Although Beijing has transformed itself into a modern metropolis for the 2008 Summer Olympics, for most travellers the reasons to visit are the same as they’ve always been. The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall will always be the dazzling emblems of imperial and communist China, while in the hutongs, or what remains of these ancient neighbourhoods, you can wander for hours and feel as though time has stood still.
Beijing is still a city where old folks rise at daybreak to practice taiqi in the imperial gardens, but it is also a city of world-class restaurants, gleaming shopping malls and unbearably hip youngsters clutching the latest cell phones. Whether you want to see the Empress Dowager Cixi’s Summer Palace, a show at the futuristic opera house known as The Egg, or the hottest new painters in the Dashanzi Art District, book your hotel now to be amazed at the grand scale of this capital city.
