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Forbidden City, Beijing, China
Photographer: Barnabas Kindersley
Copyright: dkimages

The brash modernity of BEIJING (the name means "Northern Capital") comes as a surprise to many visitors. Traversed by motorways (it's the proud owner of more than a hundred flyovers) and spiked with high-rises, this vivid metropolis is China at its most dynamic. For a thousand years, the drama of China's imperial history was played out here, with the emperor sitting enthroned at the centre of the Chinese universe, and though today the city is a very different one, it remains spiritually and politically the heart of the country. Between the swathes of concrete and glass, you'll find some of the lushest temples, and certainly the grandest remnants of the imperial age. Unexpectedly, some of the country's most pleasant scenic spots lie within the scope of a day-trip, and, just to the north of the city, one of the world's most famous sights, the long and lonely Great Wall, winds between hilltops.
First impressions of Beijing are of an almost inhuman vastness, conveyed by the sprawl of apartment buildings, in which most of the city's population of fifteen million are housed, and the eight-lane motorways that slice it up. It's a notion that's reinforced on closer acquaintance, from the magnificent Forbidden City, with its stunning wealth of treasures, the concrete desert of Tian'anmen Square and the gargantuan buildings of the modern executive around it, to the rank after rank of office complexes that line its mammoth roads. Outside the centre, the scale becomes more manageable, with parks, narrow alleyways and ancient sites such as the Yonghe Gong, the Observatory and, most magnificent of all, the Temple of Heaven, offering respite from the city's oppressive orderliness and rampant reconstruction. In the suburbs beyond, the two summer palaces and the Western Hills have been favoured retreats since imperial times.
Beijing is an invaders' city, the capital of oppressive foreign dynasties - the Manchu and the Mongols - and of a dynasty with a foreign ideology - the Communists. As such, it has assimilated a lot of outside influence, and today has an international flavour reflecting its position as the capital of a major commercial power. As the front line of China's grapple with modernity, it is being ripped up and rebuilt at a furious pace - attested by the cranes that skewer the skyline and the white character chai ("demolish") painted on old buildings. Students in the latest fashions while away their time in Internet cafés, hip-hop has overtaken the clubs, businessmen are never without their laptops, and schoolkids carry mobile phones in their lunchboxes. Rising incomes have led not just to a brash consumer-capitalist society Westerners will feel very familiar with, but also to a revival of older Chinese culture - witness the re-emergence of the teahouse as a genteel meeting place and the interest in imperial cuisine. In the evening, you'll see large groups of the older generation performing the yangkou (loyalty dance), Chairman Mao's favourite dance universally learned a few decades ago, and in the hutongs, the city's twisted grey stone alleyways, men sit with their pet birds and pipes as they always have done.
Beijing is a city that almost everyone enjoys. For new arrivals, it provides a gentle introduction to the country, and for travellers who've been roughing it round rural China, the creature comforts on offer are a delight. But it's essentially a private city, whose surface is difficult to penetrate; sometimes, it seems to have the superficiality of a theme park. Certainly, there is something mundane about the way tourist groups are efficiently shunted around, from hotel to sight and back to hotel, with little contact with everyday reality. To get deeper into the city, wander what's left of the labyrinthine hutongs, "fine and numerous as the hairs of a cow" (as one Chinese guidebook puts it), and check out the little antique markets, the residential shopping districts, the smaller, quirkier sights, and the parks, some of the best in China, where you'll see Beijingers performing tai ji and hear birdsong - just - over the hum of traffic. Take advantage, too, of the city's burgeoning nightlife and see just how far the Chinese have gone down the road of what used to be called spiritual pollution.
If the Party had any control over it, no doubt Beijing would have the best climate of any Chinese city; as it is, it has one of the worst. The best time to visit is in autumn, between September and October, when it's dry and clement. In winter, it gets very cold, down to minus 20°C, and the mean winds that whip off the Mongolian plains feel like they're freezing your ears off. Summer (June- Aug) is muggy and hot, up to 30°C, and the short spring (April & May) is dry but windy.
Getting to Beijing is no problem: as the centre of China's transport network you'll probably wind up here sooner or later, whether you want to or not, and to avoid the capital seems wilfully perverse. On a purely practical level, it's a good place to stock up on visas for the rest of Asia, and to arrange transport out of the country - most romantically, on the Trans-Siberian or Trans-Mongolian trains. To take in its superb sights requires a week, by which time you may well be ready to move on to China proper; Beijing is a fun place, but make no mistake, it in no way typifies the rest of the nation.
Highlights
Forbidden City Imperial magnificence on a grand scale and the centre of the Chinese universe for six centuries.

Temple of Heaven This classic Ming-dynasty building, a picture in stone of ancient Chinese cosmogony, is a masterpiece of architecture and landscpae design.

798 Art District This huge complex of galleries and studios provides the focus for a thriving contemporary arts scene.

Nanluogu Xiang Artsy alley of laid-back cafés, restaurants and bars, at the centre of a charming neighbourhood.

Summer Palace Escape the city in this serene and elegant park, dotted with imperial architecture.

Hotpot A northern Chinese classic, a stew of sliced lamb, tofu, cabbage and anything else you fancy boiled up at your table. Specialist restaurants abound, but Dong Lai Shun Fan Zhuang is one of the best.

Acrobatics The style may be vaudeville, but the stunts, performed by some of the world's greatest acrobats, are breathtaking.

The Great Wall One of the world's most extraordinary engineering achievements, the old boundary between civilizations is China's must-see.

© 2009 ROUGH GUIDES LTD

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