Beijing Overview

Local knowledge

Taxis

Cabs are a dime a dozen in traffic-heavy Beijing and, as long as you make sure the number plate starts with a B and that the meter's running, are a safe and easy way of getting around. Smith tip: get your hotel to write any destination addresses in Chinese, together with any phone numbers of the places you're visiting, so the driver can zip you straight there.

Tipping culture

Tipping is not customary in China, but in Beijing, as with any cosmopolitan hub, mid-high end establishments will be unofficially grateful for a tip of around 10 per cent. Some bars and restaurants, especially those geared to foreigners, may add 10–15 per cent to the final bill. Hotel staff will appreciate – and in some cases, expect – a few hundred yuan as a token.

Siesta and Fiesta

Most banks and government offices wind down at 3pm, but shops open comparatively late, often trading until 9pm. Museums close on Mondays.

Packing tips

You can have excellent quality clothes made very cheaply, so leave plenty of room in your luggage for fine silk dresses and sharp suits. Chinese toilets are often free from such Western luxuries as toilet paper, so it's always useful to have some tissue paper stashed in your bag.

Recommended reads

Anchee Min's The Last Empress tells the tale of the notorious Dowager Cixi, recounting China's ongoing struggle against Westernism and modernisation from a first-person perspective. I Love Dollars by Zhu Wen is a collection of mildly absurdist satirical short stories from a Beijing-based author. Richly inventive and a touch macabre, Ma Jian's The Noodle Maker is a metafictional tale of a state-employed writer describing the novel he longs to write.

Cuisine

Other than the eponymous Peking duck, historically, Beijing’s northern Chinese cuisine has been mostly a spicy bend of choice delicacies swiped from other areas and tweaked to perfection for the imperial court. Unlike their rice-eating Southern counterparts, Beijing-ers wolf down noodles, steamed or fried buns and crisp, filled savoury pancakes. Mongolian hotpot, featuring thin slivers of fatty mutton plunged quickly into a simmering table-top tureen of hot broth, is particularly popular, usually in winter. Other local favourites include zhajiang mian, a garlicky meat sauce served over noodles garnished with shredded vegetables, usually cucumber, and Jiucai bing, a freshly made flatbread stuffed with garlic chives and egg. From Tianjin, Jianbing, a crispy spring-onion and egg pancake, is another favoured street snack. For a quick 'gastroduction' to the sheer variety of Chinese street food, head to Wangfujing Snack Street, where you’ll find anything from tasty grilled kebabs to exotic skewered scorpions.

Currency

The Renminbi (literally ‘people’s currency') is most commonly known as the Yuan (CNY).

Time zone

GMT +8

Dialing codes

Country code for China: +86, for Beijing: 10. Don't bother with either if you're calling within the city.

Do go/don't go

Unless you’re planning to venture into the cooler mountainous regions around Beijing, summer is not the ideal time to visit, as temperatures frequently soar beyond 40ºc. Equally, winter can be harsh, particularly in January and early February. The autumn months from September to early November, are ideal.