Beijing Travel Guide

  

It can be called a national art, too. It is one of the art forms most popular among the Chinese people. Whether you are old or young, educated or illiterate, you can appreciate it as long as you can. There is no language barrier and cultural border.  The history of acrobatics in China can be traced back to Neolithic times. Progress in Chinese acrobatics was very prominent during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), when performances were often held at the imperial court; since then acrobatics became well-renowned worldwide via performances presented along the Silk Road. Chinese Acrobatics have developed into a kind of performance art. Chinese acrobatics has won acclaim and praise from audiences both at home and abroad, and many gold medals have been won in World Acrobatic Festivals in recent years. Cycling with Bowl Piling, Lion Dance, and Vocal imitation are the most famous programs. In Beijing, Beijing Tiandi Theatre, and Beijing Chaoyang Theatre are most famous for acrobatic performances.

 

 

 

(京菜, in Chinese )Beijing Cuisine is a cooking style in Beijing. It is also officially famous as Mandarin cuisine. Since Beijing was the national capital for centuries, its cuisine has been impressed by cooking traditions from all over China, but Shandong cuisine has given the greatest influence on Beijing cuisine. In turn, Beijing cuisine has also obviously influenced other cuisines, especially the Chinese imperial cuisine and the Chinese aristocrat cuisine. "The Emperor's Kitchen" (御膳房 in Chinese) was a term specialized for the cooking places in the Forbidden City; the authoritative chefs all over the country nearly were all Royal Kitcheners. Thousands of Kitcheners from the different parts of China showed their best cooking skills to please royal families and officials. Hence, it is hard to specify the actual origin of Beijing cuisine. However, some conclusions on Beijing cuisine can be generalized as follows:

  

Original food in Beijing are often snacks rather than formal courses, and they are typically sold by little shops or street vendors. They emphasize on dark soy paste, sesame paste, sesame oil, scallions, and fermented tofu which is often served as a condiment. The different way of frying is often used for cooking in Beijing. The food in Beijing catering trade is mainly represented by meat dishes. For example, mutton dishes are very popular today, such as stewed mutton, instant-boiled mutton, quick-fried mutton tripe, and fried dumplings with minced mutton. In the south, rice is much more popular as the main staple of the Chinese diet, while in the north, represented by Beijing, wheat products such as noodles, flat breads, dumplings, and steamed buns are more popular than rice as the staple. For example, one can find Jiaozi (small boiled dumplings stuffed with meat or vegetables) in many places throughout China, but if you travel to Beijing, you may find Jiaozi is more popular and welcome than it is in southern China.

 

 

This is the big tradition that visitors or newcomers in Beijing can easily see free of charge in even all  parks or gardens of Beijing. It is the real show of Beijing people's life and also shows how much that Chinese people pay attention to health in both spirituality and physiology.

  

People living in Beijing lead an attractive life. Usually at nightfall or daybreak, on squares of parks, many senior residents exercise the shadow-boxing or some simple Kungfu together for keeping-fit. They wear the white long traditional garments which are perhaps made of the expensive silk. Some senior ladies carry the fans and some carry the swords. They laugh and practice jointly in respective groups. Beijing senior men like Peking Opera. They often stay together for singing and practicing leisurely in public after morning or evening exercise, though they are not professional. Some excellent performance and singing often bring the passers-by or on-lookers' applause and cheers successively. Besides many local people are the Chinese-chess-playing experts, and some Chinese famous professional chess-players come from them. They are even able to play chess all day long for leisure under trees or at street-side where it is quiet. Chinese-Chess playing in Beijing, even in China is elegant but universal. It is quietly beneficial for intelligence-cultivation, so it is more welcome among the intelligent. What's more, Beijing residents like raising birds. This is a long-standing tradition in Beijing folk life. The senior often tote a birdcage when they are walking in leisure.

Beijing people are very courteous and helpful. Many residents try to learn a little spoken English for welcoming foreign guests. They are hospitable and willing to talk to foreigners in English. People unquestionably believe Beijing will become the tourism paradise for China-lovers during and after Olympic-Games period.

Officially known as the Games of the 29th Olympiad, was staged from August 8, 2008, to August 24, 2008 with the opening ceremony beginning at 08:08:08 pm at the Beijing National Stadium. Some events were held outside Beijing, these were football (soccer) in Qinhuangdao (秦皇岛), Shanghai, Shenyang (沈阳), and Tianjin (天津), equestrian in Hong Kong ,and sailing in Qingdao (青岛).

The 29th Olympic games were granted to Beijing after an exhaustive ballot of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 13, 2001. The official logo, titled "Dancing Beijing," features a classical calligraphic character 京, meaning capital, emphasizing the host city. The mascots of Beijing 2008 are the five Fuwa (福娃, in Chinese), representing five colors of the Olympic rings respectively. The Olympic slogan, One World, One Dream, calls on the world to unite in the Olympic spirit. Athletes competed in 302 events in 28 sports; just one event more than was on the schedule of the Athens games of 2004. Earlier in 2007, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch had said that he believed that the Beijing games would be "the best in Olympic history." In 2008, the current IOC-president Jacques Rogge said: "Without any doubt, the bid of Beijing was the best. It offered something that no other country could: bringing sport and Olympism to one fifth of mankind. That was the reasoning behind awarding the Games to Beijing."

 

 

 

 

 

This is the image taken at that night of opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics in 2008.  Most of audiences and participants think this ceremony is the record-breaking time in the history of Olympic opening ceremonies. Its dreamlike and humanistic performance strongly featured by Chiense culture and high technology indeed made people intoxicated. The magic water cube and the significant bird's nest realized many athletes and countries' dreams as well as many TV watchers' dreams. To a most degree, this Olympic Game in Beijing is unprecedented and unforgettable!

