Worth getting out of bed for

Beijing itinerary

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Viewpoint

The city’s many skyscrapers aside, for a bird’s eye view of central Beijing, head to Jingshan Park, a 57-acre former imperial garden facing the North Gate area of the Forbidden City. Made from soil that was excavated from the the City’s moat, the 48-metre Jingshan Hill is one of the few lumps in Beijing's landscape and, from the top, offers panoramic views of the entire Forbidden City complex and most of the Beijing skyline.

Arts and culture

Beijing has so many ancient monuments and historic sights to gawp at, after a while the temples and royal courtyard homes all blur into one spectacular history lesson. Before that happens, make a speedy beeline for the Dashanzi Art District (aka '768'). Once a labyrinth of high-ceilinged Bauhaus-style factories, the once-industrial area has been recreated as an artistic hub, with galleries, cafés, boutiques and restaurants lining the streets. 798 Space (www.798space.com) is the highlight, most notably for the Mao-era slogans printed on its walls.

Something for nothing

Famous for its mind-stretching size and infamous as the site of the 1989 massacre, Tiananmen Square was built to contain up to a million people at once, and visiting it is both an awesome and humbling experience – not least for its role in recent history. During the day, it's filled with kite-flyers, pedlars, and trigger-happy tourists, but if you visit at dawn or dusk you can catch the daily flag-raising and lowering ceremonies – one of the last few communist rituals still in practice.

Shopping

Choose from a baffling array of Chinese teas on Maliandao Street in the Xuanwu district (otherwise known as Tea Street), where more than 600 shops sell around 500 different varieties and an unfathomable cache of tea paraphernalia. If you're daunted by the scope of the selection, head straight to the Hong Zhi Teashop (+86 10 6342 4406) and take advantage of its eye-openingly informative staff. At the weekend, Panjiayuan fleamarket is a must-do for trinket-hunting, with a huge selection of kitsch 'maomorabilia', porcelain, jade and wooden ornaments, books, hats, bags, rugs, and more. As with most market shopping in China, offer as far below asking price as you can, and don't expect any 'antiques' to live up to the title. The Baoguo Temple Market in the Xuanwu district is a different story, however – you'll often find unique and authentic items here to add to your collection. Although most international fashion labels have made their way to Beijing, the European price-tag hasn't, and most items will often come in 30 per cent more expensive than in Western boutiques.

Daytripper

Either make the short drive, or hop on a direct bus from the Grand View Garden a few miles to the south of Beijing, where the village of Caiyu marks the centre of Chinese wine industry. With a comparable climate to Bordeaux, the area is home to more than 100 grape varieties and assorted vineyard tours are available for adventurous oenophiles. Tastings are held each evening, and although Chinese wine isn't exactly internationally adored, you may be pleasantly surprised by some of the flavours on offer.

Perfect picnic

Either make the short drive, or hop on a direct bus from the Grand View Garden a few miles to the south of Beijing, where the village of Caiyu marks the centre of Chinese wine industry. With a comparable climate to Bordeaux, the area is home to more than 100 grape varieties and assorted vineyard tours are available for adventurous oenophiles. Tastings are held each evening, and although Chinese wine isn't exactly internationally adored, you may be pleasantly surprised by some of the flavours on offer.

Activities

With Beijing’s Olympian construction efforts come myriad architecturally striking buildings and off-the-wall stadia – all of which merit an appearence in the holiday snaps. Fondly known as the Bird’s Nest, the Olympic stadium designed by Herzog & de Meuron features a gleaming steel lattice exterior designed to resemble, well, a bird's nest. The National Aquatics Centre, 'the Watercube', features 3000 plastic pockets which surround the exterior of the building. Rem Koolhas’s twisted, sloping structure built to be the new headquarters of CCTV (China Central Television), is an optical illusion of a steel megalith which has to be seen to be believed. Follow in the footsteps of diplomats and dignitaries with a visit to Lao She’s Teahouse (www.laosheteahouse.com), Beijing's tea-sipping answer to Moulin Rouge, which hosts nightly variety shows containing snippets of Beijing opera alongside folk singing, acrobatics and xiangsheng crosstalk comedy routines.

And...

Nowhere on Earth does Peking duck better than its culinary mother city, and you'll find the crispy delicacy all over the city. The traditional Peking duck is specially prepared and roasted in a wood-fired oven using wood from fruit trees, which is said to impart a special fragrance to the crisp, lacquered skin.