Easy China, 3 Ways

BEIJING

Around the time the morning coffee starts flowing, the lane outside my courtyard house near one of China’s oldest working temples comes to life. The aged knife sharpener pedals slowly by — the clang of grinding metal on stones a developing-world version of the ice cream truck jingle. A rice seller passes a few minutes later, his wagon crammed with sacks of kernels. Retirees in pajamas emerge laden with caged songbirds that they hang in low branches. On summer evenings, my neighbors bet on cricket fights over beers. Everyone chain smokes.

This is hidden Beijing, a world that still survives just beyond the six-lane boulevards and gleaming skyscrapers. Here lies a rough beauty unique among Chinese cities — a metropolis filled with history careening into the future. Just look for the Buddhist monk gabbing into his Bluetooth. 

Centuries ago, the emperor’s feng shui masters chose this arid basin for its spiritual energy and designed a capital that would survive sandstorms, dynasties and Chairman Mao. Holdovers from this ancient city’s time as the nexus of China’s political and creative power poke through the neon in surprising ways, fueling an urban culture where imperial shrines abut indie rock clubs.

At once authoritarian and optimistic, Beijing is meant to impress. But it’s easy to miss its riches without a guide, so here are some highlights that will ensure that you get the most out of a week in the capital. 

Culture The 798 Art District (798district.com), in a sprawling decommissioned military factory compound, allows for a whirlwind tour of China’s lucrative modern art world, one that attracts neophytes and collectors alike. Two standouts: the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (www.ucca.org.cn) features massive installations and intense retrospectives, and Galerie Paris-Beijing (parisbeijingphotogallery.com) has a generous supply of photographs featuring China’s fierce creative landscape. Eyeing rich Chinese buyers, global commercial galleries have descended on 798, including Pace Beijing (pacebeijing.com), which features a rotating selection of premier Chinese and international artworks.  The district is a sprawling warren of industrial relics, galleries and cafes, and half the fun is stumbling upon the absurd, whether it be an old locomotive train that has become a popular backdrop for wedding photos or a two-story bird cage tucked down a side street.

Walk Beijing’s faceless bureaucrats may pay lip service to their nation’s ancient history, but the swift disappearance of the city’s historic hutongs, or alleys, reveal their fondness for the bulldozer. Luckily, a small network of hutongs in the heart of the city remains unscathed, so make sure to add a hutong stroll to your Beijing itinerary. Start off at the Lama Temple and head west down quaint, leafy Guozijian street, named for the imperial academy where Qing dynasty scholars once studied to become officials. The academy and the adjacent Confucius temple are serene places to take in Beijing’s historical significance before facing its modern incarnation as a city of fortunetellers, home design stores and cafes.

Things get much more hectic across Andingmen Nei Dajie street, a bustling thoroughfare home to the city’s best dumplings (Xian Lao Man, No. 252; try the tea leaf and pork, and the beef and carrot varieties) and some hilarious Chinglish shop signage, such as “Cherish Lady Herd Living Space” for a store specializing in women’s herbal beauty products. While some of the hutongs, like the tourist-mobbed Nanlouguxiang, are long past their prime, the northern Beilouguxiang Hutong remains largely undiscovered by the camera-laden masses even as it has become a hub of youth culture. Be sure to check out Mai Bar (No. 40), a minuscule cocktail courtyard joint, for some imported bourbon before turning left onto Baochao Hutong, where you’ll encounter the goth boutique Monster and some seriously obscure fashion havens. From there it’s south to Gulou Dongdajie, which is filled with quirky boutiques and is a short walk from the ancient Drum and Bell Towers and the subway.