A Day In Beijing with Chen

Eighteen episodes in, and there's only one way to end this season, with the lanes where Beijing actually lives. Hutongs have been the DNA of this city for over 800 years. Not museums. Not tourist stops. But homes. In this episode: where the word comes from, what hutongs are, what they're connecting in between, and how Beijing went from 6,000 hutongs to a few hundred. This is also where I s...

Tell a Beijinger which district you live in and they already think they know everything about you. A Day In Beijing is an English-language Beijing podcast inspired by the history, innovations, and people of Beijing; created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger. It exists not only as your virtual travel guide, your dictionary to China, but also to challenge and break the colonial narratives th...

This is part 2 of our mini-series on Imperial Beijing City Planning. Beijing's inner city had nine gates, and not one of them was just a door. One was for grain. One was for executions. One was for the emperor's personal drinking water. And one was for manure. This episode breaks down the system that made old Beijing run, gate by gate. A Day In Beijing is an English-language Beijing podcas...

"Peking" isn't a Western mispronunciation. It's actually closer to how people used to say 北京 four hundred years ago. The sound changed. The spelling didn't. The New York Times didn't switch to "Beijing" until 1986. And Peking duck, Peking University, Pekingese; the old name is still everywhere. This episode starts with a name, goes back 3,000 years, and ends w...

A 1,000-year-old mosque that looks like a Chinese temple but faces Mecca. A 1,400-year-old Buddhist temple built as a war memorial for soldiers killed in the battles. Two blocks apart in the same Beijing neighbourhood. Both survived the Second World War and the Cultural Revolution. This is the story of religion and ethnicity in Beijing, told through two buildings that have been neighbours for over...

A Day In Beijing is an English-language Beijing podcast inspired by the history, innovations, and people of Beijing, created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger. It exists not only as your virtual travel guide, your dictionary to China, but also to challenge and break the colonial narratives that have been shaping Beijing and China. Twelve episodes of imperial Beijing. And now let's pivo...

Ask a Beijinger what comes after the Forbidden City; most of us will probably say Beihai. This park is over 1,000 years old; five dynasties built it, one on top of the other. Kublai Khan lived here. Marco Polo wrote about it. And today, it's where grandmas go to dance at 7 AM. This week, let's take a wander around Beihai Park, a place where you breathe, decompress and travel back in time....

A Day In Beijing is an English-language Beijing podcast inspired by the history, innovations, and people and everything beyond Beijing. It's created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger. We exist not only as your virtual travel guide, your dictionary to China, but also to challenge and break the colonial narratives that have been shaping Beijing and China. There's a hill directly behi...

A Day In Beijing is an English podcast inspired by the history, innovations, and people of Beijing; created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger. We exist not only as your virtual travel guide, your dictionary to China, but also to challenge and break the colonial narratives that have been shaping Beijing and China. The Forbidden City caps tickets at 40,000 per day. No same-day sales. Booking...

A Day In Beijing is an English podcast inspired by the history of Beijing, the innovations from Beijing, and the people from Beijing — created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger. A Day In Beijing exists not only as your virtual travel guide, your dictionary to China, but also to challenge and break the colonial narratives that have been shaping Beijing and China. The Forbidden City was powe...

A Day In Beijing is an English-language Beijing podcast, created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger. Beijing history, Chinese culture, and travel, explained by someone who actually lives here. The Forbidden City was power. The Great Wall was defence. The Summer Palace was an escape. The Temple of Heaven is something different — the most powerful person on earth, fasting for three days, knee...

A Day In Beijing is an English podcast, created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger, living in Beijing. Exploring Chinese history, culture, traditions, creativity, innovations, and beyond. This is the episode to listen to while you're actually at the Summer Palace — or the next best thing if you're on your sofa! From East Gate to Seventeen-Arch Bridge, building by building, I walk yo...

A Day In Beijing is an English podcast, created and hosted by a born-and-raised Beijinger, living in Beijing. Exploring Chinese history, culture, traditions, creativity, innovations, and beyond. If you're planning a trip to Beijing, this episode gives you the full story before you visit. If you're not planning a trip, the story of Cixi and the Opium Wars is worth hearing from anywhere. ——...

A Day In Beijing is an English-language Beijing history, Chinese culture and travel podcast, hosted by a Beijinger. Like what you hear? Hit Follow and tap the bell 🔔 so you never miss an episode. New episodes every Wednesday. —— Who is this podcast for? 🌍 Travellers planning a trip to Beijing or China 📚 Anyone curious about Chinese history and culture 🎙️ People who want to hear about China from...

A Day In Beijing is an English-language Beijing history, Chinese culture and travel podcast, hosted by a Beijinger. Like what you hear? Hit Follow and tap the bell 🔔 so you never miss an episode. New episodes every Wednesday, Beijing time zone. —— Who is this podcast for? 🌍 Travellers planning a trip to Beijing or China 📚 Anyone curious about Chinese history and culture 🎙️ People who want to he...

What was daily life actually like inside the Forbidden City? This episode answers that — through four lives you won't forget. EP3 is the final part of our Forbidden City series, and it's the one where we go inside. Your walking companion from the south entrance to the north exit — or a virtual tour if you're nowhere near Beijing. We walk through the architecture. We follow the routes. But to bring...

Part 2 of the Forbidden City series — a deep dive into Beijing's history, Chinese culture, and the stories behind the architecture. Every colour, number, and rooftop creature in the Forbidden City was a deliberate choice. This episode decodes the architecture and how the building communicates power, class, and gender roles — for example, the concubine system. And one woman, Cixi, who entered the p...

A man stole the throne from his own nephew. And to prove he deserved it, he built the largest palace in human history. One million workers. Fourteen years. And a canal that carried an empire's resources halfway across China to one construction site. But to understand why, you need a bit of context first — and I promise I'll make it painless. So I start with the basics: what a dynasty actually is,...

I spent 10 years in London doing brand strategy. Won awards, led massive teams, made business director before 30 — but mostly was selling things I didn't believe in. Hit my mid-30s, came back to my beloved hometown with my husband. Beijing's independent businesses are disappearing. 3 million restaurants, cafés and bars closed across China last year. And the tourists who do come? They're stuck in a...

A Day In Beijing is an English podcast about Beijing, about China. Our history. Our culture. Our stories. Told in English — but told by us. I got tired of watching our 5,000 years of civilisation get reduced to 30-second TikToks by people who visited once. Got tired of AI-generated travel guides speaking for us. Got tired of the same lazy stereotypes being recycled as "China content." So I thought...