Beijing is at a fascinating stage of its development right now. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, the city is tearing itself down and building itself up again at a breakneck pace. The result is a city of huge, Blade Runner-esque skyscrapers, and ancient, winding back alleys lined with courtyard homes; techno-blaring nightclubs and old men playing mahjong with their shirts rolled up over their bellies; Audis and rickshaws. The intrepid Westerner in Beijing will want to get a taste of the old and the new during his visit.

Old Beijing

Best Tourist Site: Many of Beijing’s most popular tourist destinations, like the Forbidden City and the Ming Tombs, have been rendered too Disneylike by the government’s aggressive “restoration.” But the Temple of Heaven, or Tiantan, is still breathtaking. The temple itself is incredibly beautiful, an ornate work of incredible detail and vivid color. Buddhists still come to burn incense at the outlying temples. The surrounding parks are serene and seemingly endless. You can almost forget that you’re in the middle of a metropolis of 15 million people.

Best Place to Buy a Scroll: For the Eastern art connoisseur and knick-knack collectors alike, Liu Li Chang is a critical stop. It’s a market for art and antiques, the former mostly genuine and the latter mostly fake. Here you can wander down the Old Beijing style alleyways testing your bargaining skills. Bargaining is an elaborate drama, requiring both charm and bravado. But if you’re up for the challenge, you’ll be rewarded as you watch the price of a watercolor landscape plummet to as little as a third of what you, a presumably wealthy foreigner, were originally quoted.

Best Traditional Cuisine: You really have only one option for dinner in the Old Beijing tradition: Peking Duck. The best of the restaurants specializing in this dish is Liqun Roast Duck, a tiny place hidden in the depths of an ancient residential neighborhood, or hutong. You’ll have to follow signs painted on the crumbling walls of the ancient homes lining the dirt streets, or you’ll lose yourself in the tortuous alleys. But the reward is well worth the effort. Peking Duck, roasted until the skin is a delicious golden crisp, and served with thin crepes, green onion stalks, and hoisin sauce, is one of the most delicious specialties of northern China. A delicious tip: dip the skin in sugar and feel it melt in your mouth.

Best After Dinner Show: For a crash course in traditional Chinese theater, head to Lao She teahouse, where in one revue style performance you can take in acrobatics, a syncopated stand up comedy known as cross-talk, instrumental performances, and the loved/hated Peking Opera. Don’t miss the giant bronze statue of George H.W. Bush, who once visited the establishment, by the door.

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New Beijing

Best Soho of the East: About a decade ago a group of controversial artists looking for a cheap place to live far from the government’s wary eye formed a makeshift community in an old factory complex. Naturally the place, now called 798, attracted hordes of foreigners looking for an authentic Chinese avant-garde art, and by now the place has been commercialized. But though the rent has gone up and the artists have begun to cater to the expectations of their Western clients, the place is still dingy enough to be utterly unique. Warhol-esque Mao prints will cost you far more here than the stuff at Liu Li Chang, and the prices aren’t negotiable.

Best Proto-Hipster Hotspot: Beijing has a few Western style malls, but the Xidan shopping center is where the local trendy scenesters outfit themselves. Seven floors are crammed with (occasionally knock-off) goods, with Chinese pop and bright décor assaulting your senses at every turn. Again, pricing is negotiable. Clothing ranges from the just-ugly-enough-to-be-hot to the hideously tacky. Handbags range from “Louis Vuitton” to “Lesportsac.” Don’t let customs see those on your way home.

Best Fusion Food: The Green T. House calls itself “the vanguard for New China” and charges in accordance with New China’s rising purchasing power. The food is worth the price though, as is the sociological value of watching China’s nouveau riche in one of their enclaves. The décor is self-consciously modern and includes quite a bit of contemporary art.

Best Bar Street: In the summer months, the Houhai district has no match. The bar district is built around a lake and is one of the few night life venues that attracts as many Chinese as expats. The bougie prefab bars, including the famed “Sex and Da City” with its fur-covered walls, are on the west side of the lake. The east side houses grungier bars, frequently with outdoor sofas and tables for watching late night soccer games. If neither shore suits your fancy, you can also rent a small boat and cruise around the lake with some sparklers and a couple of Qingdao beers, an option that the undervalued yuan makes both appealing and affordable.

Best Toad’s Substitute: Of all the bizarre clubs in Beijing, the enormous and infamous Banana is the most spectacular. Described by its regular patrons as a “hellhole,” Banana boasts a bouncing rubber dance floor, male and female go-go dancers bathed in glitter, and techno blasting at levels that truly can be described as demonic. While it may be lacking in penny drafts and lacrosse players, you’ll leave with that same comfortingly familiar feeling of physical and spiritual debasement.

Best Drunk Food: Outside of every hypermodern nightclub in the city, you’ll find vendors roasting chuanr, a traditional specialty from China’s westernmost province. Ostensibly roast lamb, rumored to be roast rat, the little meat skewers are nonetheless delectable. The vendors who cook them on street corners from dusk ‘til dawn have found a way to use an ancient recipe to meet fill a modern niche, the drunken cravings of today’s clubbing youth.”

BY JENNIFER HARRIS
“BEIJING VANISHING” IMAGES BY AMBER WILEY

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