Jaunted

The city, with its reputation of overcrowded chaos, is in fact a place with wide, tree-lined boulevards, smooth traffic, and an air eerie efficiency. Beneath the surface, prices have skyrocketed, with hutongs (the city’s once-universal alleyways where common people lived and dined) mostly bulldozed to make way for new high-rises. Despite all the upgrades, even the $17 billion investment to improve the city’s air quality before the Olympics failed to minimize the smog. Buildings are often obscured by the brownish-green haze. On particularly bad days, so is the guy standing next to you.

In August, along with an influx of summer-vacation tourists, we explored this city’s most famous historic sites—the Forbidden Palace and the Great Wall—and also viewed the icons of New China—Mao’s Mausoleum in Tiananmen Square and the vast, skeleton-like Olympic Park, with its mammoth, empty buildings.

Foreigners exploring the city for the first time will be surprised at how metropolitan and traditional the people are at once. Few people speak English and those who do will offer you friendly welcomes and ask to have their photos taken with you. A mutual love of basketball forges fast bonds between Chinese and Americans. In fact, the word that made us the most friends, more than hello (ni-how) or thank you (shee shee), was Kobe, as in the superstar LA Laker and exonerated sex offender.

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