Beijing’s outsize numbers are well known: a population of 19.5 million, tumultuous growth, unstoppable urban expansion, pollution, and traffic congestion. But this is not the only reason why Beijing and the surrounding area is a priority concern for the People’s Republic of China. With some 3000 years of history, of which 800 as the country’s capital, Beijing has always been a political and cultural reference point for Asia, and now for the world.
Many experts see Beijing as the ultimate amalgam of the Asian civilisations of the North and North East, a weave of the Han culture and post-1949 Sino-Soviet style. The resultant heterogeneous entity provides a huge “cauldron” in which different, contradictory elements mix and blend.
Down the millennia Beijing has often changed name and political hue, chronicling not only its cultural dynamism but also the rise and fall of its power structures. Despite the waxing and waning of its political clout, Beijing’s underlying urban landscape has remained unchanged. The city continues to exhibit an architectural narrative imbued with an imperial aesthetic that has left an indelible mark on the city even today. Beijing’s urban grid with its geometry of enclosures remains the “basic grammar” of the local architecture.
However, despite its grandiose historic walls, Beijing also has a genial, cordial side that enchants many visitors. Foreigners like the city, but as the famous Chinese critic and connoisseur Zhu Dake notes, Westerners have never been able to really grasp what Beijing is all about. For Beijing has always been multifaceted, its many different aspects the direct result of its internal conflicts.
At first glance, continues Zhu Dake, Beijing appears a majestic city, redolent with an imperial past so apparent in its imposing palaces. Looking more closely though, the city is alive with dynamic quarters pulsating with the life and energy of the common...
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