Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Given the intense concentration of campuses in the district, Haidian's character is de-
cidedly student oriented. The population is youthful, and bars, eateries, and entertainment
complexes cater to the crowd and its budget. Friends are never far away, and even if you
don't live on campus, the atmosphere of university life is pervasive wherever you are.
Haidian is changing, however, and quickly. Though it's not going to lose the student
population, it's now also making room and adjustments for its high-tech tenants. The gov-
ernment has chosen the district as its primary research and development base, and by
providing attractive incentives to beckon start-ups and research units, it is diversifying the
population into one that is also characterised by hip young entrepreneurs and scientists.
Consequently, accommodations, recreation, and entertainment offerings are also expanding
to suit the new wealthier, more adventurous clientele.
One major drawback to living in Haidian is that it's still a good distance from the CBD,
regardless of the improved transport into the region. So while it might be an exciting and
commercially inspiring place to live, the trade-off is that a night out in Sanlitun is a com-
mitment most people don't want to make too often.
While the internationalization of inner Chaoyang might make it a Chinese place with min-
imal culture shock, Shunyi and the neighboring northeast section of Chaoyang offer an al-
most total immersion into a Western lifestyle. This is the area of high-end, large-scale in-
ternational schools and gated communities of multistory villas. Western medical facilities
and supermarkets are all in the immediate vicinity, and though interesting shopping malls
or stores are seriously lacking, daily needs are all at hand. Residents in the neighborhood
are typically expats with families sent to Beijing on generous packages that come complete
with a driver and car, a full-time nanny, and a private backyard for the kids to play in.
Life in Shunyi is a world away from that in such districts as Dongcheng, Xicheng, or
Haidian, and given the considerable distance from these places, it can be easy to spend a
number of years here and never get to know the real Beijing if you don't make a concerted
effort to do so. If you don't have kids there is probably little reason to live out here, and if
you do, there will be a surplus of opportunities to mix and make friends with those in your
community.
To be clear, the Shunyi that expats generally speak of is just a microscopic part of the
entire district, an area situated by the district's southwest border along the Wenyu River.
Chaoyang district starts on the south side of the river, and its northeast corner by the river,
identical in character to the Shunyi side, often gets grafted on to Shunyi to define a single
