Beijing is one of the most dynamic places in the world. The capital of this vast country undergoes weekly change. Buildings get torn down one day, new structures materialize the next. The rich, the powerful and the poor mingle daily in an endless ebb and tide of progress. This is a tireless city with dreams higher than the heavens, burdens heavier than the greatest mountains, and a will to drive it forward. Having been here less than a year I have witnessed Beijing's dynamism, its multi-colored history and its hope for a beautiful future.

北京是世界上最活跃的城市之一。每个星期在北京都能看到很多变化，这一周一个老建筑拆毁了，下周，又一栋新楼崛起了。在这里，同时居住在同一个城市的人们，有着天南地北的差距，富有的，权威的，贫穷的，每天各自围绕着这个城市忙碌着。这个不知疲倦的城市带着全国人民的期待，这个期望高于天，重于山，似有着一股力量在推动着它往前。我在中国还没住满一年，已经看到了不少的变化。这个城市的活跃，人民，多姿多彩的历史还有它们未来的美梦。

That's Beijing magazine made a very insightful timeline of the city in 2006. I respectfully quote it here so that those who've missed it, or live elsewhere, can share in the experience of what Beijing has been through in just one year...

That's Beijing 杂志做了一个很有意义的2006年时间标。我在这里引用他们的2006年时间表，让我们国外的朋友也可以一起跟我们经验一下2006在北京。 

Due to the busy schedule of being a Tsinghua student, no Chinese translation for the following timeline has been created. We welcome any assistance in this area. 2006年的时间表没有中文版，若有兴趣帮助请跟我们联系。

January

• Adult diaper sales at an all time high in anticipation of the long train rides back home during Spring Festival.
• Beijing's own FM3 and their Buddha Machine was rated as one of the top releases of 2005 by the New York Times.
• Tujia pizza - an oily baked flatbread topped with seasoned meat - made its way to Beijing from the Tu minority people in Hubei and became the latest food craze in Beijing and throughout China.
• Zhongyu building, the ghost building on the corner of Gongti Beilu and Sanlitun, began construction after a five year hiatus.

February

• February 12 marked the end of the downtown fireworks ban - after the 12 (partially) pyromania-free years. Beijing News reported 838 people injured, 51 seriously hurt and 384 firework-related accidents.
• Ang Lee won an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, a gay cowboy romance that was not shown in China.

March

• The Department of State Affairs announced that all KTV parlors, gaming centers and Internet bars will have to shut down by 2am.
• The infamous The Steamed Bun Murder Case, a spoof of Chen Kaige's The Promise, gathers team for a whole year of ego mockeries.

April

• "Eighty-eight illegal bars to be torn down in Shichahai," announced Beijing headlines. A city inspection of the Houhai area found 92 locations that violated building regulations. Thus far, no significant chai'ing has happened in Houhai.
• Bus and subway riders sighed with relief at the new swipe card system preventing commuter bottlenecks at the ticketing window.

May

• An over-saturated market, quality control problems, and consumer apathy conspired to force 500 outlets of the tujia pizza stands to close up in Beijing alone.
• All yi kuai er (1.20 yuan) taxis taken off the streets.
• The world's largest and Asia's largest Ikea opens in Beijing.
• Festivals galore with the DIAF, Midi, Beijing Modern and the CIGE gallery expo all taking place.
• Two veteran avant-garde artists, Huang Rui and Ai Weiwei, both have their first-ever solo exhibitions on the Chinese mainland.
• Lien Chan is the first chairman of the Kuomingtang (KMT) to set food on the mainland since 1949.
• The Da Vinci Code screened in Beijing, two days ahead of its world release and hours before it opened this year's Cannes film festival.
  

June

• Prints of the Da Vinci Code were pulled from cinemas across China. China Film Group asked that the film be pulled "in order to protect the market for locally-made films and give them more screen time" according to Chinese industry sources.
• Beijing, driest major city in the world, suffers its worst drought in 50 years.
• Beijing moved up five positions to take the 14th place in a list of the world's most expensive cities. The survey, conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, covered living costs in 144 cities worldwide, making Beijing the Chinese mainland's most expensive city to live in.
• Stephen Hawking visits Beijing.
• Chinese headlines announce that Beijing is not a desirable place to live in, a claim based on the results of a study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which surveyed 7,000 residents and took account of transportation, environment and health.
• The demise of the Sanlitun beer mug - R.I.P.

July

• The 100-day anti-piracy campaign begins and lasts from the middle of July to the end of October. Over 58 million publications were seized in three months.
• China Daily reports that Beijing meteorologists are using aircraft, rockets, artillery shells, meteorological balloons, and mountaintop-based devices to scatter silver iodide particles into gathering clouds to induce precipitation in the form of rain or snow over the city.
• Naughty By Nature schedule a comeback at Summer Jam then send a message via video link to apologize for their no-show.
• The railway line from Lhasa to Golmud in Qinghai province began service on July 1.
  

August

• Eighty-seven Beijingers fell ill after eating Amazonian snails with eelworms, parasites that affect the brain and spinal cord.
• Olympic mascots, the five Friendlies, are joined by a new friend Lele, the mascot for the Paralympics.
  

September

• Bass maestro Victor Wooten was scheduled to perform at the spanking new The Star Live but was caught in a visa fiasco. The show never happenend.
• Twodays of beautiful weather, watching the likes of Placebo, Supergrass, Sebastian Bach and more at Chaoyang Park, made the Beijing Pop Festival the music highlight of fall.
• According to the Beijing Times, Beijing regressed from fourth in 2005 to 14th in 2006 in rankings for quality of life in Chinese cities.
  

October

• Beijing Music Festival, the Song Zhuang Arts Festival, the NO+CH Festival, Sounds like Suomi, The World Battle of the Bands, Dadao Live Art Festival, and Beijing Rock and Beer Fest all hit Beijing.
• Cui Jian's performance at the Song Zhuang Arts Festival was the hype of the National Day holiday, but in the end, the show was denied a permit.
• Sasha hits Club Fusion... almost. Hundreds turned up to a no-show. The gig was later rescheduled.
• The 2008 Olympic mascots are renamed Fuwa. Initially they were called Friendlies but with the alternate pronunciations it was deemed inauspicious.

November

• Authorities implement a one-dog policy for each household in nine zones. Only pet dogs up to 35 cm tall are permitted. Dangerous dogs and large dogs are banned.
• The China-Africa Cooperation Forum: Development, cooperation, support, harmony... and no traffic for a week.
  

December

• Beijing's pollution index reached "hazardous" levels, according to the Beijing Environmental Protection Monitoring Center.
  

Timeline from: That's Beijing Magazine January 2007

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