DESTINATION BEIJING

Pack away those assumptions of Maoist revolutionaries in functional tunics, pods of workers performing t'ai chi in the Square and sedate youths singing the national anthem. Beijing is a city on a roller coaster ride into the new millennium. These days Beijing's MTV youth are mixing Latin salsa with trad jazz with pop fizz with British punk and consuming the whole thing with chopsticks and a side order of McMuffins. In a city where the sign 'Question Authority' is not a prompt to revisit Tiananman Square but sensible non-revolutionary advice to seek answers from someone who knows; where herniated English is splashed across designer-copy t-shirts with irreverent aplomb; and advertising jingles taken out of context lose their slick Willie patter and become enigmatic ciphers, anything can and does happen.

The old hutongs (alleyways) and buildings are being demolished, new buildings are going up; small things are giving way to big things and big things are giving way to even bigger things. This fast-paced, two-minute-noodles lifestyle doesn't please everyone: the old comrades are complaining about uppity youths and loss of values. But Fang Lijun, a gifted member of the post-89 Beijing artist community, speaks for the hipoisie when he brashly replies, 'Don't even consider the old methods on us, we'll riddle your dogma with holes, then discard it in a rubbish heap.'

Map of Beijing (16K)


Facts at a Glance
History
When to Go
Orientation
Attractions
Off the Beaten Track
Activities
Events
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Recommended Reading
Lonely Planet Guides
Travellers' Reports on China
On-line Info

Facts at a Glance

Area: 16,800 sq km (6552 sq mi)
Population:12 million
Country: People's Republic of China
People: 95% Han Chinese
Main language: Mandarin (putonghua)
Time Zone: GMT/UTC plus 8 hours
Telephone Area Code: 010

History

Peopled some 500,000 years ago, the area that makes up today's Beijing sprouted a frontier trading town for the Mongols, Koreans and tribes from Shandong and central China around 1000 BC. Burnt to the ground by Genghis Khan in 1215 AD, the resurrected city was passed on to Kublai Khan (Genghis's grandson) as Dadu, or Great Capital. The mercenary Zhu Yanhang led an uprising in 1368, taking over the city and ushering in the Ming Dynasty. The city was renamed Beiping (Northern Peace) and for the next 35 years the capital was shifted to Nanjing. When it was shunted back again, Beiping became Beijing (Northern Capital) and up went such foreboding structures as the Forbidden City.

Under the Manchu invaders, who established the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century, Beijing was thoroughly renovated and expanded. From the beginning, however, it was obvious that any city proclaimed China's heart was to endure a tumultuous existence. While invaders have dwindled since the days when Anglo-French troops were razing the Old Summer Palace or the Japanese army was in occupation in the 1930s, internal power struggles will always dog this fiery nation's capital.

With Mao Zedong's proclamation of a `People's Republic' in Tiananmen Square in 1949, the Communists stripped back the face of Beijing. Down came the commemorative arches, along with several outer walls, in the interests of solemnity and traffic circulation. Soviet town-planning know-how was employed at the time, which explains the Stalinesque features of many prominent buildings and landmarks.

Beijing's darkest modern moment came in 1989 when a massive pro-democracy student protest in Tiananmen Square was brutally, bloodily crushed by Deng Xiaoping's government forces. That such an atrocity could happen while capitalist-style reforms flooded the city with shopping malls and foreign money typifies Beijing - a moody city of contrasts and contradictions. These days, both the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre are taboo topics among officials.

Nonetheless, in 1994 the Chinese leadership was confident that their nation had re-established its reputation on the world stage. When cities were being polled to host the 2000 Olympics, the Chinese assumed Beijing would win. They took the rebuff badly when Sydney, Australia was chosen.

Nor did the Chinese win many friends in 1995 when Beijing played host to the United Nations' Conference on Women. Having lobbied the UN hard to get the conference, the Chinese then denied visas to at least several hundred people who wanted to attend because they were regarded as politically incorrect. Things have cooled and Beijing has been trying to polish its image. By the end of March 1999 officials had abolished the last of the off-limit areas, established in the 50s, that quarantined the cultural revolution from foreign influences. The funeral of the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in early 1997 was a momentous event, with huge crowds of grieving Beijingers lining the streets.

When to Go

Summer is considered peak season, when hotels typically raise their rates and the Great Wall nearly collapses under the weight of marching tourists. Autumn has the best weather and fewer tourists. Spring is less pleasant - not many tourists but lots of wind and dust. In winter, you'll have Beijing to yourself, and many hotels offer substantial discounts - just remember it's an ice box outside. Everything is chock-a-block during the Chinese New Year (usually in January or February).

