The Monday Metropolis: When A City Becomes A… New “Study”

This The Monday Metropolis will be a full-blown ad (read: propaganda) for some new David Feng “thing”. If you can’t stand it, please return on April 2nd (good thing there are no articles from David Feng on April Fools) for the regular CN Reviews Mind the Gap Wednesday. Onwards…

Beijing is, at best, a maze. A superbly-organized maze no less, with streets and alleys heading dead-north or right-on-target-east, although those living in the Yizhuang Development Area might start moaning (“Our roads run northwest, through this circular roundabout, and then curl a bit to the right!). We’ve seen too many signposts like this:

So with that kind of stuff, the question is: how on Earth do you get from A to B?

Let’s continue with yet another question: define Beijing in six tourist attractions. If I’m not dreaming, the average response would be along the lines of Tian’anmen, Gugong (the Forbidden City), Tiantan (the Temple of Heaven), Mao’s Mausoleum, Changcheng (or the Great Wall) and Quanjude (for the Peking Duck no less). How about stuff like Lake Zhenzhu, Cuandixia, Hongluo Temple or Haizi Park?

For too many of us, Beijing ends just around the 5th Ring Road. Folks are missing out on stuff like this, which — believe it or not — is equally Beijing:

So it’s with thoughts like these — How do I get people from A to B with relative ease? and There are a lot of fantastic mountains and scenes out west; has the average Beijinger been there? that lead to the David Feng creation of Beijingology. In short, the “study of Beijing”.

Beijingology is pretty big. Just this weekend, we launched a community and now have people on our listserv. We’re also partnering with the folks at City Weekend in doing a daily blog, and finally, we’ve delivered something that most Subway folks are in essence dying for — a Subway map, all in English, of the network during the Olympics.

Beijingology is pretty big (I think I said that before). Take a look at the site, browse around — and experience Beijing like you’ve never seen it before. Want more “intro stuff”? Browse away.

We hope to be welcoming you aboard as a fellow Beijingologist!