www.chinaview.cn

BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Beijing consumers spent about 1.91billion yuan in shopping malls, supermarkets and the catering sector from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9, the first four days of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

The consumers spent 367 million yuan on Saturday, up 10 percent from the previous day, according to the Beijing Commercial information Consulting Center, a well-known consultant for local consumption.

BEIJING (AFP) — Beijing is about to extend a ban on smoking in public places ahead of the Olympic Games despite the Chinese capital's image as a paradise for smokers who have faced few restrictions on where they can light up.

According to a draft bill published on a municipal legal affairs website, the majority of public places, such as restaurants, schools, hospitals, stations, libraries and museums will have to be non-smoking.

Hotels will also have to reserve at least 70 percent of their rooms for non-smokers.

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Beijing Olympics organizers plan to set up 26 cultural squares across the city where local citizens and visitors can enjoy the greatest sporting event on Earth.

Big screens are to be erected at each of the squares to relay live broadcasts of the Olympic Games, and various performances and exhibitions, Olympic-themed souvenir exchanges will also be held at the squares.

 BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The expansion project of the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) passed a final inspection by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Tuesday, marking the successful end of the work that started three years and nine months ago.

Jonathan King says that Beijing is often seen as the cultural city with Shanghai touted as more of a commercial entity.

Visas
Banking
Accommodation
Transport
Health care
Entertainment
Orientation

Ask questions and read the answers on the Mentor Noticeboard.

Our mentors are volunteers and any information they provide is for information only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. Click here to access the message boards terms and conditions.

 By David Eimer on Hainan Island

It has taken five years of strutting and posing, and an annual fee believed to be worth £2 million, but China has achieved another of its global ambitions when a 23-year-old from Beijing was crowned Miss World.

Zi Lin Zhang, from Beijing, beat the other 105 contestants to become the first Chinese winner and the 57th Miss World, waving elegantly to her fans as the result was announced in Sanya, China.

Cultural dos and don'ts, plus a handy phrase book that introduces you to the language and local argot.

Dos and Don'ts:

"Saving face," or avoiding unappealing public displays, is important in China, but perhaps more lax in Beijing because of the extreme expressiveness and no-holds-barred animation of the regional character, and the influx of a rough-and-tumble rural migrant population. Still, avoid intentional provocation, and keep complaints, criticisms, or disagreements polite and discreet.

By Liu Weifeng (China Daily)

Beijing authorities are planning to increase the number of emergency shelters downtown to 100, to ready the city for natural disasters such as earthquakes.

The plan, unveiled by the Beijing urban planning administration, said more than 100 shelters will be built over the next few years, meaning people living and working in the downtown area will never be more than a 20-minute walk from the nearest one, the Beijing News reported yesterday.

Jane Macartney in Beijing
Beijing opened its first new underground line in 40 years yesterday, in a further sign of its resolve to ensure the success of next year's Olympics.

Members of the public rode on the Beijing No 5 Line, which is every bit as smart and swift as the latest systems to open in Hong Kong or London. The marble station floors, the electronic travel guides and the gleaming steel sliding doors are a far cry from the city’s other two lines, which were built in the late 1960s and look as if they have barely changed since.

Beijing opened a new subway line yesterday in a bid to boost public transport and ease road congestion ahead of the Olympics.

Beijing's No 5 subway line, which runs through the heart of the city from north to south, opened at 2:00pm yesterday, when the week-long National Day holiday ended.

The 27.6-km line, after nearly five years' construction, is installed with 23 stations and runs from Tiantongyuan North Station in northern Beijing's Changping district to Songjiazhuang Station in southern Fengtai district.