Orientation

Beijing is located in the north-eastern corner of China. The city limits of Beijing extend some 80km (50mi), including the urban and the suburban areas and the nine counties under its administration. Mountainous along the north and west, and flat in the south-east, Beijing municipality has a total area of 16,800 sq km (6552 sq mi).

Though it may not appear so in the shambles of arrival, Beijing is a place of very orderly design. Long, straight boulevards and avenues are crisscrossed by a network of lanes. Places of interest are either very easy to find if they're on the avenues, or impossible to find if they're buried down the narrow alleys. The Forbidden City acts like a bullseye, surrounded by a chessboard of roads.

Then there are the 'villages' (li). Beijing was once surrounded by many tiny villages, though over time these have in fact become neighbourhoods within the megalopolis. The Beijing Municipality is carved up into 10 districts and eight counties.

Attractions

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City, off-limits to most of the world for 500 years, is the biggest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. Although the 'hundred surnames', or hoi polloi, are now permitted entrance, its original owners, the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty, insulated themselves from the masses and maintained a rigid one-way communications flow. Regal fiats from the nerve centre of the country were delivered to peasant subjects beyond the wall by eunuchs and other powerful court officials. No communications flowed the other way thus re-enforcing the difference between inner and outer, secrecy and openness, the divine and the mortal, subject and emperor.

The old world of beautiful concubines and priapic emperors, ball-breaking (and -broken) eunuchs and conspicuous wealth, still hovers around the lush gardens, courtyards, pavilions and great halls of the palace. Most of the buildings are post-18th century; there have been periodic losses due to an injudicious mix of lantern festivals and Gobi winds, invading Manchus and, in this century, pillaging and looting by both the Japanese forces and the Kuomintang. A permanent restoration squad takes about 10 years to renovate its 720,000sq metres, 800 buildings, and 9000 rooms, by which time it's time to start all over again.

Summer Palace

The Summer Palace with its cool features - water, gardens and hills - was place of choice for vacationing emperors and Dowager Empresses. It was badly damaged by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War (1860) and its restoration became a pet project of the Empress Dowager Cixi, last of the Qing dynasty rulers. Money earmarked for a modern navy was used for the project but, in a bit of whimsical irony, the only thing that was completed was the restoration of a marble boat. The boat now sits at the edge of the lake in all its immobile and nonmilitary glory. The Palace's full restoration was hampered by the disintegration of the Qing dynasty and the Boxer Rebellion.

The place is packed to the gunwales in summer with Beijing residents taking full advantage of Kunming Lake which takes up three quarters of the park. The main building is the lyrically named Hall of Benevolence & Longevity, while along the north shore is the Long Corridor so named because it's, um, long. There's over 700m (2300ft) of corridor, filled with mythical paintings and scenes. If some of the paintings have a newish patina, that's because many of the murals were painted over during the Cultural Revolution.

Tiananmen Square

Forever sullied, Tiananmen Square lies at the heart of Beijing, and is a vast desert of pavestones and photo booths. Though it was a gathering place and the site of government offices in the imperial days, Tiananmen Square is Mao's creation, as is Chang'an Jie - the street leading onto it. Major rallies took place here during the Cultural Revolution when Mao, wearing a Red Guard armband, reviewed parades of up to a million people. In 1976 another million people jammed the square to pay their last respects. In 1989 PLA tanks and soldiers cut down pro-democracy demonstrators here. Today the square is a place for people to wander and fly kites or buy balloons for the kids.

Surrounding or studding the square is a mish-mash of monuments past and present: Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace), the Chinese Revolution History Museum, the Great Hall of the People, Qianmen (Front Gate), the Mao Mausoleum, where you can purchase Mao memorabilia and catch a glimpse of the man himself (when his mortuary make-up isn't being refreshed), and the Monument to the People's Heroes.

Tiantan Park

Tiantan Park is an icon of such enduring value that it shorthands the entire city. The park's classic Ming architecture gives it heaps of symbolic value and the name has been used to brand products from tiger balm to plumbing fixtures, as well as decorating a plethora of tourist literature. It's set in a 267hectares (660acres) park, with four gates at the cardinal points, and abounded by walls to the north and east. It originally functioned as a vast stage for solemn rites and rituals.

All of the buildings in the park, including the Round Altar, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests are tangible conversations between the gods and mortals. Unlike the 'she'll be right, mate' chookpens slapped together by Uncle Nev, these buildings are carefully thought out paeans to ancient gods and beliefs; fengshui, numerology, cosmology and religion all played a part in their original construction, and the result is an awesome display of god in the architecture and the devil in the detail. Tiantan Park remains an important meeting place and many city dwellers start the day with a spot of t'ai chi, dancing or game-playing in the park. By 9am the park reverts to being just a park so get there early if you want to see what Beijingers do before breakfast.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall, as a metaphor, has gone through a few restorations in its time. When it was originally built 2000 years ago by the Qing dynasty it was a sturdy 'No Trespassing' sign directed at neighbouring kingdoms but it was also seen to represent xenophobia and national insularity writ large. For centuries it remained neglected and forgotten until 18th century Europeans, infatuated with progress and artifice, appended a 'Great' to it and sat back to marvel at man's prehensile capacity to build Bloody Big Things. Today it's a tourist attraction, half Wonder of the World and half Kitschville, but to many Chinese it's just a wall. They seem to reserve for it, and the foreigners who come to marvel, a kind of bemused tolerance. To peasants in rural areas the Great Wall is less majestically known as 'old frontier.'

