Beijing airport:
In the arrival hall are often people trying to take you to their taxis. Don't go with them because you will be overcharged and pay perhaps triple the regular fare. They look for foreigners and tourists. Just follow the Chinese passengers and leave the arrival hall. Outside you will see lots of official taxis,where passengers are lining up.

A taxi to downtown Beijing cost about 85-100 Yuan (rates summer 2007) Normal travel time to downtown Beijing is 40 minutes but if it is crowded it can be 1,5 hour.
The website of Beijing Capital International Airport provides passenger-, arrival- and departure guides and information about the airport bus.

Beijing hostels
The first 3 nights of our vacation in 2004, we stayed in Beijing Far East International Youth Hostel. Hostels are budget hotels offering basic accommodation. Visitors are often backpackers. This hostel is in a preserved and protected Hutong area, (typical local residency neighborhood), only 10 minutes walk away through the alleys to Tian'anmen Square. Inside the hostel was a travel desk where you could book trips for low prices.
Beijing hotels
The next 4 nights we stayed in the 3 star Beijing Harmony Hotel.
This hotel has a strategic location: it's near Tian'an Men square, the forbidden City and is close to the famous Wang Fujing Street. It takes 5 minutes to walk to the Beijing Railway Station and less than 50 minutes to drive to the Beijing International Airport. Rate is about 35 Euro per night for a double/twin room. Other 3star hotels are allready available for 20 Euro per night. On our way back to the Netherlands, we stayed 2 nights in the 4 star Plaza hotel.
In 2007, we stayed in the Days Inn Joiest Beijing.

Beijing restaurants
Beijing Duck restaurants
American restaurants in Beijing
French restaurants in Beijing
German restaurants in Beijing
Italian restaurants in Beijing
Japanese restaurants in Beijing
Beijing Cuisine: hot pot, roasted meet, imperial cuisine
Sichuan, minorities & Tibetan restaurants in Beijing
grocery supermarkets in Beijing


general information:
Beijing bus
Beijing train
Beijing flights
Beijing internet cafes
Beijing nightlife
Beijing shopping
Beijing hospitals
Beijing Usefull telephone numbers

Beijing Great Wall
Allmost every hotel has a travel desk where you can book trips to attractions, shows or the Great Wall. The Great wall is outside Beijing. We went to Badaling, the best-preserved section about 70km north of Beijing. We decided to take a taxi and paid 300(?) Yuan for a return trip. There were a lot of visitors in Badaling. A cable car brought us to the top. The other parts of the Great Wall are less touristic.


Badaling Great Wall Beijing


Beijing train station
After 7 nights we left Beijing and went to the central train station to catch the night train to Shanghai. Train stations are allways crowded in China. Most passengers are farmers and labour workers: waiting outside and inside the railway building for the departures of their trains. Many Chinese people nowadays have a reasonable income and they take no longer the train. A cheap airline ticket from Beijing to Shanghai is for example 570 Yuan. About the same as a soft-sleeper train ticket for the same distance. Foreigners and passengers who buy a soft-sleeper ticket can wait in the VIP-waiting room.

Beijing attractions:
A few other main attractions are:
- The Forbidden City: the emperors of old China lived here. Nowadays its a museum (Imperial Palace Museum). It's in the middle of Beijing.
- Tian'anmen: one of the largest squares in the world: more than 400,000 square meters. Tian'anmen is in front of the Forbidden City.
- Beihai Park: this is a large and popular park near the Forbidden City.
- Wangfujing: It's the biggest shopping street in Beijing.
- The Ming Tombs: mausoleum of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty close to the Great Wall
- Summer Palace: famous for its garden. A popular park to visit.

general information:
Beijing business
current time in China
taxis in China
public holidays in China
Embassies in China

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