 |
For the first-time visitor to Beijing, it's best to forget everything one knows about this megalopolis before arriving because the first encounter with the reality of China's capital city is captivating and quite astonishing. The surprise and admiration already begins at the airport, which is huge. The new terminal covers an area of 1,300,000 square metres and is the largest construction of its kind in the world. Its long and arched roof intimates a Chinese dragon. The Beijing airport is capable of handling 70 million passengers annually and is thought to be the most perfect in the world in terms of technology. It is bustling with passengers from around the world. Hundreds of very courteous, patient and always smiling volunteers with a solid knowledge of English are there to assist with the necessary formalities. Numerous billboards, thousands of souvenirs and all kinds of other articles bearing the Olympic Games logo lets visitors know, in case they missed it, that the city is hosting a major sport event. Another surprise awaits visitors upon exiting the airport building. Hundreds of cameramen, photographers, reporters and merely curious camera-wielding locals record the once-in-a-lifetime arrival of guests to the Olympics-host city.
 An ancient Chinese saying says that "A myriad changes takes place in a single flicker of the eye", which is highly appropriate to Beijing today. Since 2001 when it was awarded the honour to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the city began to develop and grow sky-high at incredible speed. Moving along its new and broad boulevards, one comes across the most modern multi-story buildings everywhere. They are often a superb blend of modern and traditional Chinese architecture. The 37 new facilities built for the Olympic Games have rendered Beijing's appearance even more unreal. Time magazine has included three of them in the list of the "five greatest architectural wonders of the future". These include the National Stadium, better known as the Bird's Nest, the Chinese Central TV (CCTV) main building and the Linked Hybrid residential and commercial complex. The Bird's Nest is the most popular for photographing among foreign visitors. The construction consists of asymmetrically intertwined structural metal elements, and indeed resembles a bird's nest. It appeared even more grandiose during the Olympic Games' opening and closing ceremonies, attended by some 90,000 spectators.
Opposite from the National Stadium is the National Aquatics Centre, also known as the Water Cube for its outward appearance. From outside it looks like a semi-transparent cube lined with little plastic balloons shaped like water molecules. The plastic walling consists of light-sensitive panels that regulate light.
The Beijing Tourist Guidebook offers more than 200 locations recommended to foreign visitors. Tiananmen Square (Gate of Heavenly Peace) is always packed with camera-bearing tourists who want to record the pleasant moments on the world's largest city square. At dawn the Chinese national flag is raised at the square's central section and is lowered at dusk. And as a squad of 30 soldiers performs the flag-raising ceremony, traffic is stopped on Chang'an Boulevard immediately next to the square.
The Tiananmen Square perimeter includes the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum, the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Gate of Heavenly Peace – the entrance to the Forbidden City. A huge portrait of Mao Zedong still hangs at the entrance, marking the location where the proclamation of the People's Republic of China was issued on October 1, 1949. The portrait is of such enormous dimensions that a button on Mao Zedong's coat is the size of a human head. Encircled by a several-metre-high wall, the Forbidden City covers an area of 720,000 square metres, which was plenty of room for the 24 emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, who resided there for centuries. For 500 years, the Forbidden City was inaccessible – under penalty of death – to "mere mortals". A new age and market have done away with this ban that was in effect for many centuries, using nothing more than tradition. Millions of tourists from around the world each year rushed to this formerly imperial "city within a city".
There are some three million vehicles in Beijing. To reduce air pollution, their number has been halved for the duration of the Olympic Games. Still, the crush of vehicles is great. During most of the day, thousands of vehicles struggle through the city streets every day, although the main arteries have at least three lanes each way. Even though taxis in the very centre of the city arrive at 10-20 second intervals, it is nevertheless hard to find a free cab. Exceptionally favourable prices for taxi rides perhaps account for this phenomenon. Sometimes, however, reaching a destination is much faster by bicycle than by car. This is why there are an estimated nine million bicycles in Beijing.
Beijing, however, has it downsides in the summer; soaring temperatures, high humidity and a smogcapped skyline. Even so, compared to the pleasures the city offers – one tends to overlook all this. | 
