ASIA | CHINA
Beijing: Forbidden no more
The Wall, the duck, the bikes -- they're all still here, but now ...
OK, look, we've all heard about Beijing being full of cars now instead of bicycles, and about the revolutionary rush to modernity and all that. Yes, within an easy walk of Tiananmen Square, there is a Tiffany's. Yes, there are 55 Starbucks in Beijing (not to be confused with "55 Days in Peking," a 1963 flop of a spectacle filmed, naturally, in Spain).
A more subtle change: The hawkers who traditionally pounce on tourists wherever buses unload them are here as they have been, but they're not only selling postcards, picture books, mini-kites and Rolex knockoffs these days. For a limited time only, they're hawking unauthorized-edition 2008 Olympics baseball caps.
Welcome to today's Beijing. It's not your father's Beijing. It's not even your slightly older cousin's Beijing. Things have changed here so fast, and continue to change, that a favorite pastime is picking a timeframe and adding an astonished (if sometimes assumed) "But now ..."
As in:
Sabine Niehaus, director of sales and marketing for the 700-room Beijing Hotel, came to the capital in the 1990s from Germany.
"When I first came here, it wasn't a paved road," she said of the nearby, paved and very bustling shopper's paradise, Wangfujing Street. "[But now] I can go around the corner and buy a Ferrari."
Or, on another level, Beijing native Francis Yang, a tour guide:
"When I was a child," said Yang, 44, "we had nothing. Only a bicycle, a watch and a sewing machine. [But now] I have a car. When I was a child, I couldn't think about that ..."
What should be reassuring to anyone contemplating a visit is, Beijing -- evolving as it is and even with all the under-construction apartment-block clusters and Ginza-like neon and the succession of freeways that ring the city, and even with the inevitable pre-Olympics signage overkill -- is still Beijing.
You may have to wear blinders from time to time and poke around a bit between the parked Hyundais, but for the moment, at least, it's still here. It's also no longer off the beaten tourism path.
Last year, 1.7 million Americans flew into China for a visit, up 10 percent from 2005. The trend appears to be continuing. Why? Partly because that old "Red China" bugaboo has been fading since President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit de-demonized the country and led us past egg rolls to pot stickers. Partly because we're doing lots of business in the country (see Mart, Wal).
And partly because here and in other places around the world, maturing and well-off travelers who have been everywhere else are hungry for new destinations, and what better place than one with both a Great Wall and great kung pao chicken?
What's here to see?
The Great Wall is here. Well, it's here and it's in a lot of places, being 4,000 miles long -- but it's most easily accessible from Beijing, which counts. Closest quality steps are at Badaling (half-day tours, booked through hotels, run about $50 from the capital), a heavily restored section that combines beauty and big crowds, not always a happy combo.
"Ever since I was 12 years old, I've had this draw to the Great Wall of China," said Brett Eisele, at Badaling from Arizona and unable to hide his disappointment. "If I were alone, it would be different. It's just too many people.
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