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Essential Travel: Beijing

East of the Gobi desert, to the north of the Middle Kingdom, lies Beijing. For over 700 years the heart - often capital - of the most crowded country on earth, Beijing is China's political powerhouse, its cultural core. It is also the perfect place to see the People's Republic of China's metamorphosis.

This is a city on the turn. A short walk will take you from the ancient splendour of the Emperors' Forbidden City to the futuristic, 2008-Olympics-inspired 'Egg' (the National Theatre for the Performing Arts). Wherever you look you will see signs that Beijing has been practically hurled into the 21st century. And, as always in China, the scale is huge - whether you're standing in Norman Foster's international terminal - allegedly the biggest airport terminal in the world - in Tiananmen Square - definitely the largest square in the world - or the Great Wall... which knows no rivals.

In recent years there has been a rush of international brands eager to make their mark on the city - a manic mushrooming of hotels and shops and restaurants and spas. But back on street level, Beijing is as it must always have been - hectic and dirty, by turns beautiful and bewildering, but always fascinating, - and most of all exciting, because you can see where Beijing has been, and where it's going, too.