Beijing is the capital of China, it is more than a economical center compared with Shanghai, but also a political center.
I was born in Beijing and had lived there for almost twenty years. In my mind, the characteristics of Beijing can be included into three words: traditional, modern, more sensitive to politics.

Beijing is an old city. It became to be the capital since Yuan. So if you go to Beijing, you can see a lot of different styles of buildings. Most of the old buildings were built in Qing. To remember and carry on the traditional style, some modern buildings now are with some of the old style, most common way is with a Qing style’s roof. Even including Tiananmen, which is also similar with the Qing’s building style.
Behind the Tiananmen, it is the Forbidden City, which used to be the home of kings. From Yuan to Ming to Qing, all the kings lived and worked there. The Forbidden City is so huge. It included a lot of different palaces for different use; the most famous one is called QIAN QING GONG, which was, like the white house today in America, a place to decide all the big events happened in the country. In that time, every morning ambassadors must come to report all the big events happened in the country to the king and discuss how to deal with them. And it was also home of king, because they had to deal with so many things everyday, he always worked until midnight and woke up when the sun rising. So most of his time, he slept at QIAN QING GONG.
And then, KUN NING GONG, which was the home for queen. In the past, queen and king were not always lived together, only when the king wanted to meet his wife, they could meet. CI NING GONG was built for king’s mom, in the past, people were very respected to their parents. So no matter how busy the king was, he had to go to CI NING GONG every morning to wish good health and happy mood to his mother. And there were also hundreds of buildings, some of them were for the king’s mistress, some were for slaves, some were for ambassadors. If you wonder to know the building of the king’s father, I am afraid you might be disappointed. In that time, only when the old king died, their son can heritage his father’s crown. So there was no place for the father.