tutti host city

Beijing

Beijing is the capital city of the People's Republic of China. This ancient city has been located in its current site for 3,000 years and is situated slightly inland in the north of the country. History abounds in Beijing as it has been home to three major Chinese dynasties in the past 1000 years. Once fairly inaccessible to outsiders, China, home to 1.3 billion people, is now welcoming visitors to explore its amazing heritage. Now the cultural and political centre of China, Beijing hosted the absolutely fantastic Olympic Games in August 2008.

Beijing was first declared the capital city of China by King Wu in 1057 BC. The city has gone by many names since this time and it's current name was chosen by Emperor Cheng Zu during the Ming Dynasty in 1421. "Bei" means northern and "jing" means capital so Beijing means northern capital. Prior to 1949, the western world referred to the city as Peking.

Beijing's climate features cold, dry winters and hot summers. January is the coldest month (-4 degrees Celsius) and snow can fall then or a bit later in February. July is the warmest (26 degrees celsius) and August can also be quite hot. Beijing is home to about 15 million people. Beijing is the political, educational and cultural centre of the People's Republic of China, while Shanghai and Hong Kong are the economic centres.

Beijing has an amazingly rich cultural heritage that is very easy for tourists to explore. Despite the turmoil of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which includes damage caused by European military occupation, the Japanese invasion during WWII, the Cultural Revolution, and the recent intense development and urbanisation, Beijing has many tourist attractions either rich in history or significant in modern Chinese history. Some of these include the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square with the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, many temples and a wonderful array of museums.

webassets/beijingfireworks.JPG Beijing local people often mention "ring roads" when talking about the city roads in Beijing. Ring Roads circle the city and the city has now six ring roads. The first ring road theoretically goes around the Forbidden City, which is the middle of the city, but in reality, it doesn't exist. So the ring roads start with the Second Ring Road ( Erhuan ). People often consider the city within the Third Ring Road ( Sanhuan ) as the city proper. When people talk about the City Centre, it means the area around Wangfujing Street, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

The city is administratively divided into several districts. They are Chaoyang District, which goes from the centre of the city all the way out to the Olympic sites in the north; Dongcheng District lies directly to the east of the Forbidden City; Xicheng District to the west; Xuanwumen District to the south, and Haidian, holding many of the capital's universities, in the north of the city. Public transport in Beijing is very good with many buses and a subway system which is gradually expanding. There are now a number of subway lines so that Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Wangfujing, Qianmen, and Lama Temple can be reached by subway. There are many public buses connecting the city main sites and there are also tourist coaches to some major sites in the city and the suburbs. Taxis are also very plentiful and relatively cheap.

Beijing is very big and not walkable. The present city still follows the basic outline of the Imperial City 500 years ago in the Yuan Dynasty with a clear north-south axis ( Changan Avenue ) and a lot of narrow lanes. The area surrounding the Forbidden City once housed court officials and royal families. Some of these old residential houses can still be found in the hutongs or alleys. These hutongs have now been turned into popular tourist sites.

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Hutong life.

Close to the south of the Forbidden City and within walking distance is Wangfujing Street, a busy commercial mall and a place with some famous hotels. To the Northeast of the Forbidden City is Chaoyang District, which holds some of the city's expatriate community and also many hotels for foreign tourists. Far to the North is the Badaling Great Wall and Juyongguan Great Wall. The Beijing Capital International Airport is located to the northeast of the city about 40 - 50 minutes drive away. Beijing is modernising very quickly. Many new apartment blocks are built every week and the roads are increasingly being overloaded with the many cars. In response to this Beijing recently introduced a fortnightly roster system whereby cars with number plates ending in certain numbers are not allowed on the roads for a day. This has helped alleviate the problem to a degree.

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Park / footpath dancing remains a popular form of community entertainment and socialising. Keep your eye out for it and if you know how to dance you will be very warmly welcomed by the locals!

Many visitors to Beijing are keen on exploring the shopping possibilities that the city has on offer. Two of the most popular are the Wangfujing District and the Silk Market. Wangfujing offers an upscale, globalised shopping experience whilst the Silk Market features replica luxury brands, silk products and tourist souvenirs. Shopping at places like the Silk Market will require you to bargain. When quoting a price, you can expect people to get as much as they think you think its worth. Foreigners are susceptible to paying too much as they don't realize how low prices really are in China. You need to have a realistic idea in your head what something is worth - in China.