Sapporo is perhaps best known for the beer brewed here since 1891: a visit to the handsome, late-nineteenth-century Sapporo Brewery is a must, as is a stroll through the gardens and museums of the Botanical Gardens , which date from the same era. After dark, the bars and restaurants of Susukino (pronounced "suskino") spark to life and you'll be hard pressed to find a livelier nightlife district outside of Tokyo or Osaka.

Pleasantly cool temperatures tempt many visitors to Sapporo's Summer Festival (July 21-Aug 20), which features outdoor beer gardens and other events in Odori-koen , the swathe of parkland that cuts through the city centre. This park is also the focus of activity during the fabulous Yuki Matsuri , a "snow festival" held every February , which draws over two million visitors to the city.

There are some good day-trip possibilities around Sapporo - top of the list is the Historical Village of Hokkaido , a huge, landscaped park featuring over sixty restored buildings from the island's frontier days. The nearby port of Otaru , one of the entry points into Hokkaido, has some appealing nineteenth-century architecture and can be easily visited in a half a day from the capital. Just about possible as a day-trip, but better experienced over a longer stay, are the ski slopes of Niseko , some 100km south of the city.

Sapporo's name comes from the Ainu word for the area, Sari-poro-betsu , meaning "a river which runs along a plain filled with reeds". The city's layout was designed in the 1870s by a team of European and American experts engaged by the government to advise on the development of the island. Statues of these advisers can be found around Sapporo; the most famous is the one of the American Dr William S. Clark , who set up Hokkaido University and whose invocation to his students - "Boys, be ambitious!" - has been adopted as the city's motto.