Beijing is amongst the most developed cities in China with tertiary industry accounting for 73.2% of its GDP; it was the first post industrial city in mainland China.

Beijing opera, or Peking opera, is well-known throughout the nation. Commonly lauded as one of the highest achievements of Chinese culture, Beijing opera is performed through a combination of song, spoken dialogue, and codified action sequences, such as gestures, movement, fighting and acrobatics. Much of Beijing opera is carried out in an archaic stage dialect quite different from Modern Standard Chinese and from modern Beijing dialect. Friendly cityAt the end of 2008, Beijing had established sister-city ties with 43 cities from five continents at municipal levels. Since 2005, Beijing has established friendship relations with 16 cities around the globe. Exchanges are now conducted at the municipal, bureau, organizational and country levels. Eighteen countries in Beijing have formed friendship-country relations with 10 countries from 24 countries and have set up friendship relations with 82 countries or cities. International Exchanges In the 21^st century, Beijing assisted the central government I hosting at least 1,654 groups of distinguished guest, 1.5 times more than in the 1980s and ‘90s combined. Successes included Sixth World Cities Summit, many more international conferences and international sports events, the Beijing Summit and the Third Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the ninth FORTUNE Global Forum, the 29^th Olympic Games and the 13^th Paralympics and the Seventh Asian-Europe Summit. Beijing Municipality, in cooperation with its embassies and consulates abroad and the central government, organized activities to celebrate anniversaries of diplomatic significance and enhanced the international influence of Beijing and the nation. Foreign Languages Service Beijing has strongly backed the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Programme and implemented its Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Programme Plan (2003-2008).About 5.5 million residents of Beijing now speak a second, at least one foreign, language. Bilingual standards have been employed in nine aspects of public life: in transportation; at tourism sites, museums, commercial places; in cultural facilities, subways and in sports venues and environmental facilities. Foreign language expertise is playing a great role in enabling convenient and efficient foreign cultural and economic exchanges.