Analysis was undertaken of data (particularly video data) generated from three Beijing grades 7 or 8 mathematics classrooms situated in three different secondary schools. The paper addresses the issues of “high quality teaching” and “the competent teacher” in both the exemplary sense (situating the characteristics of the teachers firmly in their classroom context) and in the general sense (reporting patterns of practice that appeared to transcend the local classroom context). The paper reports: (1) the transition from traditional conceptions of teacher competence to contemporary conceptions formulated at the commencement of this century, leading to the reconstruction of institutionalized conceptions of high-quality secondary mathematics teaching; (2) contemporary Chinese conceptions of accomplished teaching practice in relation to such issues as: the role of teachers, the process of knowledge generation, and the modes of interaction between teacher and students; and (3) analyses and descriptive statistics relating to frequency of question types, distribution of class time, and students’ thinking time. Analysis suggests that in the Beijing classrooms studied the intended changes to conceptions of quality teaching and competent teachers are only superficial and that traditional conceptions of accomplished practice remain in place.