People native to urban Beijing speak the Beijing dialect,which belongs to the Mandarin subdivision of spoken Chinese.Beijing dialect is the basis for Standard Mandarin,the language used in the Peoples Republic of China,the Republic of China on Taiwan,and Singapore.Rural areas of Beijing Municipality have their own dialects akin to those of Hebei province,which surrounds Beijing Municipality.
Beijing Opera,or Peking Opera(Jingju),is well-known throughout the national capital.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 Mandarin and from the Beijing dialect;this makes the dialogue somewhat hard to understand,and the problem is compounded if one is not familiar with
