The world’s third most populous city is one of those places which are of course home to some of the most iconic historic sights on the planet, and now a heady mix of the old and the new China. Though compared to when I first visited back in 1993 swathes of Beijing (which to this day I often prefer to call by its traditional English name Peking) I found strikingly different on my most recent visit this year - awash in the cutting-edge bells and whistles of 21st-century consumerism (not to mention air often so foul that many people go around with face masks). But what continues to most impress is the millennia-old legacy of one of the world’s great civilizations. With a recorded history goes back to the 11th century (though evidence of humans’ prehistoric presence stretches back many millennia longer than that), China’s capital boasts so much to see and do that it’s impossible to cover it all in one brief post. But here are five highlights you simply cannot leave without seeing (if you try, you will be... keep reading