Off the beaten path in bohemian Beijing

updated 5:00 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2007

BEIJING - If you're planning a trip to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, but you fear you may tire of Olympic fever and flag-waving throngs, don't despair. Consider checking out bohemian Beijing, from art, music and groovy boutiques to quiet temples.

Most of the capital city's guided tours are about awe and acquisition. Visitors are stunned into submission by the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, then quickly shuttled to buying sprees at the Pearl Market or Silk Street.

The humbling grandeur of those imperial masterpieces is offset by the giddy empowerment of buying quality knockoffs of brands like Gucci, Marc Jacobs and Tiffany for a fraction of the usual cost. Few can resist the temptation. It is usually followed by a belly-busting Peking duck feast.

But this kind of Beijing experience is not for everybody, and there are a wealth of unique, low-cost alternatives.

Cui Jian, a lifelong Beijinger and China's most famous rock star, says he never sends visitors to the Great Wall or Forbidden City.

"I am not really interested in all that Kingdom Culture, stuff that shows this was once the greatest kingdom city or something," said the veteran rocker who performed "Wild Horses" with the Rolling Stones last year in Shanghai. "The Great Wall? I think a lot of people died building that wall."

Cui recommends you instead soak up the atmosphere in the 798 art district in the city's eastern Dashanzi neighborhood. The 1950s-era factory zone has been transformed into a bohemian oasis with galleries, cafes, bookstores, outdoor sculptures, and graffiti splashed on old factory walls.

If you go Beijing travel tips Get a phone: Buy a SIM card at the airport for your mobile phone or buy a mobile phone and SIM card near your hotel. A Nokia with a China Mobile pay-as-you-go number and three hours of local talk time costs less than a duck dinner. Visitors frequently get lost and it's a nice lifeline. You can always call your hotel concierge for advice. Check the air: Cars, factories and construction choke Beijing with terrible smog. Check the State Environmental Protection Administration's Web site for daily air quality reports in English. If it's particularly bad, consider staying in the countryside or taking a day trip there. Pack common sense: Petty crimes like pickpocketing are on the rise in Beijing so stay alert. Also beware of scams such as the friendly "art students" who offer to take you to a nice tea house. They are in cahoots with the owner and want you to buy absurdly expensive tea. 798 Art District: Located in the Chaoyang district, between alleys No. 2 and 4 on Jiuxianqiao Lu, south of the Dashanzi flyover. At Cafe: Chaoyang district, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu. Phone: 011-86-10-6438-7264. Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall: Chongwen district, No. 20 E. Qianmen Ave. Phone: 011-86-10-6702-4559 or 6701-7074. Open 9 a.m.-4 p.m., closed Mondays. Baiyun Guan Daoist Temple: Haidian District, Baiyun Guan Lu, east of the intersection with Baiyun Lu, (first right north of Baiyun Qiao, directly across from Baiyun Guan bus stop). Phone: 011-86-10-6346-3531. Admission: $1.25. Open 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Oriental Taipan Massage & Spa: Chaoyang district, Lido Shop, 2F Block 9, Lido Place, 2A Fang Yuan Xi Road. Phone: 011-86-10-6437-6299. Shopping: Plastered 8: Dongcheng District, 61 Nanluoguxiang Hutong. Mobile phone: 011-86-139-102-05721. Jindian Consignment Shop (Jindian Xinqiao Xintuo Shanghang): Dongcheng District, Dongsi Bei Dajie, Bei Xin Qiao, No. 43. Phone: 011-86-10-8402-1939 (across street from post office). Open from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Nightlife: New Get Lucky Bar: On Nuren Jie bar street, inside Oriental Qicai World. Phone: 011-86-10-8448-3335. CD Cafe: Chaoyang District, 16 Nongzhanguanlu, Dongsanhuan (next to Great Wall Sheraton Hotel). Phone: 011-86-10-6506-8288. Nameless Highland: Chaoyang District, Section 1, Anhuili, Yayun Cun. Phone: 011-86-10-6489-1613.

Artist and fashion designer Feng Ling, a transplant from south China's Chengdu, has a studio in 798 and a house in the suburbs. She goes to Dashanzi's At Cafe for its good selection of red wine, Italian food and art.

She can't imagine leaving Beijing after 15 years here because "it has a great atmosphere for creating art and it's very international."

"You can meet people from all over the world here," Feng said.

Cui, the veteran rocker, calls 798 "the new center" of Beijing.

The Beijing of his childhood, best epitomized he says in actor-director Jiang Wen's 1994 film "In the Heat of the Sun" about coming of age in the 1970s, doesn't exist anymore.

That era's courtyards, ancient alleyways, tinkling bike bells and political chaos have made way for today's go-go economy with its designer high-rises, glitzy malls and relative social stability.

Historian and author Jonathan Spence says he still sees Beijing "through the eyes of the Manchu regime, which captured it from the peasant rebels in 1644 and recentered it as Imperial Capital."

He said 20th century efforts to win the city's center from the emperors and bureaucrats and deliver it to the common people gained traction but then sputtered amid the country's headlong pursuit of wealth.

"We are now seeing how the central planners have managed to wreck so much of the civilized residential spaces that the people had managed to carve out for themselves," Spence said.

Wu Jianxin, the owner of a Chinese tea shop in Boston and a private wine club in Beijing, grew up near Houhai, a once quiet, lazy lakeside neighborhood now overrun by loud bars and rental boats for tourists.

When he comes home these days, Wu likes to wander around the Baiyun Guan or White Cloud Taoist Temple. It has dynastic charm without the tourist crush and is a wonderful place to while away the afternoon. You can often stumble on ceremonies at the 800-year-old temple, which is staffed by Taoist monks and is also headquarters of the Chinese Taoist Association.

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Designer Lin Jing likes to stroll around Nanluoguxiang, a well-preserved stretch of backstreets in downtown Beijing along which bars, hostels and boutiques have mushroomed in the past few years but that still retains a neighborhood feel.

"It's a really nice area with that real old Beijing flavor and you can also find some very local restaurants there, pretty cheap ones," said Lin.

One groovy spot for shopping along Nanluoguxiang is Plastered 8, a T-shirt shop opened by a British expatriate that specializes in cheeky and iconic cotton shirts that make affordable and easily packable presents.

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