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Cover Story
All aboard
Beijing Subway's No 5 line is set to throw open its gleaming glass doors and welcome passengers into a high-tech realm of stainless steel. The city's first north-south underground line is the latest plank in a masterplan that will deliver Beijing the world's longest subway system. Line 5 is one of three new lines to open before the Olympics. By 2020, the city's metro network will stretch to 561 kilometers on 19 lines - longer than the London Underground.
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Movies
Love letters
A devoted postie roams mountain roads with his skinny horse, delivering mail for the village residents. It is a simple picture but one that constitutes paradise for director Yu Zhong. Based on the true story of Wang Shunyou -- granted the honorific title of one of 10 people who have moved China -- Yu's film A Postman of Paradise is a story that has audiences in tears. It is set in an exquisite mountain region of southwest China, where people still lead a minimal life based on traditional virtues that have been untouched for centuries.
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Movies
Beep beep
Luc Besson's commercial instinct continues in Taxi 4, three months after bringing Arthur and the Invisibles to a China audience. The Taxi franchise seems to be moving from its action movie roots towards the sort of comedy that is without much intellectual basis but is nonetheless guaranteed to get a cheap laugh. The first three Taxis grossed nearly $200 million worldwide.
Saving a sinking city
Now playing
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Dining
Kiwi bites
The Kiwi country hopes to create a new zeal for New Zealand foodstuffs among Chinese foodies and is now setting its sights on the capital. Since May 2006, the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) has been pushing the country's posh nosh and fine wine in Shanghai. Now, it's gearing up for its Beijing rollout as part of the NZ$19 million campaign to expand support for its food and beverage (F&B) export to China, its fourth largest trading partner, as well as in Japan and the United States.
Tuning into a new cereal
Food
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Dining
Shooting star of Spain
Beijing has had visiting Michelin Star chefs, but until now none has worked regularly in a restaurant here. That has changed with the arrival of celebrated Spanish chef Xavier Franco, taking the reigns at the new MareNostrum Restaurant (橄榄园). After five years of successful operation with Restaurant Sauc in Barcelona, Franco plans to show the Chinese - and food-savvy foreign expats - the secrets that saw him bestowed with a Michelin Star, among other distinctions.
Hopping mad
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Travel
Cranking it up
Amplitude meets altitude at the Second Snow Mountain Music Festival, which will hit the ancient town of Lijiang, in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, from October 4 to 6.
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Nightlife
Hutong hotspot
It's out with the old and in with the new along Yandaixiejie, where government efforts to spruce the street up have spelled the end for several establishments in range of the swing of Beijing's wrecking ball. While regulars of Houhai's hinterlands are grieving the destruction of longtime favorites such as Guangfuguang Forcing House (also known as Tao), it seems Beijing rarely closes a door - or a great bar - without opening a window - or another great bar.
Nightlife
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Listings
Double trouble
Starlive, the spiritual home of Beijing rock, keeps revelers happy this holiday season with two mini festivals over three nights.
Yeah, why not
Art
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Listings
Hot gossip
Women may be known for filling their idle hours with all sorts of gossip, but it has been Chinese men who grab the glory for having the gift of the gab onstage. Taiwan director Stan Lai's new play, Total Woman, gives the ladies a chance to shine as stars of the crosstalk genre.
Alessandro's color play
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Community
Reaping a holiday harvest
Beijing's best season is set to make its grand entrance. The stifling temperatures are making way for crisp air. Autumn, with its festivals, is the time when farmers give thanks for the year's harvest, and when the countryside is at its most colorful. To see the season's beauty for yourself, here are the pick of spots for a change from inner-city sight-seeing.
Oodles of noodles
Pooch paradise
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Out & About
Painting the town Red
BJW's pick of traditional ways to mark the important occasion of China's National Day in the capital, as well as some favorite places to enjoy your holiday.
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Shopping
SO hip
SOHO Shangdu - the newest in the family - makes a break from the high-end obsession of many of the city's big new malls. Instead, SOHO Shangdu is home to more than 100 small shops and studios, where customers can find one-off pieces and unique designs, and indulge in the joy of bargaining. The center is spread over more than 560,000 square meters in the CBD area.
Whiter shade of pale
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People
Twice as nice
The weeping willow bends over the banks of the lake, meeting the water lily that floats in the center. Two-year-old twins, Willow and Lilly (above), were named for this poetic image, symbolizing their own special bond. The Chinese-American twins' mother, Tang Ling, said her husband's grandfather and great-grandmother were also twins.
Rocking on Beyond the Beatles
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Cover
Animal capers
A Macao gaming tycoon paid an extraordinary $8.84m to stop the auction of a bronze horse head that was looted from Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace) by British and French troops in 1860. The sale last week set a record in the trade of Chinese sculptures from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and will see the national treasure returned to the motherland after a show at Macao.
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