Beijing is considerably easier to visit independently than it was a few years ago, but it is still not a city where arriving unprepared is a good idea. Monument bookings, payments, transport and much of everyday communication have moved to the phone. The…
Read articleCurrent affairs, innovation and trends shaping today’s China and the world around it.
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Whenever DeepSeek, Alibaba or another Chinese laboratory releases a model, attention concentrates on benchmark tables. The more important shift…
The image of Beijing hidden behind a grey curtain became a European shorthand for Chinese industrialisation. Today’s situation is more complicated…
Ten days in China without a visa sounds like a straightforward invitation, but the legal mechanism is visa-free transit, not a general tourist…
Beijing is often associated with a dry winter and cold winds, yet its summer risk takes the opposite form: high temperatures, humidity and intense…
Profiles of people shaping the city today through photography, design, business and everyday culture.
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Mexican artist Pedro Reyes treats sculpture as a way of organising relationships, not only shaping an object. In his conversation with the South…
Architect Billie Tsien describes practice less as the production of a signature form than as a long conversation with place, client, material and…
Curator Aric Chen has worked across museums, biennials and design institutions in Asia, Europe and the United States. In discussing complexity, he…
Explore the millennia-old history of Beijing’s palaces, temples, hutongs and landmark buildings that have shaped this extraordinary city.
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Beijing’s Central Axis is not a boulevard in the ordinary sense. It is a 7.8-kilometre sequence of gates, ceremonial spaces, palaces, gardens and…
The Forbidden City is often described through superlatives—nearly a thousand surviving buildings, vast courtyards and the ceremonial heart of two…
The Temple of Heaven was not built as a conventional temple for daily public worship. It was a state ritual landscape in which the emperor…
Traditional art, the modern scene and cultural events revealing the creative energy of today’s China.
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Peking opera can initially seem inaccessible because singing, percussion, costume and gesture follow conventions that are not explained during a…
Festivals and arenas show which artists have already succeeded. Small clubs reveal whether a music scene can produce the next generation. They give…
The extraordinary domestic success of Ne Zha 2 demonstrated that a Chinese animated feature could operate at blockbuster scale. Its achievement…
Discover authentic Beijing flavours, from street food to selected restaurants.
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Peking duck is often reduced to crisp skin, pancakes and a famous restaurant. The dish is actually a chain of breeding, preparation, drying…
Beijing has local dishes, but eating in the capital also means encountering food from across China. Migration, government, universities and…
Baijiu is a family of Chinese distilled spirits, not a clear equivalent of vodka. Sorghum and other grains are fermented in solid or semi-solid…
A selection of places revealing contemporary Beijing beyond the main tourist routes: night streets, creative districts, parks and everyday rituals.
TrendyVibe coding in China: almost anyone can make software, but responsibility remainsVibe coding describes creating software by explaining an intention in ordinary language while an AI model proposes…
TrendyChinese humanoid robots leave the racetrack and head for factoriesHumanoid robot races attract attention through speed, falls and machines imitating people. The more consequential…
TrendyChinese AI chips: the whole chain from design to data-centre energy decidesDiscussion of Chinese AI hardware often asks whether one domestic accelerator can replace Nvidia’s fastest chip…
TrendyGuochao: Chinese design moves from familiar symbols toward global brandsGuochao, the “national trend”, describes Chinese brands that work deliberately with domestic cultural identity. It…
Vibe coding describes creating software by explaining an intention in ordinary language while an AI model proposes or changes code. In Beijing…
Humanoid robot races attract attention through speed, falls and machines imitating people. The more consequential change is happening away…
Discussion of Chinese AI hardware often asks whether one domestic accelerator can replace Nvidia’s fastest chip. The comparison is…
Guochao, the “national trend”, describes Chinese brands that work deliberately with domestic cultural identity. It may appear in clothing…
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