With more than 21.8 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city, as well as China's second-largest city by urban area, after Shanghai. We have decided that is no longer its problem.
Beijing, China
Ring Road Roulette
"Five Ring Roads, Zero Ways Out"
Official Coat of Arms
A shield divided into five concentric ring roads, quartered with a smog-dimmed sun and a single bicycle wedged eternally between two SUVs, surmounted by a crest depicting the Forbidden City's rooftops peeking above a haze bank, motto scroll beneath reading 'We Built It Bigger, Then Wider, Then Wider Again.'
TripAdvisor Review
★★★★☆ 4/5
"Spent three hours getting from the Forbidden City to my hotel near the Third Ring Road, which technically counts as sightseeing if you consider taxi windows a viewing medium. The Great Wall day trip was genuinely spectacular, ten out of ten, would climb crumbling ancient fortifications again. Air quality app on my phone gave the sky a personality rating I won't repeat in a family review. Hutong dinner was the best meal of my life so book that immediately and skip the mall food courts."— Gareth_StuckInTraffic, Cardiff
Property Listing
Charming hutong-adjacent courtyard residence offering unrivalled proximity to three thousand years of imperial history and roughly four hundred meters of perpetual traffic! Enjoy panoramic views of the Ring Road system, a soft-focus skyline on good-visibility days, and easy access to a subway so efficient you'll wonder why anyone drives at all (they all do anyway).
Twinned With
Los Angeles — Both cities have turned 'just a quick drive across town' into a multi-hour lifestyle choice.
Supporting Evidence
Beijing's subway network carries over 10 million riders on a typical day, making it one of the busiest metro systems on Earth, yet the Fifth Ring Road can still turn a 20-minute journey into a two-hour negotiation with fate.