The one who was literally amazed

If you can only go once in your life to China, go to Beijing.

It's a city displaying an incredible culture, with beautiful monuments and fantastic places. It is also a city preparing itself for the 2008 Olympics, setting up incredible stadiums (check the "sneak picture") and state-of-the-art infrastructure - thus displaying a big contrast between century-old monuments and brand new buildings. It is finally a city of an impressive variety, whith very poor areas, not far from the city center.

In a certain way, Beijing is fairly representative of what China is today: a country with a tremendous heritage, who's been through a terrible century, and who's trying to catch up as quickly as possible with western countries in order to go back to its former place. But it is also a place facing huge challenges (imbalance of revenue between the different social layers, environmental issues, etc.).

Worth the visit.