Financial district

Where flow the old canals and the new money...

The equivalent of London's Square Mile, Whitehall and Bloomsbury combined (though a lot less dynamic), Beijing's Financial District is the city's economic centre, and also contains several important ministries and a number of academic institutions. An increasing emphasis on the area's modernity doesn't really do justice to its history as the one-time home of princes, government officials, temples, and a network of imperial canals running to the Summer Palace. Wide avenues abound near Financial Street and the enormity of the buildings hammer home the sheer scale of 'New China' as it swallows up what used to be a vast network of hutongs. Financial Street itself is currently the subject of a massive 45 billion RMB overhaul, and is in the process of acquiring a high-end shopping mall, a cluster of premium hotels and a new bar street – all befitting a region where the total assets amount to more than 1,300 billion RMB.

The points of interest are not few, but they're certainly far between, so it's best to head here with a destination in mind. Running along the south is Fuxingmenwai Dajie – a continuation of Chang'an Avenue – home to a proliferation of government buildings and offices, as well as a number of museums and a Parkson department store. Further north are several parks, including one that is home to one of Beijing's 'four altars' – Yuetan, or the 'Temple of the Moon' and the tourist-friendly Xizhimen. It's here that you'll find the Beijing Zoo , Wanshousi temple and the Planetarium .

Getting there

Fuxingmen, Fuchengmen, Xizhimen and the Military Museum all have metro stops that will drop you relatively near the action. However, expect to do some walking and take a map with you. By 2008, a metro line going directly to the zoo will also be completed.

Fuxingmen

This major road leading to west Beijing from the centre is flanked by dozens of immense buildings, from the 2,800-square-metre (30,000-square-foot) Cultural Palace of the Nationalities and the sweeping crescent-shaped HQ of the People's Bank of China at the eastern end, to the grand, Soviet-style Ministry of Radio, Film and TV and the Capital Museum at the west. A huge neon rainbow frames the road where it meets Fuxingmen Beidajie (there's another at Jianguomen) which is supposed to represent not only a gate, but 'China's bright future' after it was erected for National Day in 1997, the year Hong Kong returned to the motherland.

A block east of Fuxingmen North Road runs Financial Street (in Chinese, Jinrong Jie). During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it was the site of several yinhang (banks) and jinfang (gold shops) and was where rich businessmen and royal families kept their money. During the first year of the People's Republic, the Bank of the Qing Dynasty became the Bank of China, and from then on others began to follow. Now, with a distinctly slick feel, several major companies line the road, including China Mobile, China Power Investment Corp and, of course, the Bank of China.

Where a Chinese courtyard home once stood, a park with several small traditional buildings and rock pools has been reconstructed, perfect for a summer lunch break in 'the City'. South-east of where Financial Street meets Fuxingmen, buried in a maze of hutongs and currently being renovated, is the former residence of Li Dazhao, one of the founders of the Communist Party who lived here in the early 1920s.

Further south-west is the Central Conservatory of Music (once upon a time Prince Chun's Mansion, the seventh son of Emperor Daoguang) and returning to and continuing west along Fuxingmen Wai Dajie is the recently reconstructed Capital Museum. Also on Fuxingmenwai Dajie, just past the Ministry of Communications building, is the Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution and a five-minute walk away, the Milennium Monument. Here government officials rang in the year 2000. This odd-looking structure also houses the Beijing World Art Museum which has exhibited Leonardo, Titian and other Old Masters. To the west of the monument lies the CCTV centre – China's state-run television service – soon to move to a state-of-the-art Rem Koolhaas-designed building in Chaoyang's CBD area.

Just north of the CCTV building is the popular Yuyuantan Park and a mile or so to the east, Yuetan Park, the 'Altar of the Moon'. The park remains off limits to the public until restoration work is completed, a lengthier process than it needs to be because of the huge television tower plonked right in the middle. It's believed the unsightly structure will be removed in the next five years.

Fuchengmen

Fuchengmen, the next major road north of Fuxingmen, was once one of the nine city gates built during the Ming Dynasty. Coal from the western suburbs was transported by camel through the gate during the winter and it was also here that troops allowed insurgents led by Li Zicheng to pass through in 1644 – the subsequent invasion of the Forbidden City leading to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

Now what you'll find in the same spot is a perpetually busy overpass (where Fuchengmen meets the Second Ring Road) and just west of here, where Fuchengmen meets Nanlishi Lu, a similarly manic pedestrian footbridge crossed by hundreds of people every second, with fake DVDs being flogged left, right and centre. Head east, however, and a network of hutongs remain, housing several unassuming but beautiful temples and the Lu Xun Museum. Best accessed from the main road rather than via the complex alleys, this peaceful quadrangle was the residence of China's best-loved modern author and now houses several thousand items.

