Beijing In Motion

The clip is produced by Beijing's Board of Tourism and contains nice helicopter views of Beijing.

From 00:50 to 1:50 there is a flyover starting at the southern most gate of the ancient city wall (Qianmen, meaning Outside Gate) and ending roughly 20km north at the Olympic Arena built in 2008.

It passes over (in order): Tiananmen Square (and Mao's Mausoleum), The Forbidden City, Jingshan Hill (which is a man made hill that was meant to protect the emperor from the cold winds from the North), The Drum Tower, The Bell Tower (at which point the city used to end in ancient Beijing) and then The Olympic Arena.

The helicopter did not choose this route by accident: it is the old "symmetrical axis" and was the focal point of the entire city architecture: everything to the east and west of the axis was constructed as a approximate reflection of each other. The symmetry is today really only visible in The Forbidden City.

This video shows the most charming part of the city: Beijing's ancient alleyways (called Hutongs).

These tiny streets, of which some are too small to be used by cars, are lined with traditional courtyard buildings that date back 700 years.

Old local residents used to have a saying: "There are 360 large Hutongs and as many small Hutongs as there are hairs on an ox."

Laid out in a chessboard pattern which was established as early as the Ming Dynasty, these Hutongs cross cut the city into tiny squares and were the smallest building block of construction planning in the grand architecture of the ancient city.

In those days the capital was divided into five parts, with a total of 33 districts, that were again divided into Hutongs.

This video contains shot's from some of the nicest spots in Beijing from all 4 seasons. It features The Summer Palace, The Forbidden City and few other choice attractions.

Beijing's old style roof tops never look nicer than under a full moon.

This is a few night shot's from The Summer Palace, The Forbidden City and few other top attractions.

This video starts of with few clips from cultural performances with special significance to the local area and then shows the modern parts of Beijing.