Pack away those images of pods of revolutionary workers in buttoned-down Mao tunics performing t'ai chi in the city square; Beijing has embarked on a new-millennium roller-coaster ride, and it's taking everyone along for the ride. These days, the city's youth are more interested in MTV then Mao; rhetorical slogans from the Cultural Revolution have given way to herniated English splashed across designer-copy T-shirts; and expats, tourists, foreign investors are mixing it up with the bureaucrats.

The old hutongs and buildings are being demolished, new buildings are going up, small things are giving way to big things and big things are giving way to even bigger things. This fast-paced, two-minute-noodles lifestyle doesn't please everyone - the old comrades are complaining about uppity youths and loss of values - but the capital of the People's Republic of China doesn't look like it's slowing down any time soon.