Canadian Darren Potter has just taken over as manager at Ciro’s Pomodoro. We spoke to him about the challenges for Ciro’s and how he narrowly missed breaking a world record.

Which of the following jobs is most like being a restaurant manager: orchestra conductor, firefighter or babysitter?
Orchestra conductor. If you can keep everyone flowing together, you can make sweet delicious music – or in my case, food!

There are lies, damned lies and statistics but in this month's issue of the Beijinger we promise only to bring you the statistics. For our Cover Feature we've taken a look at the city from a new angle (or two), we've delved into dusty archives, we've crunched numbers, we've sketched out complicated diagrams and we've run multiple computer simulations ... all to deliver a vision of Beijing as you've never seen it before. Your eyes are in for a treat and your mind is in for a good work-out.

Elsewhere in the March issue you will find out that Tom O'Malley ate all the pies (for the Dining Feature), we're told how to make a lavish duck pie, we go Back For More to Bleu Marine for one of the city's best steaks and we bravely find out the hummus which we heart is in our Taste Test.

It's not often that the Beijinger agrees with mid-'90s pop combos Five and S Club 7 but this month we do. September's issue is concerned with sports and we tell you where you can get moving - Five merely advised you to keep on moving and S Club don't stop moving but we'll get you started in the Beijing sport scene.

Our editors have put their lives on the line for you in trying 17 different sports on offer around town. We deliberately sent complete newcomers so that we'd be able to tell you what it's like to take up a sport from scratch in the city. Now you've no excuse for not losing those excess pounds, or not having any friends, or any other "problems" that sport can solve.

There are many famous sayings about travel but it's too hot to quote them right now when we'd rather be on a beach. This is the time of year when people are leaving, are thinking about leaving or have left Beijing. Whether it's summer vacation, relocating, thinking about what to do with that October break or booking flights to home for the holidays, travel is on our minds.

We didn't think that you'd want to see yet more photos of exotic destinations that you'll probably never go to so we've tried to give you some more practical tips in our Cover Feature. We've a booking challenge to pit the internet against travel agents, we've a packing challenge to pit the professionals against the rank amateurs and we've tales of some of the challenges that you've faced getting from A to B because, let's face it, everybody likes to hear other people's holiday horror stories.

You've had a month to get used to the new look version of the Beijinger so it's time for another. This time it's all about the 2010 Reader Bar & Club Awards. You voted for the nightlife establishments that you liked the most and we've counted them all up, given out the awards and printed them up in the magazine. So far, so annual occurrence, you might think - not when it's a World Cup year. We've assembled the good, the bad and the ugly of Beijing's bar scene for our dream team cover - you can find out who they all are inside the magazine or by keeping an eye on the Beijinger website.

Heads up, those of you who had a Panini sticker album as a youngster might want to turn straight to the Cover Feature.