Taking a stroll in Beijing can be hard work. The main boulevard, Chang'an Dajie, is a soulless and windswept thoroughfare, and the rest of town seems to be a huge construction site choking on dust and car fumes. These strolls will show you a gentler Beijing, where octogenarians push cane shopping carts through even more ancient tree-linedhutong, where young lovers clasp hands nervously as they gaze across the Back Lakes, and where pot-bellied cab drivers quaff beer while enjoying boisterous games of poker or chess in the middle of the sidewalk.
You'll need your wits about you. No one in Beijing seems capable of walking in a straight line. Pedestrian crossings are decorative, and newly installed crossings with traffic lights are often ignored by motorists. The car, particularly the four-wheel-drive, dominates both the road and the sidewalk. Cars are the main source of the air pollution that blankets the capital. Beijing already boasts the highest rate of car ownership in China, and more than a thousand new cars hit the road every day; a suicidal path, akin to turning New York into Los Angeles.
Renting or purchasing a bike moves you one rung up the traffic food chain and is a less tiring way to get around. Youth hostels rent out bikes for around ¥30 ($4) per day, bike parking stations next to metro stops are cheaper yet (¥10/$1.25 per day), but you'll need a native speaker to assist you. You can purchase a second-hand bike from a street-side repair stall for less than ¥100 ($12); new bikes start from ¥140 ($17). Bike traffic is orderly, and unlike Guangzhou and Shanghai, the capital has yet to block off large numbers of streets to cyclists. Whether you walk or ride a bike, avoid sudden changes of direction, and go with the substantial flow around you.