The majority of visitors climb the wall at Badaling, along with the tourist packs, the touts, and the sellers of reclining buddhas with lightbulbs in their mouths. If you want to experience the wall far from this madding crowd, you'd do better to travel a little farther afield and take a walk on the wilder side of the Huanghua section, 60km (35mi) north of Beijing. It's a classic and well-preserved example of Ming defence with high and wide ramparts, intact parapets and sturdy beacon towers..

Off the Beaten Track

Ancient Observatory

The Lama (or Tibetan) Temple, with its beautifully landscaped gardens, stunning frescoes and tapestries, and incredible carpentry is a temple to die for. Inside is a Buddha statue for every occasion but the most impressive is the 18m-high (60ft) sandalwood statue of the Maitreya (future) Buddha in the Wanfu Pavilion, carved from a single tree. The first thing you encounter is the holy shins - they're at eye level - and from there it's a head-tipper to the ceiling as the statue soars up and over the galleries. Flitting around the future Buddhas head is what appears to be spinning prayer wheels, emitting a sweet harmonious whine. Closer inspection reveals them to be pigeons with whistles attached, doomed to be followed by that sound wherever they go. You can't help thinking the poor things are on one of the lower levels of samsara or Wheel of Life - it's a crappy job even for a pigeon.

The temple is a working lamasery so it's closed early in the mornings for prayer. Some have questioned whether the monks in the tennis shoes are real monks or government stooges. Most tour guides will answer that of course they are real Tibetan monks; that the alleged oppression of Tibet is propaganda put about by the Dalai Lama; that Tibetans love the Chinese; and that the existence of the temple is proof of China's good intentions. Take this with a grain of salt.

Underground City

In the late 1960s, with a Soviet invasion looming, Beijing's citizens started to go underground. The shadow-city which resulted was constructed by volunteers and shop assistants living in the Qianmen (Front Gate) area south of Tiananmen Square. About 2000 people with simple tools and 10 years of spare-time work created this subterranean network which has now been put to use as an unofficial tourist attraction and site for everything from warehouses to hotels, restaurants and even a roller-skating rink. There are roughly 90 entrances to the complex, all of which are hidden in shops along Qianmen's main streets. A fluorescent wall map reveals the routing of the entire tunnel system.

Simatai Great Wall

While the tourist masses tend to head for Badaling to grope the Great Wall, there are more challenging stretches of this historical and architectural marvel within an easy day-trip from Beijing proper. One of the least developed (for now) is Simatai, and it's not for the faint-hearted. The 19km (12mi) section is very steep, with a few slopes built at a 70-degree incline but it's worth it to see the Wall au naturel, in contrast to the heavily-touristed Badaling and Mutianyu sections, which are so well restored they could have been built yesterday.

Tianjin

OK, it's not in Beijing - but it is Beijing's port. Officially a special municipality belonging to no province. Tianjin is nicknamed `Shanghai of the North' because of its history as a foreign concession port, its Europeanised architecture and impressive industrial output. Apart from wandering around imagining you're in Vienna, you should investigate Tianjin's antique market, a massive collection of junk and gems which miraculously survived the Cultural Revolution. Ancient Culture Street is an attempt to re-create an ancient Chinese street, complete with traditional-looking buildings and vendors flogging cultural goodies to the strains of Western music. Hai River Park is lined with photo booths, people fishing, early-morning t'ai chi exponents, outdoor opera singers and old men toting birdcages. The old part of town is chock-a-block full of lanes, traditional architecture and dilapidated temples.

Drum Tower

This tower is the Big Ben of Beijing. Drums were beaten to mark the hour and time was kept with a water clock. Not surprisingly the rise and rise of Rolex and other watchmaking companies has made the tower somewhat redundant. The buildings also came close to ruin during the Cultural Revolution when they were reviled as artefacts from a feudal past. The Drum Towers have survived both Swiss engineering and Maoist scorn and are now protected treasures.

It's easy to spend money in an inept manner in Beijing: the tourist emporias with their hectares of jade and pearl are enticing but prices are comparable to those you'll pay back home. Beneath the Drum Tower however, opposite a hutong fruit market, is a labyrinth of junk shops that will appeal to op-shoppers and bargain hunters. Antiques, gems and other Chinese goodies are more reasonably priced and there's a greater range of off-beat items.

