Beijing: capital admin, universities and embassies

Beijing is where the paperwork lives. Embassies, ministries, the densest cluster of scholarship-funded university places in the country — and correspondingly the strictest enforcement of the residence rules.

The embassy belt

Most embassies sit in the Chaoyang district diplomatic areas around Sanlitun and Liangmaqiao, and the neighbourhoods around them are the most internationally supplied part of the city — which is exactly why the old site's "where to eat near the embassies" article still gets read. Specific restaurants come and go too fast to list honestly, but the pattern holds: African, Middle Eastern and South Asian food concentrates near the missions of those countries. If you have consular business, check your own embassy's current appointment system directly; third-party pages, including this one, go stale.

Universities and scholarships

Beijing has the thickest concentration of programs that take CSC and provincial-scholarship students, plus the language universities that most newcomers pass through for a year of Chinese first. Application timing is the thing people get wrong — the cycle starts far earlier than feels reasonable. The study in China guide has the calendar, the documents and the JW forms; the IELTS section covers the English requirement where a program sets one.

Registration is stricter here

Everywhere in China you must register your address with the local police station, and a hotel does it for you automatically. In a private apartment you do it yourself, you do it within 24 hours of arriving, and in Beijing it is actually enforced — you will be asked for the registration slip when you apply for or renew a residence permit, and not having it is a genuine problem rather than a formality. Take your passport, your lease and your landlord's ID and property documents. Do it again every time you move, and after every re-entry into the country.

Living here

It is the most expensive city in this list and the one with the longest commutes; the metro is excellent and you will still spend an hour each way. Winter air quality is much improved on the 2013-era headlines but still varies, and the winters are properly cold and dry. The compensation is that everything administrative, academic and diplomatic can be done in one city. General setup — banking, phone, payments, the medical check — is in living in China.

Other cities

The city overview covers how to choose between them, and the cross-cutting guides — living in China, working in China, wholesale markets — apply everywhere.