If you go left here you end up at JinWuXing, the golden five star market I introduced earlier in the blog (straight ahead takes you back to Lanhui, since this is XueYuanNanLu). Right now I'm standing under the Beijing elevated subway line (#13) looking at the intersection, which is also a railroad junction for a spur which runs right through the extremely poor hutong neighborhood behind me (you can see the railroad switches in the shed). In Beijing, every railroad crossing has one of these buildings, which leads me to believe that, when a train comes, they lower the gates on-site rather than using some sort of automated remote system like we have in the states. This is the Beijing-Baotou (Mongolia's biggest city) rail line, used by relatively few trains (usually locals) headed to Beijing North Station in XiZhiMen.
EAP China! Robert Klein.