2008. Year of the Rat. Year of the Beijing Olympics. The year Chinese electronica broke. The year of Shanghai. The year they solved Beijing’s traffic problem. The year of breathing easy. The year of eco-friendly fuwa warrior vigilante justice. The year to cash in on Olympic tourists. The year it all comes together. The year of paradise. The year we all lost our mopeds. The year of squish. The year of the NCPA. The year of exploration. The year of www.cityweekend.com.cn. The year of blogs. The year of you.

"It is a race against time,” says Ella Li, City Weekend Shanghai’s most veteran editor, “and we must keep up.” She begins each new edition right after the previous magazine is finished. First, there is planning with colleagues, followed by sourcing information, making phone calls, arranging photo shoots, editing events online and helping her colleagues handle the heavy-lifting in Chinese: just another average work week. “This issue is quite special, though,” she says, “because it covers New Year's.” She is confident about the team she works with, and is looking forward to bigger and better things in 2008.

Researching China’s new National Center for the Performing Arts, or NCPA, for the National Edition, Beijing Editor Summer Liu made some amazing discoveries. “Can you believe the NCPA is three and a half times larger than the Shanghai Grand Theater?” Believe it or not, some lucky Beijingers landed the hard-to-get tickets for the long-anticipated NCPA grand opening concert on December 22, and for those who were left—literally—out in the cold, there is a long list of performances scheduled for the debut season featuring symphonies, soloists, ballets and operas. Check it all out inside.

"I guess every expat has a touch of the explorer about them, otherwise they'd wouldn't be experiencing the thrills and spills of life in China," says Beijing writer Daniel Allen, who interviewed four of China’s Indiana Joneses for the feature on The Explorers Club. Allen, who is not averse to the odd bit of exploration himself when City Weekend gives him the time off, agrees that exploration isn't just about traipsing off to the deepest, darkest Xinjiang in khaki shorts and knee-length white socks. "These guys show what modern day exploration in China is really about, and what's more, that it's possible in Beijing. Even if you're a complete workaholic (which I'm not), there's no excuse for not getting out there every weekend and uncovering cool stuff."

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