 

As elsewhere in China, Beijing Educational System consists of six years of universal primary education and six years of secondary education. In addition, both the government and a number of private groups operate nurseries and kindergartens for younger children to make it easier for their mothers to work. The early years of primary education emphasizes reading, writing, and arithmetic, with history, geography, and science added in the later years. There are three types of secondary schools: general middle schools, which offer college-preparatory courses; normal schools, which prepare students to attend teacher training colleges; and vocational and technical schools.

Beijing is China's largest higher-education center. At present, more than 80 colleges and universities serve massive education like full-time higher education, part-time vocational training, and elite education like: bachelor education, postgraduate education, PhD education, and Post-Doctoral Study. The northwestern edge of the city as home to both Beijing University and Tsinghua University, has become a major educational and research district that is also home to the People's University of China, the Central Institute of Nationalities, the Beijing Normal University, the Beijing Chinese Medication University, and the Central Conservatory of Music, as well as institutes specializing in aeronautics, petroleum production, forestry, agriculture, and other fields.

It's a prominent side to show Beijing comprehensive development and the resident's life-improvement. According to the latest official report, Beijing residents' average revenue is ranked the third place in China; only lower than people's in Shanghai and Zhejiang Province. Beijing has an all-sided industry system including the traditional heavy industry and new-born high-tech industry. Recently, in order to protect environment and ecological-balance, moreover, for realizing the Green-Olympics Promise in 2008, almost all the highly-polluted factories like the Capital Iron and Steel Company have been moved out. Beijing's high technology industries, dominated by the construction of Zhongguancun Science Technological Center, play a very important role in the development of Beijing's economy. The high-tech industries have been the main driving force of capital's development.

 

 

Transportation is well developed in Beijing. The urban bus, subway, airplane, trains and boats are all handily available at any time as long as you need. Beijing traffic is crowded, but there are few traffic accidents in spite of the congestion. Most motorized vehicles are either buses or taxis. They don't move much faster than the bicycles. Taxis in Beijing are very cheap by American standard. Most rides in town don't cost more than US$3. But bus rides cost even less regardless of distance. Bus stop signs list all the stops of each route and recorded messages announce all stops in advance. You can not lose yourself any more when you learn about this.

In urban bus system, the staffs concerned densely receive the foreign-language training for facilitating foreign tourists' travel in Beijing during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The conductors are able to voice the stops in English, and they can speak the simple oral English. Many stops are made in traditional-building style. Beijing traffic is extremely convenient. The taxis and sightseeing buses are also both available. The air-conditioning bus with "8" sign, special double-layer bus with "特" (special) sign, and special night-bus for tourism destination are all giving facility to passengers.

Beijing Subway has been intelligentized. On the newly-opened No. 5 subway platforms, the passengers can watch digital TV programs via touching the LCD screens, and in the compartment, they also can watch the same program in the same way. Currently, No.1, No.2, No.13, and No. 5 subway as well as Batong line are all opened. The total distance of the subway is up to 142 kilometers with 93 bus stations. As the No.5 subway-line opens, the entire subway network follows the standard price, 2 Yuan per person. The subway price is the lowest in China. Up to 2015, Beijing will form a 561-kilometer traffic network. It will be longer than what New York has, and become a city with the longest subway-line.

Public Bicycle in Beijing is extensively promoted as the slogan of Green Olympics popularizing among people. Beijing nowadays has become China's first city to promote the public bicycle as a choice for transportation. Besides, the traffic vehicles specializing for Olympics are all to be the non-smoking vehicles.

Beijing Capital International Airport is one of the major international airports in China. It is located in the northeast side of Beijing with a 25.35-kilometer distance from Tian'anmen Square. It is the largest and busiest international airport with the most important status and best equipments in China. Beijing Capital International Airport is also China's most important airport terminal and the center of China's civil airport network when it served as China's airport base. 

  

Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport is the newest and most multi-functional airport service center that opened in 2008. It is located at the east side of Terminals 1 and 2 with a distance of 25 kilometers from downtown. The total area is 1 million square meters. So far, it is the world's largest single-structure airport terminal. As it is put into use, it serves as the best transport supplier for worldwide passengers. Times UK comments it as one of the top-ten largest and most important building projects in the world.

  

There are 5 big railway stations in Beijing: Beijing Railway Station, Beijing West Railway Station, Beijing South Railway Station, Beijing North Railway Station, and Beijing East Railway Station. Beijing Railway Station is located in the south side of street in Jianguomennei. It is one of the ten projects for celebrating the 10th National Day. The layout and design of Beijing Railway Station is featured of innovative idea and traditional architectural style. It was the largest railway station with the best equipments in China in 1990s. 

In old folk-say, Beijing was floating to current place. Thanks to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the rice, silk, tea, and fruits from southern areas enriched Beijing people's life. The bricks and wood needed for the Forbidden-City building were also transported to Beijing by way of the Grand Canal. If The Great Wall is the solider for guaranteeing inland security and stability, Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal will be the businessman to keep Beijing in prosperity. Nowadays the Great Wall has lose its guarding function and totally become the cultural and historic heritage, while Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is always a dynamic supplier for people's washing, boating, and irrigation. It is the old living witness to jointly experience the time-passing with Beijing.

This is Beijing, a changing oriental center in yellow and gold. This is Beijing, a running captain in China and the world.

 

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