Never mind the bicycles, there is no shortage of cash in Beijing. Not given the existence of a hotel like the Opposite House, which opened in 2008 alongside a designer shopping mall touting Alexander McQueen, Versace and Miu Miu. There are art installations in the lobby, black truffles with scrambled egg on the breakfast menu and four people at the entrance whose sole job it is to open the enormous wooden double doors to the impressive six-storey glass building.

The hotel opened the same year as the Olympics, which hugely boosted the city’s profile. I was expecting a certain degree of culture shock on entering mainland China for the very first time but it looks like the infrastructure created to host the international community – and the eyes of the world – has lessened the impact. There are English signs throughout the city and plenty of familiar Western brands. The business districts could be located in any prosperous city, anywhere in the world, and cars on the three and four lane city highways are largely new and expensive.

The ‘real’ Beijing
But there is another side to Beijing, one that is very worth visiting. And yes, it’s partly the hundreds and hundreds of bicycles that stream like locusts through the flashy motor traffic, some motor-powered, most manual, many pulling trailers of agricultural produce or people.

There are small local shopping streets, too narrow for cars to drive through. And residential areas where accommodation is organised around tiny courtyards and ‘hutongs’, narrow streets and alleys. Some are now commercial enterprises so you can step behind the high walls for a look.

Cooking in China
One such enterprise is The Hutong Kitchen cookery school, where we take a morning cooking class – a great way to get a taste, literally, of the local culture. Guided by a local teacher, who speaks perfect English, we produce Beijing style noodles with soybean paste, pickled cabbage with mustard sauce and stir-fried tofu with lamb, like natives – well, close enough… and sit down to eat our efforts for lunch.

Eating out is a great pastime in Beijing – this city is clearly developing its restaurant culture to a very high level. And with more and more Westerners now visiting since the Beijing Olympics, it’s easy to see why.

So where should you eat in Beijing?
Restaurants to try include Najiaxiaoguan in the Haidian District, a traditional Chinese restaurant which is so busy that we turn up at 5.30pm on a Saturday just to secure a table – any later and queues start to snake out the door and down the street. The food is delicious and will be largely familiar to lovers of Chinese food in the UK, but there are so many more menu options and it all tastes just a tad more tasty, with a richness that is often lacking at home.

But the one destination to try if you’re a lover of Peking duck (Peking was the traditional name for Beijing in the English language) is the Jing Yaa Tang restaurant at The Opposite House hotel. It takes its duck very seriously – the chef fillets the meat at our table and I think I can safely say this is the best duck – Peking or otherwise – I have ever tasted. Such chefs are coveted treasures in hotels like this, only the best chefs have access to the top suppliers and hence offer the best menus.

The restaurant, like the hotel, is cutting-edge stylish and its below-ground location gives the space a cosy, cosseted feeling too. Prices belie the stylish décor, this is no London ‘Nobu’ – expect to spend £35 per person on evening dinner, including drinks. And you can look forward to such treats as poached chicken with crushed peanuts and seasame, wild bamboo consommé, steamed scallops, Sichuan beef, jasmine tea smoked baby back ribs and fried rice with shrimps and scallops, alongside your duck.

Staying at The Opposite House
Located in Sanlitun Road in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, the hotel is so cutting-edge stylish I immediately feel that I’ve cluttered it up, just by stepping inside. Installations in the lobby include hanging swathes of fabric that rustle mystically in the air above our heads and a spectacular glazed Christmas tree, one of the most modern takes on tradition I’ve ever seen.

Exploring the Chaoyang District
The area around the hotel is busy and buzzing; as well as the designer shopping mall there’s also a ‘normal’ – ie non designer – shopping centre showcasing high street brands, albeit high end, such as Levis, Benefit, Ugg and Uniqlo. It’s thronged all day, even at 9 o’clock at night on a Saturday when everybody seems to be out shopping. The Godiva café is also full, a double row of trees outside draped in hundreds of tiny white lights for Christmas. Nearby, the Yushow market on six floors has everything from silk table runners to Jade buddhas, mobile phones, Chinese tea sets, sweatshirts, kimnos, trainers, jewellery and massage spas.

Opposite the hotel, neon signs advertising everything from Carlsberg to pizza light up the long length of restaurants and bars. Karaoke drifts out from doorways, bars are filling up with stylish young Beijing revellers. It could be any city centre on a weekend night.

What to do in Beijing?
A visit to the Forbidden City is a must. For 500 years this vast site, housing palaces and temples, was the centre of Beijing’s royal ceremonial and political life. Located right in the centre of the city, the home of emperors from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty was permanently closed to the public, hence its name. The last emperor of China, Puvi, abdicated in 1912 when China became a republic, though he remained living in the ‘Inner Court’ while the ‘Outer Court’ was given over to public use. Dating from the early 15th century, the palace complex consists of 980 buildings and covers almost 8 million square feet – wear comfortable shoes!

With such a vast area to traverse, there’s plenty of empty space for quiet reflection even though there are hundreds of visitors on the site. All are tourists like us but for the most part Chinese, wandering around, cameras clicking. We see only a few Westerners during our entire time in Beijing – though we don’t feel like lone tourists as clearly so many people have travelled here from within China to do the exact same things we are doing.

Tian’anmen Square guards the entrance to the Forbidden City – and security here is much tighter than the huge ‘City’; we queue in long lines to have our bags thoroughly searched and bodies scanned. And it is impossible to step into that space without remembering the images that went around the world in 1989, when tanks were sent in to quiet the protests and establish martial law in the city, before hundreds – possibly thousands (reports vary) – of people were killed. Chairman Mao’s face sits high above on a poster, looking over us all, huge video screens around the square flash images of crowds, soldiers, everyday scenes – it all feels very big Brother-ish and slightly eerie, even in the bright winter sunshine.

Getting there and accommodation
Stay at The Opposite House from RMB 2,300 per night in a Studio 45 room, excluding 15% service charge. Add a breakfast package at the hotel’s Village Café for RMB 180. Visit www.theoppositehouse.com for more information.

Fares with Cathay Pacific from London Heathrow to Beijing start from £599 in economy, £1179 in premium economy and from £2499 in business class. For more information or to book visit www.cathaypacific.co.uk

Have you thought about?

Travelling to Chile: your complete bucket list

Finding adventure on the edge of Victoria Falls: go to Zambia