A police towing vehicle stands sentry at Tiananmen Square.

A set of new apartment blocks sprawling up - a common sight in Beijing.

Commuting in the subway in one of the new trains recently commissioned as part of infrastructure development for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The wall of the Forbidden Palace, Beijing.

The Great Hall of the People (人民大会堂; pinyin: Rénmín Dàhuìtáng) is located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square, Beijing, and is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. It functions as the People's Republic of China's parliament building.

The Great Hall was built in September 1959. It was one of the "Ten Great Constructions" completed for the 10th Anniversary of the People's Republic. It was built in 10 months by volunteers.

The Great Hall is the political hub of Beijing and home of the National People's Congress. Every year, in March, the Great Hall of the People plays host to the liang hui (literally means "two meetings") event, where both the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (SCPCC) and the National People's Congress (NPC) meet in sessions lasting for two to three weeks at the Great Auditorium. The Communist Party of China (CPC) also holds its National Congress every five years in the Great Hall of the People. This enormous building is open to the public when national conference is not in session, and visitors are shown in a selection of routes. In recent years, some non-political conventions and concerts have also been held in the Great Hall.

This particular photo was shot in July, 2008.

Tiananmen, entrance to the Forbidden Palace.

Some old "Hutongs" near Tiananmen.

The CCTV Headquarters is a skyscraper in the Beijing Central Business District. The building is the headquarters of China Central Television. Groundbreaking took place on September 22, 2004 and the building was completed in December 2008. Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren of OMA were the architects for the building, while Arup provided the complex engineering design. It stands at 234 metres (768 ft) tall and has 51 floors.

The main building is not a traditional tower, but a continuous loop of six horizontal and vertical sections covering 381,000 square metres (4.1 million square feet) of floor space, creating an irregular grid on the building’s facade with an open center. The construction of the building is considered to be a structural challenge, especially because it is in a seismic zone. Because of its radical shape, it has acquired the nickname dà kùchǎ (大裤衩), meaning "big shorts".

The building was built in two sections that were joined to complete the loop on December 26, 2007. In order not to lock in structural differentials this connection was planned to be completed at the coldest time of night when the steel in the two towers cooled to the same temperature. The CCTV building was part of a media park intended to form a landscape of public entertainment, outdoor filming areas, and production studios as an extension of the central green axis of the CBD.

This particular shot was taken in July 2008, around 3-4 months before completion.

A shot of a train taking off in Beijing's busy subway system.

Wángfǔjǐng (王府井), located in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, is one of the Chinese capital's most famous shopping streets. Much of the road is off-limits to cars and other motor vehicles, and it is not rare to see the entire street full of people. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty there have been commercial activities in this place. In the Qing Dynasty, eight aristocratic estates and princess residence were built here, soon after when a well full of sweet water was discovered, thereby giving the street its name "Wang Fu" (aristocratic residence), "Jing" (well). In 1903, Dong'an market was formed.

It starts from Wangfujing Nankou, where the Oriental Plaza and the Beijing Hotel are located. It then heads north, passing the Wangfujing Xinhua Bookstore, the Beijing Department Store as well as the Beijing Foreign Languages Bookstore before ending at the Sun Dong An Plaza.