When the composer Zhou Long was a child, he lived in a traditional courtyard home at the foot of Beijing's bell and drum towers. Twisting the wooden handle of a small rattle-drum as he played with his sister on winter afternoons, he beat a whirring rhythm and wondered what the towers might have sounded like when they still told the time.
The term was coined with words from the English language to describe a bout of persistent dry cough or throat tickle because of Beijing's poor air quality.
A political adviser is suggesting an electronic license plate system for vehicles to help relieve Beijing's traffic problems.
Beijing will maintain its license plate lottery scheme next year, as well as cap the number of registered cars at 240,000, a local official said Thursday.
More children in Beijing will reach school age next year, creating a shortage of primary school teachers in the capital, according to the Beijing News.
Police have fined 13,400 people found jaywalking or riding bikes through red lights in Beijing since Dec 20, the Beijing Daily reported on Wednesday.
Beijing's tourism authority said the city earned more than 360 billion yuan ($57.9 billion) from tourism business in 2012, the Beijing Times reported on Wednesday.
Beijing will speed up the development of 4G networks and expand the service range of wireless networks, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology (BMCEIT).
Beijing set its GDP growth rate goal at 8 percent for 2013, according to the Government Work Report delivered by Acting Mayor Wang Anshun.
The capital will raise its automobile-emission standards on Feb 1, making them the strictest in the nation in a move that the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said is expected to reduce auto pollution by 40 percent.
Dozens of historians, scholars and government officials gathered in Beijing on Jan 20 to join the second Mindu Culture Forum.
Police are warning passengers about a new scam in which some illegal taxi drivers in Beijing's Sanyuanqiao area have tricked passengers and driven away with their belongings.