Activities

To paraphrase the old adage, 'when in Beijing do as the Beijingers do' - bike it.A blockbuster bike tour allows you to experience the city as its residents do and gives you access to the narrow spidery hutongs, the heartbeat of the city where life gets lived. In winter there are heaps of ice skating venues around the city, including Beihai Lake, Kunming Lake, Zizhuyan Park and the moat around the Forbidden City. Compared to the ice skating situation, rollerskating (not to mention rollerblading and skateboarding) in the capital comes as a disappointment. Tiananmen Square looks ideal, but the stern-faced security types will not be amused. On the other hand, flying kites is an old tradition in China, and Beijing's venue for this activity is Tiananmen Square. Kites are for rent in the square itself.

If you've grown up on a diet of Jackie Chan movies and other Martial Arts films and fancy yourself as a David 'Little Grasshopper' Carradine, check out the Yuanmingyuan Ruyi Martial Arts School opposite the Summer Palace where you can study gongfu (kungfu) and qigong. Qigong is the manipulation of a hands-off telekinetic energy that Yoda would simply call The Force.

Events

Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, starts on the first day of the first moon according to the traditional lunar calendar. The Chinese New Year will fall on the following dates: 16 February 1999, 5 February 2000, 24 January 2001 and 12 February 2002. Although officially lasting only three days, many people take a week off work. Beijing is probably at its prettiest on the first of May, a holiday for Communists and officially known as International Labour Day. During this time, the whole city (especially Tiananmen Square) is decorated with flowers.

The Lantern Festival is also a relatively colourful time to visit Beijing. People take the time to walk the streets at night carrying coloured paper lanterns. It falls on the 15th day of the 1st moon. Tomb Sweep Day is a day for worshipping ancestors; people visit the graves of their dearly departed relatives and clean their gravesites. They often burn 'ghost money' (for use in the afterworld) for the departed. It falls on 5 April in the Gregorian calendar in most years; 4 April in leap years. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Moon Festival and is the time to eat tasty moon cakes. The festival takes place on the 15th day of the 8th moon.

Getting There & Away

Beijing has direct air connections to most major cities in the world, and many travellers make use of the direct Beijing-Hong Kong flights on CAAC or Dragonair. Beijing's airport is 25km (15mi) from the Forbidden City. Guangzhou and Shenzhen are both near Hong Kong and have direct flights to Beijing.

Foreigners arriving or departing by train do so at Beijing Railway Station, east of central Zhongshan Park, or the newish west railway station. There's a Foreigners' Ticketing Office at the Beijing Railway Station. An express train to Hong Kong takes about 30 hours. The bus is a good option for getting in and out of Beijing as it's cheaper than the train and it's easier to get a seat. Sleeper buses are widely available and highly recommended for those long overnight journeys. Finding the right bus station can be tricky, but the basic rule is that long-distance bus stations are on the perimeter of the city in the direction you want to go.

Getting Around

The subway, or Underground Dragon, is definitely the best way of travelling quickly within Beijing. It can move at up to 70km (43mi) per hour - a jaguar compared to the lumbering buses. But while it's clean and easy to use, the trains are starting to show their age.

If you simply must catch a bus around town, sharpen your elbows, chain your wallet to your underwear and muster all the patience you can - you'll need it. Oversized and overstuffed buses are the norm in Beijing. There are about 140 bus and trolley routes, which makes navigation rather confusing, especially if you can't see out the window.

Beijing taxis are multiplying fast: finding one is not difficult. but making yourself understood in English may be a bit more problematic. If you don't speak Chinese, bring a map or have your destination written down in characters. Telephone bookings are possible.

Like much of China, Beijing looks so much better once you're pedalling. A bike shortens those long dreary stretches, avoids the footpath throng, and helps you feel a lot more like a local. Hotels - especially budget hotels - often rent out bikes at reasonable rates, or there are the numerous bike hire outfits in the streets around hotels and tourist spots.

Recommended Reading

  • Peking by Anthony Grey is your standard blockbuster by the author of Saigon.
  • Letter from Peking by Pearl Buck is a classic novel. Ms Buck lived most of her life in 19th century China, and was a prolific writer.
  • The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Li Zhisui offers some amazing insights into the hidden world behind the great walls of Zhongnanhai, China's so-called 'new Forbidden City'.
  • Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China by Sterling Seagrave is the definitive biography of Cixi, who ruled China in the late 19th century. A fascinating read.
  • Biking Beijing by Diana Kingsbury has a useful selection of self-guided tours around the thoroughfares and back alleys of the capital.

Lonely Planet Guides

Travellers' Reports

On-line Info


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