The road less traveled

By Chitralekha Basu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-29 09:54

The brides are everywhere. If you are in Beijing for a weekend and want to see the two most-favored tourist sites - the Olympic Sports Complex and Forbidden City - you may well run into young models hitching up their satin bridal gowns and running down Gulouwai Dajie for a photo shoot. You may even find a real bride and groom in front of a restaurant on Di'anmen Dajie, releasing balloons in the air.

Hit the road if you don't want to miss these unexpected delights along the way. The distance is not as daunting as it might appear. From the south gate of the Olympic Forest Park to Forbidden City, the north-south axis cutting Beijing vertically down the middle is just about 11 km. But a hop across the bridge on the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) canal in Gulouwai Dajie, straddles at least seven centuries. The hutong-dominated area south of the canal, running like a watery ring around the old city, began evolving in the mid-1300s, while the Olympic Sports Complex neatly laid out around a 4.5-km stretch in the north of the axis is chronologically and temperamentally 21st century.

Start at the southern tip of the Olympic Forest Park, off the last subway station on Line 8. The greenery, lakes and the knoll, offering a stupendous view, look extremely inviting in pouring rain. But the park is 12.15 sq km, so it makes sense to take a rain check. Once you have stepped into the Olympic Sports Complex, walk between the indoor playing areas on either side, dotted with life-size sculptures on horseback, a level lower than the ground. Ferris wheels of the temporary Beijing carnival theme park appear on the left horizon.

Walk past the media tower, and the National Indoor Stadium, as the strains of 'One World, One Dream' waft in, riding the cool breeze. While the futuristic Bird's Nest stadium and the cool blue Water Cube with a beehive finish, strategically placed on either side of the north-south axis, are the obvious attractions around here, stop by to admire the quaint sculptures, marked by a happy rotundity, dotting the space in between. On your right, about a 100 m away, stands the anachronistic Goddess Beiding Temple, a typical, red-walled Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) structure, with blue tiled roof. Giant LCD screens flash images at you from the walls of the 66-floor Pangu 7-Star Hotel, a monstrously huge property whose top floors are designed to look like a dragon's head.

The sprawling concrete sheath beneath your feet rolls on. At the crossing of Beichen Lu and Minzuyuan Lu a quasi-Mexican totem pole appears on the right, like an aberration. Roller-skaters and people maneuvering kites the shape of a giant squid or bird, grow scarce. The road leads to a huge circular raised platform, flanked by two pillars in carmine red, a replication of the altar of solemn rites at the Temple of Heaven, a single round stone, wrapped by concentric layers of slabs, in multiples of nine.

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