| Beijing means 'Northern Capital' and in many ways the name
speaks for itself. It is the capital of the People's Republic of China and
the capital of bureaucrats. The whole country supposedly runs on Beijing
time and is supposed to speak the Beijing dialect. From here the Chinese
Communist Party rules over its enormous empire while further to the south,
you will find more and more free trading with new capitalists, having
contributed to form the new face of China over the last decades.
Beijing has come a long way from the dusty communist capital of the
seventies and eighties to a modern city with the usual high rising buildings
and shopping malls. At the same time, hotel and restaurant standards have
improved enormously. It may not yet be able to compete with Hong Kong or
Shanghai, but in its runup to the 2008 Olympics, it is trying real hard.
Naturally, Beijing has some of the most superb examples of Chinese
architecture. No other place in China offers such a large number of old
buildings as Bejing. On top of that, Beijing is one of the more convenient
starting points for visiting The Great Wall.
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