Feeling the chill? The latest agenda is designed to guide you through the coming months with tips on what to eat to stay warm, where to shop for winter clothing and more. Take our cover feature, which highlights the many varieties of hot pot – both traditional Chinese huo guo and a few alternative twists on that formula – on offer in Beijing. Keeping with the unavoidable theme of cold weather, we’ve got a list of places to stock up on all those winter wardrobe essentials, and a roundup of fun ideas for indoor family outings.

In Spotlights, we talk to Domus’ new executive chef, Guillaume Comparat, The Ritz-Carlton Beijing’s spa director, Vanicha Phaphoom, gives us tips on winter skincare, and we go behind the scenes at Drei Kronen 1308 with brewmaster Hans Gerner.

We’ve also got new offerings like Igosso’s Italian cuisine, Cantonese dining in elegant surroundings at Beijing Empire, Room 101 is reborn as bar-cum-Mediterranean-restaurant Ginkgo, and the latest in a spate of new Wudaokou cafe-bars, Rendezvous. And of course, we’ve got detailed Day-by-Day event listings for happenings around Beijing over the next two weeks!

In the latest issue of agenda:

Save money on restaurants like La Paleta, Alba, Grandma’s Kitchen, Veg-On, Lantung and Shash with the great deals available in our coupon page.

Discover new openings including Olas Tapas Cafe, the latest Mediterranean restaurant from the people behind Mare; Stage One, an art gallery disguised as a bar, which comes complete with perhaps the most unusual bathroom feature in Beijing; and Plan B, a new bar in Wudaokou opened by students and, we suppose, mainly aimed at students.

Here are just a few reasons to pick up the latest issue of agenda:

Enter our competition to win tickets to see Kylie Minogue’s Dec 1 gig at the Workers’ Gymnasium

Save money on eating out and more with the great deals available in our new coupon page

Discover new openings including the Park Hyatt’s China Grill and China Bar, respectively Beijing’s highest restaurant and bar; Californian cuisine and luscious desserts at Tribute North; elegant Western dining at Yellowstone, and MGM, the latest Gongti West Gate club dedicated to overstated decor and the joys of Chivas and green tea.

We find out what’s going down as Lan Club gears up for its third year, Cicilia Young tells us how her Pussycat Dance Studio helps Beijing girls find their inner Madonnas, and we look at some off the beaten Great Wall tracks.

New spots featured in this issue of agenda:

Sandwiches, salads and smoothies galore at Element Fresh

A tour of North Asian flavors at Bei

Domus offers contemporary elegance by the Forbidden City’s walls

Water sommelier Forrest Zhao pairs mineral water with Macanese cuisine at Vasco’s

Cocktails and nightly jazz at Flames

This issue’s cover girl is DJ Ngelik, billed by Maxim magazine as “one of the sexiest DJs in the world.” In an interview ahead of her month-long residency at Zeta Bar, which kicks off on November 7, the foxy Venezuelan tells us about balancing careers as a DJ, model and designer and looks forward to her Beijing debut.

In our Spotlights, we talk to Amanda Powell and Deborah Lukic from The BookMark and Mosto manager Alex Molina. The Lists highlight some of the spookiest Halloween parties going down this year; we also round up the best of Italian dining and take a look at the best eats in the expat-centric Lido area; and if you work your way through all that eating, you’ll want to take a peek at our selection of gyms and fitness centers!

On Wednesday Eric Abrahamsen, the principal contributor to Beijing by Foot (recently described as being "quite possibly the most illuminating guide to the Chinese capital this year.”), will be speaking at the China Culture Center about the history of the South Dongsi area. Below we've included an interview with Abrahamsen that appears in the current edition of agenda. Editors Alice Woodhouse and Iain Shaw began by asking Eric a bit about the Beijing by Foot project and his favorite Peking paths.

Eric Abrahamsen tells us that he began exploring Beijing’s various neighborhoods “almost as an afterthought”. According to the translator and writer, “there were several years where I walked around without really knowing what I was seeing. I liked the feel of Beijing’s older areas, but it wasn't until later that I began to seriously research the history and culture that lie behind the alleyways and buildings, and discovered that my little strolls were far, far more enjoyable when I knew the background.” Therein lay the genesis of Beijing by Foot, Abrahamsen’s recently published collection of 40 walks around Beijing neighborhoods, each mapped and annotated on its own individual card.

agenda: Beijing by Foot guides users through forty different walks in the capital, but for visitors on a tight schedule, which routes would you recommend exploring first?

I suppose if you’re here for a limited time, you’d better see the hutongs.

Like us, you're probably struggling to come to terms with the end of the National Day holiday, but Beijing’s cultural life stops for nobody, and there are plenty of big events coming up over the next fourteen days. Sure, Linkin Park have now canceled, but we’ve still got the visit of Grammy award-winning jazz star Diana Krall to look forward to. Other events to make a date in your diary for include the Oct 18 NBA showcase at Wukesong Indoor Stadium, where the Milwaukee Bucks will take on the Golden State Warriors (see the 7 Days e-mail newsletter for details of how to win 4 tickets to the game), the Chopschticks stand-up show at Block 8 on the same day, and the Vienna Boys Choir at the Poly Theatre on Oct 15. Find the full program for the fortnight in our Day-by-Day events.

