Brief Encounters | What to do over a weekend in Beijing – scratch the surface of China’s capital and discover a city worth getting to know
- Steer clear of the obvious, overcrowded attractions to find pockets of art, history, culture and quirkiness
- Boutique offerings, from hotels to bookshops, show a different side to the destination more commonly associated with big-name brands
On newly revamped Wangfujing (“Prince’s Mansion Well”), WF Central is admittedly a shopping+dining+entertainment mall, but it hosts regular arts expos with an enthusiasm that is not just commercially inspired. The Guardian Art Center, knocked up by German architectural maestro Ole Scheeren, might be a corporate headquarters for an auction house, but it’s also making time and space for regular public exhibitions rather than simply wielding a gavel and raking in commissions.
And then there’s Qianmen Street, hosting artisan milliners, cobblers and silk merchants – instead of gimcrack souvenir T-shirt stalls – all spaced either side of a tram line that runs the length of the street, plied by newly restored dangdang (US$2 a ride) that carried their first passengers in 1924 and which somehow managed to escape the scrapheap in the intervening years.
Where to stay
Just opened, and naturally rather pleased with itself for doing so, the Mandarin Oriental Wangfujing stands out for counting just 73 rooms – a rarity in a city that has long favoured five stars over boutique – and for being perched atop WF Central which grants it a very neat metropolitan panorama.
Other similarly discreet and to-scale accommodation includes Hotel Cote Cour, The Orchid and Double Happiness Courtyard, all of which have kept things low-rise, low-key and remarkably civilised.
What to eat
Like many of China’s major cities, Beijing attracts migrants from around the country, who bring their cuisine with them, and are not averse setting up a small homestyle eatery. Clue: provincial offices often have a restaurant serving their local scoff somewhere in the vicinity.
