The cultured traveler knows that patience pays off, and late arrivals can sometimes be the best-timed. So while Phelps-crazed sports fans streamed into the Chinese capital this August to contend with Olympic-sized crowds of foreign tourists and Beijing's infamous summer smog, we turned our sights to the Beijing Music Festival (October 2-19.) Now in its eleventh incarnation, it's the largest classical music festival in the Eastern hemisphere, with not a flame-haired "Fuwa" mascot in sight.

This year Long Yu, conductor and founder of the China Philharmonic, leads a program that, while largely focused on the Western canon, features Chinese singers and musicians performing on several nights with their counterparts from Europe and North America. Soprano Hui He, who had her New York Philharmonic debut earlier this year, is one of these to watch. She sings selected movements in the title roles of Aida and Tosca with the Deutsche Oper Berlin on the 9th.

Performances like this may misrepresent the true significance of a Beijing-based classical music festival though. Mastery of the Western repertoire by Asian performers is not a new phenomenon. More notable then, are the works in the program that draw on non-Western sources for inspiration.

There is, for example, the China premier of Korean composer Unsuk Chin's exuberant Rocana -- Sanskrit for "room of light" --  on the 4th, praised as "a riot of cosmic energy" at its March debut. And also the inventive Heroine Trilogy (pictured) by Li Liuyi and Guo Wenjing on the 18th, which tweaks the staging and score of three traditional Chinese operas for its modern audience. No easy task, considering the centuries-old legacy of Chinese opera and what some call its strident musical signature. Still, these works succeed in reminding us that "classical" music is, ultimately, bound by chronology, not geography.

Ponder these thoughts as you exit the recently renovated Forbidden City Concert Hall and weave your way through the courtyards of Zhongshan Park, a swath of sculpted gardens bordering the ancient imperial palace. When the weather begins to cool in early fall and rare glimpses of blue skies can be had before coal-burning furnaces are fired up for the frigid winter, it's hard to imagine being in Beijing at any other time of year.

BEIJING MUSIC FESTIVAL
October 2 - 19
Performance times and venues vary.
For full schedule visit: bmf.org.cn

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Speaking of Beijing, Boston.com's The Big Picture blog has a great roundup of photos taken during preparations for the Olympic games in Beijing.

Above: a Reuters shot of a member of the Olympic Rescue Dog Team in training in Beijing; the gallery has many more images of (human) athletes and improvements being made in and around the city.

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Town & Country's July issue features a great piece by T&C Travel Editor-in-Chief Heidi Mitchell on traveling to Beijing, along with practical tips for those heading to the Olympics this year -- including our top picks on where to stay (the Peninsula Beijing, the Park Hyatt Beijing and the Commune by the Great Wall Kempinski), where to get tickets to Olympic events, top outfitters (Remote Lands), and where to enjoy the best nightlife.

There's much new to be seen in Beijing, Mitchell reports:

"Still, the show—or more like the coming-out party—must go on. In preparation for the Games, Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron and the China Architecture Design Institute have erected the 80,000-seat National Stadium, lovingly nicknamed the Bird's Nest for its webbed-steel tentacles. The Netherlands' Rem Koolhaas and his team will unveil their gravity-defying CCTV Headquarters, which some are describing as a twisted doughnut. British starchitect Norman Foster's futuristic new Terminal 3 at the international airport has just opened. Even more impressive, every single Olympics project is on track to be completed ahead of schedule, not to beat timetables but to help clear the dust clinging to carbon emissions in the air. Factories will work in slow motion for weeks before the first starting gun is fired on the auspicious date of 8/8/8, and cars will miraculously be swept off the streets—all in the name of blue skies and beautiful photo ops..."

Beijing is a city of 17 million people, and getting around town can be tricky -- best to read up before you go.

Anyone else have tips to share on new, can't-miss locations in Beijing?

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