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Dude Ranch
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
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 Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:43 am Post subject: |
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| roadballmint wrote: |
| For the Great Wall- do NOT go to Badaling! Make sure you go to either Jinshanling or Simatai (Simatai is supposed to be easier to walk). |
I second this advice. I was there 3 months ago. Across the street from Beijing Station there is a Youth Hostel International. They run daily trips to the wall. I went on the Jinshanling & Simatai combination trip. Bus leaves the hostel at 7 am and returns around 7 pm. 3.5 hour trip each way. 220 quay
Do Not go to badaling or mutayan like roadballmint said. Both those sections are totally recreated (not authentic) over crowded, and covered with annoying Chinese people bugging you to buy stuff
Simitai was deserted and pretty rugged in most areas, just the way I liked it.
Also, check out the Hutongs (allyways). I was lucky enough to stay with a friend who lived in Beijing and we spent the afternoon walking through them. great way to see old beijing |
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alphakennyone
Joined: 01 Aug 2005
Location: city heights
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| Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:54 am Post subject: |
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There's a pretty cool art district, I can't remember the name. It's three numbers, like 171 or something like that.
Also there's a series of underground tunnels that you can get a brief tour of, supposedly they run for hundreds of miles (in case of an attack on China).
The Summer palace is nice if it hasn't been mentioned, also there was one taoist temple that had over 1000 statues depicting various areas of heaven/hell - again i forget the name.
Street food street is delicious (lamb kebabs) and horrifying (centipedes, starfish, etc).
Beijing is a lot of fun. Constant heavy pollution though, so much so that it reduces the visibility of the sights. I was amazed how clear it became the one day I went to the Great wall, so it wasn't just bad weather, it really is pollution. |
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boatofcar
Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Location: Sheffield, UK
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| Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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| mmace1 wrote: |
I'd recommend Mutianyu. It's about the same distance as Badaling, but a lot less crowded, and more scenic looking (prettier landscape I think).
It also has a toboggan ride...
A friend and I rented a taxi to take us there, wait 2 hours, and come back. I think it ended up being about $50/person. It was not as cheap as the tours, but faster, more convenient, and it skipped over the tourist-shops.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Great_wall_of_china < For a description of the different sections.
For me, the outstanding best parts were:
Mutianya
Summer Palace
Temple of Heaven
Tienanmen square/Mao's pickled corpse
Forbidden City (mostly just due to it's fame)
...after that:
Beijing Botanical Gardens
Ox Street Mosque
5 Dragons Pavillion
Hutongs
Marco Polo Bridge
etc. |
I'll definitely try and check all these places out. How do you communicate with taxi drivers? I've heard that it's best to write down the place you want to go in Chinese characters and just hand it to them. Did you just get someone at the hotel desk to do that? |
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farrepatt
Joined: 27 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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| You can get the people at the hotel to write the Chinese characters if you want. You can actually find the Chinese characters for most spots in Beijing using Wikipedia. I made a list and printed it up to take with me. Most taxi drivers won't understand English too well. |
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