Beijing - Racing Ahead

This year’s Olympics is not even mainly about sport; here in Beijing it is primarily about China transforming the way the world sees this once most secretive of countries. The aim in 2008 is to turn every visitor to China into an ambassador for the country’s economic triumph, keen to return home and testify to the prosperity and advances made in the country.
 
As a resident of Beijing since September 2005, I can assure would-be visitors that the changes to Beijing are far from cosmetic. The skyline, which two and a half years ago resembled an international industrial crane convention, now bears witness to Chinese productivity, with a host of high-rise international hotel chains, western-style apartment buildings and lofty office complexes dominating the city centre.
 
Interspersed with the inevitable international brands that have colonized the city – McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and, latterly, Hooters – many long terms residents have decried the changes as destroying the city’s essential Beijing-ness.
 Bizarrely, though, these changes have also driven the people and, crucially, the governing body of China, to start actively preserving its heritage – perhaps for the first time. Whether this stems from a genuine desire to maintain the remaining iconic sites that have shaped China’s long and convoluted history, or a more belated realization of their value to the still embryonic tourist trade is open to debate.

Recent years have seen increased investment in maintaining and restoring such well-known historic sites as the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace and lesser known sites, such as the Lama Temple and the Temple of Heaven. Similarly, a booming tourist enterprise has now evolved around Badaling, the nearest outcropping of the Great Wall to the capital (90 minutes drive away).  More modern attractions abound too, with Tiananmen Square, now-relatively tank free and open to visits by all but the most zealous and revolutionary of students, whilst the nearby mausoleum of Chairman Mao offers more patient visitors an opportunity to view (at a distance) the desiccated corpse of the controversial communist leader
(although rumours persist that your long wait is now rewarded with a view of the uniformed mannequin that is said to have replaced the 32-year-old corpse several years back).
 
Visitors will find that Beijing is an enormously safe city. Muggings and attacks on westerners are extremely rare – with the local Chinese criminal community favouring a more opportunistic approach.  So beware of pretty, young, helpful Chinese students hanging around the tourist spots and city centre banks. Eschew any invitations to teashops or art exhibitions as these may cost you dearly – a recent arrival was charged 1,500RMB (around £100) for a pot of tea after being befriended by two such students.

 Money is easy to change at any of the city’s many banks, although you will need to take your passport with you. Travellers’ cheques can be changed in the city centre, but should not be counted on in more outlying areas. If you’re traveling outside Beijing, be sure to take plenty of local currency, as cash-changing facilities and ATMs (many of which are bi-lingual and accept western credit and debit cards) may be few and far between.
 
Police presence – in a country which has done little to dispel its reputation as a heavy-handed militaristic entity of late – is surprisingly low-key, although visitors bearing video cameras in Tiananmen Square may come under some low-level scrutiny.  The most likely cause of conflict between visitors and the authorities is usually visa overstays and irregularities.
It is incumbent on overseas visitors to register with the local police station within 24 hours if they are staying in private accommodation or with friends, although those staying in hotels have this done for them by the management.

 Navigating your way around the city is also relatively easy, with all street signs now in English and Mandarin. The recently expanded subway is the easiest way to get around the city, with all announcements and signage now jointly in English and Chinese. A ticket on the subway costs 2RMB (about 14.5p) for any one-way trip across the network.
 
As for culinary attractions, Beijing is a big international city and all manner of food is available – from the many different traditional cuisines available from China’s 33 different provinces (think counties but each one bigger than the entire UK), as well as an increasingly vast array of international cuisines, notably French, Japanese, Italian, Thai and Korean.

Beijing is on a mission to impress this year. Arguably, amid its jostling for poll position among its Western and Eastern neighbours, it may have sacrificed some of the “otherness” that has long been the cornerstone of China’s mystique.
 Visitors in 2008 will witness the most stage-managed international sporting event in history, with attention to detail spilling well out of the massive purpose-built arenas and into the every day experiences of sports tourists and business visitors.
 
“Old China” still persists in Beijing, but may have to be sought out beyond the higher profile tourist attractions – but no more so than visitors to London, Paris or Rome have to look beyond Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower or the Coliseum to get a genuine feel for a country, its heritage and its contemporary reality.  Greater freedom and relaxation of travel restriction means that 2008 visitors will have every opportunity to visit a more unchanged China that lurks outside the major cities.
For those in search of the China of myth and legend, leave a little leeway in your itinerary to explore beyond the Northern Capital.

Tony Murray is director of studies at the Ai Hua Foreign Language Academy in West Beijing. Anyone interested in teaching for 6 months to a year in the Chinese capital can contact him on  ihuarecruitment@gmail.com