The Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai (Vawn Himmelsbach)

The author is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has spent time living and working in China.

You may be one of those brave souls willing to navigate the crowds at the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, or, like me, maybe you'd rather avoid dealing with millions of tourists in a city already crowded with 15 million residents (give or take a few). Either way, the upcoming Games may have piqued an interest in visiting the heart and political centre of China.

The city of Beijing was originally built around hutongs, narrow alleyways that twist and turn. (Vawn Himmelsbach)

Beijing is crowded at the best of times. During the summer high season, organized tours — mostly local Chinese tour groups wearing matching visors and flags — swarm the city's major tourist attractions.

And there are lots of attractions. Beijing isn't just about cheap shopping — there's so much history here it can make your head spin.

Beijing has been around some 5,000 years in various forms, and emerged as the capital of the Chinese empire during the Ming and Qing Dynasties between 1644 and 1911. In 1911, it fell to warlords and the Kuomintang (the Chinese National Party, now located in Taiwan). Power changed hands in 1949 when the Chinese People's Liberation Army entered Beijing and Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People's Republic of China in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

It's hard to get a true sense of Beijing unless you read up on subsequent events: The Cultural Revolution under Mao and how Red Guards attacked the bourgeoisie, turned families against each other, sent millions to labour camps in the countryside and destroyed many of China's ancient relics.

Modern Beijing

The hutongs of Beijing are being torn down in the name of modernization. (Vawn Himmelsbach)

Today there's a different kind of revolution taking place.

Beijing has been taken over by cranes — new skyscrapers and malls and apartment complexes are springing up everywhere. Young Beijingers wear brand-name clothes and drink coffee at Starbucks and drool over Taiwanese pop stars. Yet it's still taboo to talk about the three T's: Tiananmen Square, Taiwan and Tibet. (It's a rather surreal experience to read Jan Wong's Red China Blues — a book you won't find for sale in China — in a Starbucks down the street from where the 1989 massacre took place.)

Tiananmen Square itself is a giant concrete area that faces the Forbidden City (also called the Forbidden Palace by some, because it houses the Palace Museum). While there's not much to the square itself, if you know anything about China's recent history, just standing in it is an experience in itself. As is staring up at Mao's gigantic portrait hanging in front of the Forbidden City.

Aside from wandering through the many halls of the Forbidden City — where Chinese emperors once lived — it's equally interesting to wander the hutongs (narrow alleyways that twist and turn) that the city was originally built around. There aren't many left in Beijing, or in cities in the rest of the country for that matter, since old buildings are being torn down in the name of modernization, so see them while you still can.

Most hutongs are too narrow for vehicles, so you can wander around on foot or even rent a bike. There are a few hostels and budget hotels in the hutongs near Tiananmen Square, which is one of the best locations to stay in Beijing since it gives you a sense of what life used to be like before the push to modernize the city.

A street market in Beijing. (Vawn Himmelsbach)

Here you'll find plenty of food stalls, noodle houses and even Mongolian hotpot restaurants, all at only a few bucks per meal. A bed in a hostel will cost you about $20 or you can get a private room for under $50 in a decent hotel (although it remains to be seen what effect the Olympic crush will have on prices).

Wonder of the world

No visit to China is complete, however, without a visit to the Great Wall — the Wonder of the World that was originally designed to keep Manchurians and Mongolians out of China.

If you're travelling more extensively through northern China, there are other, less touristy sections of the wall to visit. But if you're just hitting Beijing, your best option is to make a day trip 110 kilometres out of Beijing, to where you can trek along a 10-kilometre section of the wall from Jinshanling to Simatai.

Here you'll see the Great Wall in a more natural state, unlike more accessible sections that have been restored and turned into tourist destinations.

A tour is easy enough to arrange from one of the hostels — a day trip will cost you about $20 — or you can find your own way by taking local transit to the town of Gubeikou. If you avoid peak season, you might be the only people in the area — aside from the tenacious hawkers. If you don't buy a few postcards or other trinkets before setting off, they will sometimes follow you for several kilometres before turning back.

Hawkers are par for the course in China. A tip: If you can learn some Mandarin, they're more likely to leave you alone.

Smog

One thing that's hard to prepare for is the pollution. Beijing makes Toronto's air seem downright pristine.

Beijing's Forbidden City. (Vawn Himmelsbach)

A few years ago, the Chinese government started moving some manufacturing plants out of Beijing into the countryside in an effort to clear the air for the Olympic Games. But while the government may be able to control many things, it can't control wind patterns — so you could get lucky and experience clear days, or you may have to suffer through a smog-filled trip.

The pollution can get so thick that it can affect your energy level and how much activity you can handle in a day. It will be interesting to see how Olympic athletes cope with the pollution, but that's another topic altogether.

There are direct flights to Beijing from Vancouver and Toronto ranging from $1,000 to $1,200 — depending on the season. It is possible to get cheaper flights if you keep your eye out for special deals.

It's definitely worth doing some homework before a first visit, but it's still hard to prepare for a trip to Beijing, even if it's not your first time in Asia. The crowds, the language barrier and the cultural differences can make it a challenging destination. China still has an extremely poor human rights track record — one that's often ignored by Western governments who see China as a coveted trading partner — and this can result in some serious culture shock.

Travelling to Beijing can be exhilarating and frustrating all at the same time, leaving you with mixed feelings. But it's also a chance to see a culture that was, until quite recently, almost completely cut off from the rest of the world. And one that's rapidly driving changes to the world we live in today.

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