Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013 - (Page 32)

FA L L I N G I N L O V E W I T H … BEIJING FROM THE HALLS OF THE FORBIDDEN CITY TO BEWILDERINGLY BEAUTIFUL MARKETS, SUSAN CONLEY REVISITS THE RICHES OF THE CHINESE CAPITAL O 32 Once upon a time, there was a great Daoist philosopher named Zhuangzi who fell asleep by a river in the vast country that later named itself the People’s Republic. While he was sleeping, Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly. He flitted blissfully from leaf to leaf in the sweet dream. When he woke up, he didn’t know if he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly, or if he was a butterfly dreaming he was a man. But here’s the thing: He didn’t worry about the distinction. He was a Daoist, after all. Which means he subscribed to that most compelling of all Chinese precepts — to let the coursing river of life carry him wherever it would. When I go to Beijing, I try to be the butterfly. And I keep this notion of the Daoist river close in my mind. I walk in the vibrant city that hums with so much history and sheer industry, and then I walk some more, until the wide Communist boulevards and the gritty, ancient alleyways begin to reveal themselves to me. I try not to ever fight the current. And this is how the city has made such a claim on my heart. It’s a capital built in the most unlikely of places — just off the shoulder of the wind-scoured Gobi Desert — sweltering in the summer and bone-cold in the winter, but, oh, the in-between seasons! In the fall and spring, the sky can be big and high like a circus tent and so very blue, with white rafts of cumulus floating by. My husband and two young boys and I had the good fortune to live here during the spate of years before and after the 2008 Olympics, a period of time known as one long adrenalin rush for the city. So many neighborhoods were transformed then — up went W W W. R I T Z C A R LT O N . C O M http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President's Letter
Falling in Love With ... Beijing
Design
Technology
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Family
Local Knowledge
Outdoors
Puerto Rico
Montreal
Culinary
Let Us Stay With You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013