The ducks are dried, inflated with compressed air (to separate the meat from the skin), basted in molasses, then roasted in open-fronted ovens over crackling fruitwood. Molecular gastronomy has nothing on proper kaoya (roast duck), such as the distinguished birds served at Sìjì Mínfú, which take days to prepare. The dish Beijing gave to the world tastes better in the capital than anywhere else. You don't need to be super fit, as the run stops every few minutes for a brief intro to a particular sight or topic, and finishes up at the company’s hutong HQ for drinks and snacks. Keeping fit, exploring the city and learning about old Peking at the same time: what more could you want? The founder of a local tour company Beijing Postcards has combined his twin passions of Beijing history and jogging into a series of themed runs, clocking in at about 10km each, that stitch together hutong alleyways, leafy canal paths and little-visited parks. Like the Palace of Prolonging Happiness, an unfinished, Western-style building of marble, cast-iron and glass designed to be a kind of walk-in aquarium or the Belvedere of Pleasant Sounds, an elaborate three-story opera house with trap doors, tunnels and pulleys for special effects. They are indeed awe-inspiring – yet it’s by venturing into the tightly woven labyrinth of rooms and corridors to the north where you’ll dig up the most remarkable sights, ones on a more human scale. Most visitors to Beijing’s Unesco-listed centerpiece focus their energies on the Three Great Halls and parade grounds that comprise the outer court. After dark, a stroll through hutong streets is one of the best things to do at night in Beijing. Head to Xisi to stroll the most authentic alleyways, where you’ll hear gruff Beijinghua (the local dialect) and marvel at the majestic White Dagoba Temple rising up over tapering tiled rooftops. Get lost in Beijing’s hutong alleywaysīeijing’s highly wander-able matrix of residential lanes has been on the retreat for decades, but despite the demolitions it’s still possible to lose yourself in neighborhoods that time (almost) forgot, where old folks play xiangqi (Chinese chess), walk their songbirds and haggle over a few jin of persimmons from a handcart seller. Here’s our guide to the most memorable, unusual things to do in Beijing. What is Beijing known for? It’s better to go there (when you can) and figure it out for yourself. Things move forward so quickly in China’s capital, it’s almost futile trying to pin down exactly what the city is. To put it simply, Beijing does things its own way: a city of 9 million gig-economy e-bikes and about as many tech workers, of historic hutong lanes overhung with facial recognition cameras, of endlessly inventive ways to get your foodie fix. Today it’s the very model of a modern megacity, hurtling toward a brave new future though with one foot planted in the past. It’s incredible to think that a little over a century ago, Beijing was a kind of low-rise walled fortress, its nine humongous gates locked shut every night.
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