Beijing (literally meaning "North Capital") is a bizarre location for a city, let alone the capital of the biggest emerging economy and future superpower. It was not built on a river or by the sea (like a lot of towns and cities) and receives an incredibly small amount of rainfall in the winter and autumn, suffers from severe dust storms in the spring and is extremely hot in the summer. How is it that this place has risen to greatness, given that everything points towards it being not altogether ideal? The answer lies in Feng Shui, something that the Chinese take incredibly seriously.

Beijing is surrounded by mountains to the north, east and west and the Yongding River (or rather its plain) lies to the south (a very long way to the south). According to the principles of Feng Shui, this layout gives excellent protection from attack and the Great Wall (built along the mountains to the north) provides further security. Not that any of this worked, of course, with the Mongol, Japanese, British and French all successfully invading Beijing at some point in time but the idea remains a good one - why else would countless emperors choose Beijing as their residence?

Despite the frequent invasions in the past and the strange weather, Beijingers themselves are a proud bunch (rightly so given the rich history of their city). Most books will say they have a superiority complex over people from any other city in China (especially Shanghai), much like people say Londoners have a superiority complex over people from other cities in the UK. Being that Beijing is the political, social and cultural capital of China (Shanghai being the economic capital - even though the British handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, it still is not counted by the Chinese as being part of China) it really isn't surprising that the locals feel more self important. Their city has more history than most other cities in China (and, in fact, more than most others in the world), it contains such cultural delights as Tiananmen Square (the largest public square in any city in the world), the Forbidden City (containing over 9,000 rooms), the Summer Palace and, of course, is bordered to the north by the Great Wall of China. This city is where most of the emperors of China's great dynasties sat, where they attempted to create their own empires after destroying the previous one, where great leaders announced political and social reform and where the Olympic games will be held this summer. Maybe this sense of superiority shows itself in a rather odd foible that they really don't attempt to cover up, as though they believe it is their right to do it in public, whether locals, citizens from other Chinese cities or visitors from other lands are watching.

People in Beijing spit. A lot. Men, women, old or young there is no demographic that won't spray the sidewalk. Some of them sound like they're really trying to retrieve something from the deepest, darkest pits of their being. A low, guttural rumble will sound, growing more coarse as the substance to be expelled is located somewhere near the lowest reaches of the lungs. It is then possible to actually hear the now sizeable lump of expectorate clattering around the windpipe as it makes its way slowly but surely through the throat towards the mouth. A dull noise akin to a cork being pulled from a bottle of wine sounds as the now almost living entity gets fired from the mouth, smacking down upon the ground like a dead fish on a stagnant pond. Evidence of these little gifts can be seen everywhere in Beijing and the never ending sound of the Beijingers hacking up becomes part of daily life and even gets missed when not heard, much in the same way as a city dweller misses the sound of traffic when in the country. Ahead of the Olympics, the Government is trying to stop the locals from constantly re-paving the roads and sidewalks with their lung juice in an effort to make sure that the rest of the world doesn't think them disgusting. Take it from me, the Beijingers are not paying any attention to their leaders.

Possibly the most unfathomable thing about people here (at least to a westerner like me) is that none of them seem to want to have any fun. There are never any queues outside the local cinemas and there are no people playing games or sports in the parks. The gymnasiums are always empty, basketball courts hardly used and no one goes out in the evening unless it's for a meal and even then it's straight home as soon as the food is eaten. There is no bar or pub culture and all bars that exist are found in the expat districts and are generally foreign owned pubs and clubs whose clientele consists almost entirely of westerners. People don't even read stories on the train. If they do read, it is connected with work or study, a technical manual perhaps, never a new hardback novel or a battered, coffee stained old paperback. Most of the people sit almost grim faced in their seat waiting for the train to reach its destination. Hannah and I have spoken to a few locals about their weekend activities and it's always "stayed at home, did some work". Only the younger generation are beginning to look like they may want to enjoy life and even then it's only a minority of them.

The reason for this apparent lack of life enjoyment can be easily explained. People have not yet got to grips with the relative wealth they now possess. Beijingers are used to not having much and in a lot of cases of having virtually nothing. They are used to having to work in unbelievable conditions, for very little pay and for most of their waking life. All people used to do was work, eat and sleep. The traditional greeting in Mandarin used to be "are you full", referencing the fact that many people would not have enough to eat and it was considered lucky if you were able to eat until full, hence it becoming a warm greeting. Up until recently there was simply no time to have fun and certainly no money to be able to afford to (I don't mean that it costs money to have fun, but without the ability to pay for essentials, such as food, water, four walls and a roof, it is very difficult to enjoy life), people did what they had to simply to survive. Fun was a totally alien concept. Even those who find the time to have fun now seem to do so guiltily, as though they aren't really sure that they're allowed to be spending time not working. The Olympics will bring an influx of people from all over the world wanting to have fun and it'll be interesting to see how how much of that will be had by the Beijingers. And whether they'll be prompted to stop spitting.