WHEN TO GO
If you haven't already booked a flight for the Olympics, chances are slim that you'll find an empty seat. However, as of press time, the official Website for Olympics tickets, cosport.com, still had available slots at some sporting events. A better time to see the city would be after the Olympics adrenaline rush wanes, when the summer heat (and smog) has died down and the international crowd has moved on. Fall and spring are the best seasons; winter and summer can be extreme.
GETTING AROUNDA guide is as essential as a pair of comfortable shoes and a flexible schedule. Residents don't speak much English, traffic is a nightmare, and walking across this endless city is impractical. My outfitter, Remote Lands (from $1,000 per person per day; 646-415-8092; remotelands.com), provided me with a fun-loving guide and a loyal driver and arranged some one-of-a-kind experiences — from a private dumpling-making lesson with a housewife to a tour of the 798 gallery complex on a day when it was mostly closed. An insider tip for evenings sans guide: type the name of a restaurant or bar into your cell phone and send it to 011-86-10-66-9588-2929 via SMS, and the service will text back the location in English and Chinese; simply hand your phone to your taxi driver and he'll take you to your destination.
WHERE TO STAY
Since it opened, in 1989, the Peninsula Beijing (double rooms from $210, suites from $406; 8 Goldfish Lane; 011-86-10-8516-2888; beijing.peninsula.com) has been the place to stay. Its 525 rooms and suites are designed with clean lines and traditional Asian touches but are state-of-the-art (note the Wi-Fi and plasma screens). My sister and I loved the dim sum lunch in the courtyard-style restaurant, Huang Ting. Many other international luxury hotel chains (St. Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Grand Hyatt, Regent) have a presence in Beijing, though their locations are more suited to business travelers than pleasure seekers. Thanks to the explosion of development in the run-up to the Olympics, however, hotels are opening up almost weekly. The new darling is mainland China's first Park Hyatt, Park Hyatt Beijing (double rooms from $490; Beijing Yintai Centre; 011-86-10-8567-1234; beijing.park.hyatt.com), which occupies the thirty-seventh through sixty-sixth floors of the city's tallest skyscraper, designed by architect John Portman. The 237 guest rooms have expansive views of the city, a beige-on-beige palette and bathrooms that were created for spa fanatics.
About an hour and a half outside town, near the busy Badaling section of the Great Wall, stands the highly conceptual Commune by the Great Wall Kempinski (four-bedroom villas from $2,100; exit at Shuiguan, Badaling Highway; 011-86-10-8118-1888; communebythegreatwall.com). Forty-two villas by twelve Asian architects snake up Badaling mountain, their exteriors ranging from the blocky red bricks and glass of Antonio Ochoa's Cantilever House to the perpendicular stone slabs of Chien Hsueh-Yi's "Airport" (my personal favorite). The Commune of the Children club is one of the best places in the world to drop a four-year-old; it has a dress-up area, a demo kitchen and a courtyard for running around outside.
NIGHTLIFE
Although the food in Beijing isn't much to rave about, the nightlife is vibrant. Face Bar (26 Dong Cao Yuan; 011-86-10-6551-6788; facebars.com), whose design was inspired by the Silk Road, is the stomping ground of hard-partying expats and allows for quick entrée into their intriguing world. The 43,200-square-foot LAN Club (4/F Twin Towers, B-12 Jianguomenwai Avenue; 011-86-10-5109-6012; lanbeijing.com) also draws expats as well as the city's social set, though the design here is far less tame; if any theme could be attached to the decor, it would be irrational exuberance. Stuffed birds, religious icons, oversized chandeliers — you name it, it's here. Should you choose to do more than sip cosmopolitans and gawk, the Szechuan menu isn't bad.
WHAT TO SEE
You can't come to Beijing and not do the touristy things, like visit Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the hutongs, the imperial Summer Palace (eight miles northwest of the city center). But you also have to add some modern stops to your itinerary: the CCTV Headquarters, the National Stadium, the 798 gallery district (especially the new Ullens Center for Contemporary Art). Have your guide arrange daily schedules in advance, to avoid getting trapped in traffic.
