the street.

Did she really come all the way from America for this madness?

Why yes, yes she did.

 ***

Okay, a much shorter chapter this time but hopefully interesting nonetheless.

The title: There’s this saying in China called “mian zi gong chen” which loosely translates to “remodeling for the face.” (Or vanity project) It means you only improve the outside so it seems like the whole thing is great. It applied to Beijing during the Summer Olympics and to Shanghai during the World Expo.

This year however, Fuzhou was preparing for the 2016 All China Games. Practically all the buildings were brand new. You know, if you could see them from the street. Otherwise, the government couldn’t be bothered. Now that is remodeling for the face.

Public transportation: China has some of the world’s best public transportation (especially Beijing; god, that place has amazing subways) but since there are so many people moving around during rush hour, insanity is unavoidable.

Wall tiling: Basically China has a bunch of ugly cement walls so they stick rectangular tiles onto it to make it look like it was built out of bricks. I saw it them doing it for the first time on a historical monument and could not stop laughing. It looks pretty legit, though.

Thank you for reading and please do leave your thoughts!