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Beijing Travel Guide
Beijing has always seemed a place where the future was eternally postponed. Perhaps it was the necropolis of royal tombs outside town; or the Forbidden City - the city's arcane core with its silent halls and forlorn phantoms from China's imperial past. Perhaps it was the cryogenic charisma of the city's communist overlords and the vestiges of the Great Wall snaking to the north that today has done nothing to ease the catatonic detachment.
Beijing certainly still broods over the future of this vast land. It moves the cogs and wheels of the Chinese universe, and tries to slow these down if they are moving in the wrong direction. As far away as Xinjiang people run on Beijing's clock and all over China they chin-wag in Pgt6nghua, the Beijing dialect.
But with China increasingly buffeted by a whirlwind of change, Beijing's barometer has long been spinning. Few cities on earth have undergone such rapid transformation as today's Beijing, and the convulsions of change have old-timers scratching their heads. The late 1970s economic electro- shock therapy convulsed the city out of its coma and with the 2008 Olympics – the Holy Grail of Beijing city planners - in the bag; the shrill transformation has been ratcheted up another notch.
The spinsterish Beijing of old is having a facelift. Nightlife has come to Beijing with a vengeance, feeding the demand for a good time. The city has also spruced itself up with cleaner streets, garlanded with lush patches of green grass. Over the next five or so years, Beijing's planners hope to transport the city into the heart of the 21st century, alongside the rest of the world's great metropolises. Transport - the city's aching Achilles heel - is due for a health shot. Its modest subway is heading for a makeover - delightful news for those trapped on the city's jam-packed, creeping bus fleet. Other funds in the cash bundle are earmarked for expressways, flyovers, maglev trains, light railways and other transport infrastructure.
Yet this headlong rush into the future doesn't mean that history - an increasingly precious commodity - is being totally condemned. Among the glittering high-rises and Starbucks caf6s, and beyond the juddering flyovers and traffic-snarled junctions, its past can still be ferreted out. Within its environs you will find some of China's most stunning sights: the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven Park, the Lama Temple and the Great Wall, to name just a few. Beyond Beijing, excursions to the erstwhile imperial encampment at Chengde and the Great Wall's finale at the sea at Shanhaiguan add additional historical allure.
Tourist groups are usually processed through Beijing in much the same way as the ducks are force-fed on the outlying farms - the two usually meet on the first night over the dinner table. But individual travellers will have no trouble getting around and any effort you make to see things will be rewarded. The city offers so much of interest that the main complaint of most visitors is that they simply run out of time before seeing it all.
Whatever impression you come away with, Beijing is one of the most fascinating places in China. It may be something of a showcase, but what capital city isn't?
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