We wanted to call this the Lianghui period, but some of you out there may not be well-versed in that bit of Chinese. So we'll just call it the "congress weeks" as the action will be nowhere other than at the Great Hall of the People, where the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and their meetings will fill the airwaves all right.

Here's a couple of hints on still getting some mileage during these two weeks:

1. Stay inside the Jing — travel by car outside Beijing is discouraged. Just today, your Beijingologist, while on a random jaunt to "nearby Langfang", saw about a full kilometre of the G2 (Jinghu) Freeway (aka the Jingjintang Freeway) full of traffic — and that was for all incoming traffic, which had to be routed to a checkpoint. If you must, get out via country roads — or better still, take the train!

2. Stay away from Chang'an Avenue — it's probably better also a good idea to stay away from the southern stretch of Line 2 (as in the avenue that goes just south of Qianmen). Here's where you should be: Liangguang Avenue, Ping'an Avenue. Also: keep out from much of the 2nd Ring if you can. Try local branch roads instead. Cops will likely use less of these roads to let the whole slew of 3,000 delegates in and out of the Great Hall of the People.

3. Jump into the Subway! Line 1 will be in full service, so service will be uninterrupted and complete — we haven't heard news of any stations being shut down.

4. Walk or bike — gas mask if you must...

Congress Weeks for 2010 start tomorrow, March 3, and end on or around March 15.

Two By The Ways from your Beijingologist...

1. If you're going around in a car, it's safe to use the bus lanes when one or more lanes are being set free for congress vehicles to pass through.

2. For those who still remember Beijingology.com... we're taking it down in Q2 2010 and we'll be replacing it with more and more of Beijing A to B. The name Beijingology will remain, though! And yes, we know there's the odd malware alert or two. That's why it's going down for a quick remake -- it will return!