Wudaokou

Wudaokou — literally 'five crossings road' — sits at the heart of Beijing's university belt, where Peking University, Tsinghua University, the Beijing Language and Culture University, and more than a dozen other institutions form one of the densest concentrations of higher education in Asia. The district functions as a university town within the city: cheap, lively, slightly chaotic, and operating on student rather than corporate hours.

The Korean presence is the most immediately visible international element. Beijing has a substantial Korean diaspora, and Wudaokou is its residential centre. Korean signs appear alongside Chinese ones on the main commercial streets, Korean supermarkets stock ingredients unavailable elsewhere in Beijing, and the cluster of Korean barbecue restaurants along Chengfu Road is the reference point for this cuisine in the city.

Peking University's campus, a short walk west, occupies the grounds of a former imperial garden and is worth a visit if access can be arranged. The Weiming (Unnamed) Lake at its centre is ringed by classical Chinese garden architecture; the campus atmosphere is notably calmer than the surrounding streets. Tsinghua, northeast of Wudaokou, has a similarly landscaped campus with 20th-century Western-influenced buildings alongside traditional Chinese architecture.

The Yuanmingyuan — the Old Summer Palace, largely destroyed by Anglo-French forces in 1860 — is a twenty-minute walk or short cycle from Wudaokou. The ruins are left in their broken state as a deliberate reminder of that history, with interpretation panels explaining the context. The intact landscape sections of the park, which survived the destruction, are pleasant to walk.