Standing at the gate of the museum and glancing to the right, it's possible to see the top of the White Dagoba Temple, sticking up like a giant ice cream above the grey rooftops. Head back to the main road where you'll find the main entrance. Inside there's a handful of low-slung, traditional buildings containing a fine collection of Buddhist statues and texts that seem out of place in their current setting.

Back on Fuchengmennei Dajie, on the same side of the road and marked by an ornate gateway and sturdy surrounding red stone wall, is the Temple of Emperors of Successive Dynasties in China. This is one of only three imperial temples in the city, built in 1530 for the emperors to worship the gods, powerful ancestors, past rulers and heroes. A further 10-minute walk east will drop you at the door of the Temple of Great Charity, a good place to dip into for half an hour, and opposite, the Geological Museum of China, not hard to spot thanks to the 5.5-metre (18-foot) dinosaur out front.

Xizhimen & the north

Branching off from the north-west Second Ring Road and out to the Third, Xizhimenwai Dajie is always buzzing. Most Chinese come here as tourists to visit the zoo, aquarium or planetarium, or to watch a musical concert or exhibition at the Beijing Exhibition Centre.

Western-style consumerism is in evidence: a Carrefour and a plethora of pizza, Japanese and Chinese snack restaurants line the main thoroughfare between the Exhibition Hall in the east and the Capital Gymnasium in the west; and two or three super-cheap wholesale clothing markets sit on the south side of the road, hidden behind the bus station. Countering the modernity, the canals that run north of the zoo are popular with local fisherman and were once the Empress's route to the Summer Palace.

Just south of Xizhimen proper, down Zhanlangyuan Lu and behind the French Church inside the Beijing Administrative College is the Jesuit cemetery. Matteo Ricci, the Italian missionary responsible for bringing Christianity and Western mathematics to China, is buried here along with 63 others.

Xizhimen was the 'West Gate' in the old Beijing city wall, through which passed those entrusted with bringing the sweet water from the Jade Mountain in the north to the Forbidden City. This was a daily ritual, as the emperor wouldn't sully his lips with water from any other source. The gate was demolished in 1969, however, and now the most recognisable feature in this area is the trio of finger-like arched office buildings above the train station.

Heading west from the station, the first major building you come across is the Beijing Exhibition Centre. Humourlessly Soviet in its design, the building's steeple is still emblazoned with the red star of socialism. A couple of hundred metres further west is the infamous Beijing Zoo. Still not up to Western standards by any means, today the zoo is notorious for the fact that Chinese tourists feed chips to the bears without being reprimanded and, apart from the giant pandas, most cages are still miserably small. For a less depressing experience it may be better to head to the back of the zoo where you'll find the more modern and well equipped Beijing Aquarium. Or alternatively, cross over the road to the recently spruced-up Beijing Planetarium.

Continue west along Xizhimenwai Dajie and, back on the same side of the road as the zoo, you'll come to the stately China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, which sits incongruously side by side with the Babyface West nightclub.

On the east side of Zhongguancun Nan Dajie, almost directly opposite the start of the Library building, is a small road which runs along the canal and leads to the Five Pagoda Temple . Once, when the area was surrounded by fields and not construction sites, the temple and its locale were frequented by picknicking locals. Now these are probably the oldest surviving structures in the area.

Back at the crossroads of Xizhimen Nan Dajie and Zhongguancun Nan Dajie, on the opposite side of the road you'll come across the east gate of the Purple Bamboo Park, also known as Zizhuyuan (winter 6am-8pm, summer 6am-9pm, free). A peaceful, landscaped park whose traditional arched stone bridges, boating lakes (a third of its area is water), rockeries and stands of bamboo – 50 different types – make it a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.

To the north-west of the park is the Temple of Longevity , reached by exiting the park's north gate and heading west along Wanshousi Lu until you see the canal again and the busy Third Ring Road. The temple, built in 1577, was originally used to house Buddhist scriptures written in Chinese, but is more famous for being the place where members of the imperial family (in particular Empress Dowager Cixi) would stop on their way to the Summer Palace. The temple also houses the modern Beijing Art Museum.

Sarah Keenlyside