ESCAPES
T
he Beijing 2008 Olympic Games galvanised the city and its citizens into marching into the 21st century, and the result sees Old Peking (the Forbidden City, Great Wall and Summer Palace) holding its own against New Beijing’s onslaught of skyscrapers, luxury hotels, museums and shopping malls. The combination is surprisingly harmonious, and gives an added depth to a holiday here. Summer in Beijing is warm, and the best way to explore the city is from the back of a mountain bike. I’m flying along on a modern descendant of China’s iconic Flying Pigeon bicycle brand; the high temperatures wafted away by the breeze. Many of the capital’s citizens have retreated inside four-wheeled transport, from groaning buses and clapped-out rust buckets to the priciest, corporate gas-guzzling monsters and the shiniest of people carriers. Statistics suggest there are over 5 million cars competing for space on Beijing’s roads, but I am in good company pedalling along the bike lanes; two wheels often beating four. Entertainingly I’m the recipient of anything from blank stares and surprised glances to cheery ni hao’s (hello’s).
The Summer Palace
As getting around in this city can be challenging and frustrating, it’s as well to choose your base carefully. Several boutique hotels provide stylish digs in parts of town that are convenient for various iconic sites. The Great Wall
The Forbidden City The Summer Palace It feels as if all of the country’s 1.3 billion people descend on the Forbidden City (and nearby Tiananmen Square) on festival days. So choose carefully when you visit the evocative collection of homes of Emperors past. Let your imagination wander and bring classic Chinese movies to mind – like The Last Emperor. At Tiananmen long lines of tourists queue to file past Mao’s body in the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall; tour groups identified by the colour of their baseball hats, beneath which they’re gently cooking in the blue-sky sunshine. The man himself looks down over khaki-clad soldiers posing for photos, and all the extended families wide-eyed at the scale of the square, the colossal crowds, the occasion. The appeal of the square is timeless; it’s just the people filling it who have changed since my first visit in 1999. Clothes are brighter and appearances more affluent; but the sense of awe in adults still contrasts with the oblivious attitude of their kids, fidgeting and playing. The tangible feel of past events, conspicuously absent from modern schools’ teachings, is stored in older memories, both Chinese and foreign. It’s a beautiful summer day seasoned with a slight chill of remembrance.
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May 2012
It’s best to transfer to the beautifully efficient and easyto-navigate subway to get to the Summer Palace. Set on Kunming Lake, the palace was originally created in 1750 and rebuilt by Empress Dowager Cixi in the late 19th century. It remains an enduring blue lung in the north west of the city. Wake early for a Tai Chi lesson on its banks. Watch the birds fishing for breakfast, and hear the locals singing, exercising and hawking behind you as you move beneath the fronds of a weeping willow. The more I try to copy Henry, my young Tai Chi sifu (teacher), the more I glimpse the intricacies of this martial art, and understand why it takes years to master. Following in his ancestors’ footsteps, Henry embodies the mix of old Peking and new Beijing; his actions are historic, his sweatshirt, pants and sneakers are decidedly now. Classical Chinese music plays on his smart phone, perched on a pagoda wall.
The Great Wall Snaking up and down and around the hills outside Beijing, the Great Wall just has to be visited. If you have limited time, nip out to the touristy Badaling site (a few hours spent