Beijing travel info

Climb to the pavilion on top of Jingshan Park, look south, and Beijing explains its own scale. The yellow-tiled roofs of the Forbidden City roll away in wave after wave, ending at Tiananmen and the square, all on one straight line drawn for a single emperor. These days the people lined up along that axis are holding selfie sticks.

Step a little off the axis and you're in the hutongs: grey-brick lanes barely wide enough for a bicycle, grandfathers cracking sunflower seeds in doorways, roast sweet potatoes on a brazier in winter. Around dusk at Houhai, kites go up beneath the willows and copper pots of mutton hotpot start steaming in the neighborhood restaurants.

One warning: this city is big. Two places that look next door on the map can be a 30-minute walk apart, and the Forbidden City alone is nearly a kilometre from south gate to north. Bring good shoes, don't overpack your days, and book ahead. Do that and there's a plate of crackling duck skin waiting for you.

Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)

Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX)