Regions & prefectures
ChinaRegions & prefectures
Beijing
Eight centuries as capital, a forbidden city at its centre and alleys counted in thousands.
- Capital
- Beijing
- Status
- Municipality
- Region
- North China
- Must-see
- The Forbidden City
- Local specialty
- Peking duck, jianbing, zhajiangmian
Kublai Khan made it his winter capital in 1272; the Ming redrew it in 1420 along an eight-kilometre north-south axis that the current government has extended to the Olympic stadiums. Everything in Beijing reads along that axis: the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven. Around them the hutong, alleys of courtyard houses, have fallen from seven thousand to fewer than a thousand in half a century of demolition.
What to see there
Places, dishes and traditions tied to this territory.
Peking OperaTraditional Chinese performing art combining singing, dialogue, acrobatics and martial arts.Pop Mart & LabubuThe Chinese blind boxes and their toothy little creature that took over the world.Forbidden CityLandmark · Beijing, ChinaGreat Wall (Badaling)Landmark · Beijing, ChinaTemple of HeavenTemple · Beijing, ChinaForbidden CityImperial palace of Beijing. Residence of Ming and Qing emperors for 500 years, now a museum.Great Wall of ChinaMilitary fortification stretching thousands of kilometers.Beijing HutongTraditional Beijing alleyways. Historic neighborhoods preserving old-style community life.BeijingCapital of the People's Republic of China and one of the oldest cities in the world, with over 3,000 years of history and more than 21 million inhabitants.
In the magazine
Articles that cover this topic.