Beijing (Peking), the capital of China, is the perfect image of the country and its new prosperity. It is the cradle of an ancient civilisation, and has metamorphosed into a bustling and vibrant megalopolis without entirely losing its traditions and its symbols.

Since the Olympic Games of summer 2008, Beijing has been transformed. The streets of the capital of Mao have stopped vibrating to the tyres of thousands of cyclists in blue tunics and the town has cast aside red flags for the insignia of a more lucrative ‘State capitalism’. Beijing has taken advantage of this to revolutionise its town planning. It has radically transformed its districts and also built a 90 000-seater Olympic Stadium, in the shape of a bird’s nest and the Futurist Olympic swimming pool ‘water cube’. And yet its symbols remain. In Tiananmen Square, thousands of visitors visit Mao’s mausoleum on a daily basis The Forbidden City, especially, the former residence of the Emperor, with its 800 buildings and almost 9 000 rooms, is a reminder of the power of the Ming Dynasty. A city within a city, which you should view from the inside and from the top of Coal Hill if you want to appreciate the power of an empire which at that time believed it was the centre of the world. There are other sites with relics from the past such as the district of the Bell and Drum Towers, Empress Cixi’s summer palace and the Temple of Heaven. From Beijing there are two excursions that you simply must make. The Ming tombs are a collection, in the middle of the hills, of the tombs of 13 emperors. Further to the north, the Great Wall stretches for more than 6 700 km Less than two hours from Beijing, the partly reconstructed site of Badaling bears witness to the incredible feat more than 2000 years ago involved in protecting the Chinese empire from invasion.