BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- "If you think you've seen Beijing, you haven't been here yet," Elizaveta, a Russian woman who has lived in China for seven years, wrote on her social media account.
The "here" she refers to is a rooftop terrace atop a commercial building on the site of the original Longfu Temple, a 15th-century Buddhist landmark. Now part of a vibrant cultural hub, the terrace offers one of Beijing's most compelling vantage points, where history and modernity meet beneath the skyline.
To the east, Beijing's glass-and-steel skyline rises against the horizon. To the west lies the older city, with the glazed roofs of the Palace Museum glistening, the forested slopes of Jingshan Hill stretching and the white pagoda of Beihai Park standing gracefully in the distance.
"For a moment," Elizaveta wrote, "I really feel like I'm standing at the edge of two eras."
The terrace reflects a broader citywide shift. Earlier this year, Beijing issued a plan for high-quality urban development, vowing to make better use of historic streets and industrial heritage, upgrade key commercial districts, and create new consumption scenarios. The initiative is part of a national drive to turn 1,500 old neighborhoods and industrial districts into new engines of consumption and culture by 2030.
Subject to building height limits, Beijing's central areas preserve a low skyline defined by iconic imperial red walls, yellow-tiled roofs and traditional alleys, where residents still live amid dense greenery. These open vistas offer visitors ample opportunities to appreciate the city's distinctive architectural heritage.
Amid urban renewal efforts, Beijing's Dongcheng district, home to many of the capital's most treasured historic sites and blocks of siheyuan, or quadrangle courtyards, launched in 2025 a "Breeze Terrace" initiative to turn idle rooftops into public gathering spaces.
Government, residents and merchants have worked together to bring in viewing decks, reading corners, dining spaces and craft workshops. According to planners, the idea is to let people see the city from a different angle without major demolition or construction.
Since its launch, the initiative has drawn more than 1 million visits. This summer, it added about 300 terraces across the district, linked by four themed routes covering Central Axis vistas, hutong discoveries, literary corners and night tours.
Chen Shiqi, an influencer who scouts shops and restaurants for his followers, called terraces "one of the surest ways to go viral" on Chinese social media. Comparing his own posts on Xiaohongshu, a popular Chinese lifestyle-sharing app, he found that using terrace photos as cover images consistently draws more readers.
Over the past year, about 30 to 40 percent of the spots Chen has reviewed have been rooftop venues. Sometimes when he doesn't name the location, followers message him privately to ask where it is.
Chen's observation points to a broader trend of the social media era. Visitors no longer simply experience a view. They photograph and share it, and rooftop terraces, with their sweeping backdrops and curated aesthetics, serve that purpose perfectly.
Yet all of this would be unthinkable without the blue skies above. Beijing's anti-pollution campaign, launched in 2013, has cut the annual average of PM2.5, the fine particles linked to respiratory disease, from 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 27 last year, a sharp drop of nearly 70 percent. "Beijing blue," once a novelty worth a social media post, has become the background of daily life.
In addition, Beijing's temperate climate and relatively low rainfall provide more clear-sky days for rooftop outings than many other major Chinese cities -- Shanghai included -- giving the city a natural edge for its growing terrace economy.
On a rooftop garden of the Jinbao Place shopping mall, visitors can join sunset yoga, pick herbs, attend moonlit cocktail parties, try on Hanfu, or even hold a wedding. The once-forgotten space has become a vibrant consumer destination.
"Rooftop terraces, as a key setting for urban renewal, hold great potential to nurture new consumption, improve public spaces and revitalize the old city's cultural heritage," said Xing Yan, deputy chief planner at the Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng urban planning and design institute.
The next step, Xing added, is to extend Beijing's urban renewal efforts across the ground level, building facades, and rooftops, unlocking greater value from the city's existing space.
The growing appeal of these rooftop spaces makes them a must-visit for Chen and his photography-obsessed friends.
"The only problem," Chen said with a laugh, "is that my friends are so obsessed with getting the perfect shot that they can easily spend an hour taking photos."
"Sometimes the food gets cold, and we have to ask the waiter to reheat it!" ■
