Chinese food comprises one of the best cuisines in the world, and Beijing is easily the best place to get a taste of it. What’s particularly good about Beijing is that its eateries serve food from all the regions of China- so you have plenty of choice. Beijing itself has a very distinctive cuisine, geared to help survive the severe northern winters: solid cereal-based foods like dumplings, buns and noodles, with vegetables (fresh and pickled), and meats. The cuisine of the Beijing region was greatly influenced by foreign invaders; their contribution can be tasted in one of the city’s most famous dishes, Mongolian hotpot (a savoury, boiling broth that arrives at your table in a copper steam boat (hotpot) in which you dip pieces of food before eating- something like an Asian fondue). Another favourite in Beijing- and in fact a favourite at Chinese restaurants the world over- is the delicious Peking duck, something one should definitely try.

As far as eating out is concerned, Beijing has a very wide rage of restaurants- fortunately, many of them cheap. All the large hotels have good restaurants (many of them surprisingly affordable), and there are lots of stand-alone restaurants, small eateries and roadside stalls selling everything from dimsums and stir-frys to unusual dishes like bird’s nest soup and bear’s paws. If you get tired of Chinese food, there are restaurants serving other Asian cuisines (especially Japanese and Korean), as well as familiar Western fast food franchises. Large stores like the Friendship store stock Western foods like bread and butter, so if you want to make your own sandwiches, you can do that too.

Modern Beijing is as wild and raucous and bright, when it comes to nightlife and entertainment, as the other well known `entertainment capitals’ of South East Asia. There are lots of bars, discotheques and nightclubs (of virtually every stamp- catering to rich businessmen, to college students, to the trendy nouveau riche, and even those who want only pure sleaze). Karaoke bars and discos, some with foreign DJs, are the rage amongst the younger residents of Beijing.

There are the cinemas (nearly all showing Chinese movies), and the theatre. The latter includes drama, song-and-dance shows (sometimes imported productions), puppetry, acrobatics and martial arts. Important venues for these are the People’s Art Theatre and the Puppet Theatre.For those interested in culture, the Beijing Opera- very entertaining and quite a visual treat- is best seen at the Ziyuan Theatre and the Zhengyici Theatre. Other than this, the Beijing Concert Hall holds regular concerts by the local orchestra and by orchestras from abroad and other parts of China.

Tea houses are being revived after many years in oblivion. A peculiarly Asian concept, they offer a more elegant and cultured venue for music shows, opera, martial arts and acrobatics. For those into martial arts, a weekly performance is held at the Huxia Cultural and Martials Art Centre on Donganmen Daije. The China Daily and other tourist-oriented publications carry regular listings of what’s on, so keep an eye on these if you’re interested.