Departures 2002-09

RED CAPITAL RESIDENCE

This converted courtyard home couches Qing architecture and Communist memorabilia in boutique-hotel service. Owner Laurence Brahm, an American lawyer, hired craftsmen from the Forbidden City and Summer Palace renovations to preserve the structure, which sits behind red doors on a hutong. The five antiques-laden rooms face a sunny courtyard whose rock garden masks the entrance to a subterranean wine bar, which was originally built as a bomb shelter. Visitors watch Cultural Revolution-era operas while sipping house-brand Bordeax. Everything at the Red Capital Residence is Communist-themed, from the Concubine Suites (bordering Mao's Chrystanthemum Suite) to the "Italin Is Our Friend"caviar. You can tour Beijing by night in the hotel's Red Flag limousine, which used to belong to Mao's purged wife, Jiang Qing. A bicycle rickshaw will take you to the hotel's restaurant (see below). Next for Brahm; a boutique hotel near the Great Wall.

RED CAPITAL CLUB

Mao-tai, anyone? Sip away at this courtyard-home restaurant specializing in Communist kitsch. The dishes (venison rolled in sesame and toasted on a stick; cold eggplant shaped like the paw of the Monkey King) are chosen from the favorites of leaders who occupied seats in China's government—seats you actually sit on: The 1950's furniture comes from Politburo offices. Pick up the phone in the corner to hear the Chairman himself. An experience not to be missed.

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