In Spotlights, we talk to SALT’s new girl in the kitchen, chef Ana Esteves, and go on a walking tour of Beijing with Beijing by Foot author Eric Abrahamsen. Formerly of The Rickshaw, now managing Tun, the aptly named Chad Lager gives us his insights into Beijing’s bar life, and as winter begins to cast a chilly shadow over the city, the less suitably named Spring Chang, director of JW Marriott’s Quan Spa, gives us some tips for keeping warm and well over the coming months. In The Lists, we round up some of Sanlitun’s best eating options, tighten the purse strings for a tour of Beijing’s cheapest bars, and in this issue's cover feature, seek out some of the best places to pick up gifts of all shapes and sizes for friends and family.

We’re all looking forward to the National Day holiday, and this issue is packed with recommendations and event info to help you fill up your days if you’re sticking around Beijing. In a year when major live shows in Beijing have been dogged by uncertainty and cancellations, the holiday week should provide music fans some much-needed encouragement. The Modern Sky Festival (Sep 29-Oct 2) and the NOTCH festival (Oct 2-4) at Yugong Yishan are just two of the highlights in a fortnight also featuring the visits of French electronic duo AIR (Sep 26-27) and skate-pop rodent Avril Lavigne (Oct 6), Acupuncture Records’ first anniversary party (Sep 30) and the World Folk Song Festival at the NCPA (Oct 3-8). You’ll find all the details in our day-by-day event listings, although do take note that the Midi Festival, listed for Sep 29-Oct 2, has since been rescheduled (tentatively) for Oct 1-5 at the Midi School.

You might want to use the holiday to try new openings like Mosto, former SALT chef Daniel Urdaneta’s new restaurant, The Opposite House’s Mediterranean restaurant Sureno, or Let’s Burger, our favorite of the wave of burger joints to have hit Beijing of late.

Having just taken over the running of the kitchen at award-winning SALT – a position previously held by one of Beijing’s most respected chefs, Daniel Urdaneta (now at Mosto in Nali Patio), the pressure is on for young Venezuelan chef Ana Esteves. But with stints cooking in the US, France and Peru on her resume, Esteves is well prepared for the demands of cooking for SALT’s cosmopolitan clientele. agenda caught up with the chef earlier this month, asking her about how she is approaching the new job and about her own culinary explorations during her first two months in Beijing.

Look out for an edited version of this interview in the upcoming issue of agenda magazine.

agenda: Your predecessor, Daniel Urdaneta, has one of the strongest reputations of any chef in Beijing – were you nervous to be filling his shoes?

About two weeks ago, one of the interns who's working with our Immersion Guides team went and took a look around the recently opened Solana Mall or as they prefer to call it, the Solana Lifestyle Shopping Center. Located across the road and just to the south of the odd mixture of restaurants that, along with White Rabbit, make up the Lucky Street strip, the mall is nestled between the scented waters of the Liangma River and the vast expanse of Chaoyang Park. He reported back that, despite the attempts too create a Venetian Plaza feel, the mall was "more Malibu than Middle Kingdom" and it reminded him of the suburbian strip malls that dot the LA landscape. Similar comments can be found in this article and over at this thread on the Beijinger forum.

The place is indeed huge, and although not all the stores are open yet, can easily provide a whole afternoon's worth of distraction. In terms of what has already opened, Solana is home to Beijing's third Zara store, Sephora and Esprit; new branches of some of Beijing's most popular restaurants including Maxim's (opened last Sunday), Banana Leaf, Feiteng Yuxiang, 1001 Nights; as well as some new arrivals such as Todai and Latin Grill. Last weekend, Solana wrapped up a series of regular weekend activities (you can take a look at the program here), and also unveiled their new bar strip, although the reportedly "international" club Crobar is still yet to reveal itself. In terms of other diversions, the indoor ice-skating rink has already opened its doors and the cinema is set to open by the end of the month.

Our very last issue before the Olympics has hit the streets, packed with all the usual handy event listings, as well as plenty of dining, nightlife and shopping recommendations to keep you busy before the summer's big distraction arrives on August 8. This issue's highlights include interviews with Italian chef Eugenio Iraci from Cepe and Dorothea Adam of Yugong Yishan, as well as Lists featuring Beijing's best places for catching live jazz jams, Nanluogu Xiang shopping and our cover feature – with a sumptuous cover shot taken by our photographer Judy Zhou – on business lunch deals. And, as new places scramble to throw their doors open in time for the Games, we've got Try These write-ups on just-opened venues like mega-buffet import Todai, Nanluogu Xiang bar-restaurant-mini-spa Taste, and the Tsingtao microbrewery at the Solana mall by Chaoyang Park West Gate, which offers barbecue and teppanyaki as well as China's finest brewed on-site.

Let us know what you think! Get in touch with your comments and suggestions by e-mailing iainshaw@agendabeijing.com