The love of a good cup of java has brewed many a career change.
Beijing now has more than 8,000 coffee shops - eight times more than just a decade ago - thanks to the city's people developing a taste for quality brew.
International lingerie products are often less popular among Chinese women than local brands, industry insiders said.
While young women often put fashion ahead of comfort, their mothers and grandmothers rarely make such sacrifices, preferring economical but relaxing attire.
Changes in attitudes have boosted female curves in the city
China's top B2C (business-to-consumer) company 360buy.com plans to build the largest e-commerce distribution center in Asia by 2012, overtaking Amazon's facility in Tokyo.
Almost 80 percent of people in Beijing expressed their preference to rent rather than buy a house, given the high property price, according to a recent report by the Beijing Social Facts and Public Opinion Survey Center.
Beijingers can now buy wedding dresses sold on New York's Fifth Avenue at unbelievably low prices - on the sixth floor of Blue Island Tower in Chaoyang district in Beijing.
The grandchildren of the former chief of education in the Republic of China are fighting over about 1,000 pieces of jade and his collections of cultural relics at the city's higher court on Monday.
Thomas Trommler, director of a German consulting company, has been attending a monthly German club in the city since 2007. He has only missed the event twice, and both times he was on a business trip.
Fangjia Hutong, an ancient alley adjacent to the Lama Temple, is thriving as the city's next creative and cultural zone to challenge 798 Art Zone.
Beijing's disappearing hutongs hold the key to the rich history and culture of the capital