Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lowing morning. In smaller towns of China, a workday might begin at 10am, break at noon
for a long lunch, and then conclude at around 4:30 or 5pm. But in Beijing, there's no such
luck. A typical Beijing day starts at 9am, people clog the elevators at 12 sharp to get out for
their half-hour lunch break, then are back to the office, where they stay until possibly 7pm.
Outside of work and study, Beijing holds an ever-changing array of attractions and
things to fall in love with. Almost any night of the week you can meet your friends for a
relaxed, cheap dinner close to home, and no one will think of the need to turn it into a big
night. Any night of the week you can go out for a cocktail or two, and again, you don't have
to spend an arm and a leg. Eating and drinking here is an extremely casual affair.
You can visit the 798 Art District, where former factories have been repurposed into an
almost endless collection of progressive art galleries. You can bar-hop between rooftop bars
that sit amid historic courtyard houses and overhanging trees. You can skate or ice-bicycle
around the frozen Houhai lake in winter. And you can spend your time in one of the many
beautiful parks doing tai chi or kung fu with the locals.
Admittedly, adjusting to Beijing life when you first arrive can be a little awkward, and
everything seems like a hassle. Even after six months it can feel like living in a bunker,
where nothing is available and nothing works. Just simply going to the bank or buying
household goods can send your blood pressure skyrocketing. But, over time, as you work
your way into the city, and discover its ways of doing things, you'll start to wonder how
you'll readjust to life back home. You won't always find that life is cheap here, but when
you master how to live it, you'll find it addictively convenient.
BEIJING OR PEKING?
Many people ask the question, “When did Peking change its name to Beijing?” But
really, the question should actually be, “When did the spelling of Peking change to
Beijing?” because for those living in Beijing and who spoke the standard Mandarin
dialect
(p
ǔ
t
ō
nghuà),
it has always been Beijing, or at least
北京
. It wasn't until for-
eigners came in and tried to romanize the language (to make it intelligible for them-
selves) that it took on the form of Pékin and Peking.
Various theories account for the Pékin and Peking spellings, but invariably the
point at which confusion occurs is regarding what's called “aspiration” and how
that is coded on paper. Essentially, aspiration is the hissy air that comes out when
you produce sounds like “t” and “p,” compared, respectively, to the sounds “d” and
