China Things To Do

By strange coincidence, the site where Mao and comrades made history is around the corner from Xintiandi’s fashionable cafés and boutiques. Admire the swords and pistols of revolutionary heroes, but don’t neglect to read the writing on the walls. Admission is 3 yuan.

There are five floors of exhibits and a sleepy bar on top, but the main attraction is a gigantic scale model of the metropolis, so detailed that real-estate agents use it to sell apartments. Admission is 40 yuan.

Scheduled for completion in March 2008, Shanghai’s tallest structure boasts the world’s highest sightseeing platform, suspended 1,614 feet above the sidewalk. As of January 2008, admission fees had yet to be determined.

The gathering point of China’s capital, this vast square is cloaked in Communist-era architecture, such as Mao Zedong’s Mausoleum, Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, and the giant Mao Portrait at the entrance to the Forbidden City.

Beijing’s formerly golden-roofed imperial palace was once off limits to mere mortals, but today it attracts thousands of visitors daily. The scale is astonishing; the high-walled compound contains six main palaces and 800 smaller buildings.

Learn about the genesis and enduring cultural significance of the fast-disappearing hutong neighborhoods that once comprised the capital. Most five-star hotels arrange private guided tours of hutongs for guests; Rickshaw Beijing also runs excellent guided visits.

This renovated industrial complex in north Beijing is the hub of China’s white-hot contemporary arts scene. Hip cafes and restaurants complement the labyrinth of galleries, art stores, and artists’ studios.

The spectacular 91,000-seat ‘Bird’s Nest’ National Stadium and the luminescent blue ‘Water Cube’ aquatics center are the signature attractions of the 4.7-square-mile 2008 Olympic Park.

Unfairly dubbed the “Disney Hutong,” this renovated half-mile chunk of old Beijing real estate avoided the bulldozers to become a tourism hotspot. Its 700-year-old lanes have morphed into a happening district of bars, restaurants, cafes, stores, and small hotels.

Also known as Yonghe Temple, this 18th-century temple – one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in the world – spans five halls and courtyards and encompasses an excellent collection of statues and art.