Travel Destinations - China - Beijing

Beijing: Blindman's Buff

Jenny Niven has the burdensome task of trawling China's capital, during which she gets hands-on with all comers-from a blind masseuse to giggling Thai parlour girls

You've gone without hot water for two weeks in darkest Yunnan, you've slept under the stars in Tibet, you've just stepped off a 36-hour train from Chengdu, and when someone says 'pedicure' you ask which part of a yak they're talking about. Roughing it is as good for the budget [ read more ]

Beijing: Drum Roamin'

Vine Cafe is the narrowest on the block
When on vacation, Simon Lim likes nothing more than to sit in a cafe and wait for the world to come to him. Beijing's Drum and Gong alley proves to be the perfect spot for just that

The Forbidden City provides audio tours. For a small price, you can rent Roger Moore's soothing voice to relate edifying facts and amusing anecdotes about the palace as you reconnoitre its nooks and crannies.

I love it. Because my idea of fun is to rent the audio tour and retreat [ read more ]

Beijing: Captial Rock

Beijing remains the centre of the country
Jon Campbell welcomes music lovers to Beijing, where rock is in the air in more ways than one

Beijing is a rock and roll town, and it doesn't take a night in a sweaty, smoke-filled live venue to figure it out. You can feel the yaogun (rock and roll) in the air: sandstorms, after all, are so rock. You can see it in the crumbling hutongs; in the [ read more ]

Beijing: Blossoms in the Dirt

Rapidly disappearing, the hutongs are perhaps the last embodiment of Beijing's old spirit. Jake Hooker takes a stroll through the streets chatting with the locals about crickets and concubines.

Beijing is manic: ancient and modern, lazy and hurried, ringed with jammed arteries, yet a flying pigeon's paradise in its quiet heart. But for ten weeks every summer and fall, after the new cricket hatch, none of these contradictions seem to matter. Gathering around square porcelain trays to bet [ read more ]