China’s imperial capital and boardroom to the world is increasingly sharing its fun side. With a global Top 3 Nightlife ranking, the city keeps investing in refreshed promenades along the Liangma River and new speakeasies threaded through Dongcheng’s hutongs. The scene stretches from Sanlitun rooftops to late-set “live houses” in 798. Meanwhile, the worship of retail (and the city’s Top 5 ranking in our Shopping subcategory) remains as devout as ever, led by SKP and avant-garde sibling SKP-S, while Taikoo Li Sanlitun’s newest flagships and upgraded public spaces are pulling footfall east from Wangfujing, where expanded duty-free draws international spend. All that discretionary income is due to the city’s #6 ranking in our Large Companies subcategory, with the city still hosting the world’s largest concentration of Fortune Global 500 headquarters. The past year has brought fresh commitments in Zhongguancun and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area – cloud campuses, EV supply-chain R&D and new data-center capacity – keeping the deal flow brisk. Daxing International (ranked #7) continues to add long-haul capacity, and in the city’s east, the Grand Canal cultural district is coalescing, with Tongzhou’s canal and parks framing Snøhetta’s new gingko-forest-inspired Beijing Sub-Center Library.