Beijing iconic/aniconic

With the recent Olympic games a series of striking buildings have been built: the new stadium, the new airport, the new public television headquarters (CCTV). The introverted Beijing, secluded in courts protected by walls, obstinately horizontal, poor in squares but rich in courts, has failed to find interpretative models capable of avoiding alienation, and faces a loss of identity. But the true change of the city is the result of operations that are invisible to the eye but very powerful in substance, as the renovation of the 798, an immense factory converted in a cultural and artistic studio. Moreover, the construction of a more diffused mobility system associated with the new subway lines makes it possible to reduce the exceptional traffic congestion. There is more than appears to the eye in Beijing; could these invisible aspects be the true soul of the city?