Radical Transparency

My favorite is the last one for two reasons, first, the ambient pigeon whistle sound is, as far as I know, strickly a Beijing thing. Second, the gratuitous "hao qiu" at the end.

For as long as I've known about the pigeon whistle and as many times as I've tried keeping an ear out for it, I honestly don't ever remember tuning into it and realizing what was going on. I must have heard it thousands of times, but it always kind of blended into the background. I never had the "oh wow there's that pigeon whistle sound" moment. Bummer. Oh well. Something to look forward to next time I'm in Beijing.

It's worth noting, however, that I do have my own little personal relationship with the Beijing pigeons. Walking to and from the old 东王庄 apartment, I'd do a lot of cooing back and forth with the pigeons that lived a few 单元s west. My pigeon is definitely not at the level of Mr. Wheaton True Little's cricket, but I think it's respectable.