The Urban Edit
Getting stuck in Beijing traffic has its plus sides. (Stay with us.) Nowhere is China’s emphatic march from third world to world power more explicit than on the capital’s highways and hutongs. The roads here are a theatre of the wonderful, the weird and the precariously absurd. So if you find yourself idling in the back of a Beijing taxi, just gaze out the window and see how many of these you can spot.
Fed up of seeing the same smoggy, hazy images every time Beijing gets a mention in the press? Wish you could see a side of our city that’s a little more sexy, a little more PHWOAR!? Yeah, us too. So we pulled together a few of the many pics we’ve taken in the last year or so that show Beijing’s at it’s blue and buxom best. Warning: some of the vistas in this vid are so clean, they’re filthy.
Special credit to photography stud Ben Macmillan (some of these stunners are his), and our shutter-happy former intern, the lovely Aurore.
We came… we revved… we chased… The first ever Beijing Time Chase made history in October 2013, with 36 racers tearing around the city in vintage motorcycle sidecars, on the hunt for clues to piece together the story of China’s capital since the days of Dadu in Kublai Khan’s Yuan Dynasty.
Cast your minds back to Beijing, circa 1915. The last Qing emperor has abdicated, revolution is in the air, and chaos reigns. Warlords vie for power, and some, like Duan Qirui, have seized it, effectively becoming the dictator-in-chief of northern China.
After a scorching summer, it’s easy to forget that Beijing (like Winterfell in HBO’s Game of Thrones), is northern, lad. Aye. And that’s all there is to it. What this means of course, is that WINTER IS COMING. The days are drawing in, the leaves are withering, and the bobble hats will soon be out. But we reckon there’s a whole lot to love about this transitional period between fire and ice, also known as Autumn in Beijing.
Bespoke were SUPER EXCITED to hear about an all-new airborne experience that takes off from the Forbidden City, flying over several famous landmarks including the Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall and Beihai Park. We were especially surprised that such an event could be sanctioned, given that the Beijing authorities take airspace security very seriously indeed.
So Bespoke adventurers Tom and Lars headed to the Forbidden City to try it out. You even get a free DVD to remember your experience. Here is theirs (wait a moment for the video to load up):
