If you aren’t staying in a traditional courtyard hotel you should change your plans. There are several available in Beijing now and they are really wonderful. They date back to the Ming Dynasty and are usually set down hutong lanes. Prices RMB400-1200. The 1200 price room has it’s own decorated parlor, 4-poster bed, and opens up onto a lovely treed private courtyard.
Red Capital Residence is the most exclusive at US150-190. Gorgeous 5-room Qing Dynasty courtyard.
www.redcapitalclub.com.cn
Go to the Forbidden City and do the audiotour. It’s narrated by Roger Moore (I think) and is ridiculously over-the-top.
Go to the burned down Old Summer Palace museum and have someone translate all the nationalist graffitti that you see on the ruins.
Find a Uighur restaurant and eat a bazillion lamb kebabs as well as da pan ji i.e. big plate chicken.
If you have time beforehand, try to familiarize yourself with the geography of Beijing. Then learn up on the Tiananmen Square massacres (watch the Gate of Heavenly Peace documentary first, then read The Tiananmen Papers) and try to connect the places with where people were killed. The vast majority of people were killed to the west of Tiananmen, around Xidan.
Note: this was from 6 years ago, so it could be out of date.
Woohoo!!! Tomorrow morning, off to Beijing. 
:discodance: :yay:
After 6 years in Taiwan, my first trip to China. I’ll give you a report upon my return.
Have a great time. Bring me back a kite. 
Returned from Beijing last night. Had a great time, despite my wife taking charge of some of the planning. Most countries she lets me plan, but this trip was slightly different because (a) she feels she’s basically Chinese so she knows better than me and (b) her good friend has family in Beijing and visits fairly often so she trusts their advice. She booked us at the hotel they use, Dongjiaomingxian Hotel, and it was just fine. Nothing fancy, but clean, decent, fairly close to Tiananmen Square and RMB428/night (US$53). Lots of other yaiguoren staying there.
Of course we saw the Great Wall. Because our time was so short (Sat - Wed) we didn’t go to Simatai, but instead went to Badaling, the closest location to Beijing and maybe the most touristy. There were hordes of tourists, Chinese and foreign and lots of stands on the wall selling shirts, photos, water, etc., but it was still a great adventure. Good exercise too, as parts of it are extremely steep staircases.
As you can see, it’s extremely dry and dusty. So was Beijiing. Be thankful for hte humid air of Taipei; the dry dusty climate of Beijing is miserable by comparison. Ones eyes get irritated and hair, clothes and skin quickly feel very dirty and gritty.
Tiananmen Square was a cool experience, despite my wife wanting to get the hell out of there and into the Forbidden City. She couldn’t care less for the history of the place and stupidly believes it’s only history and not the present, so she saw the Square only as a giant boring parking lot. I found its huge size impressive and enjoyed seeing all the diverse people there (though many of them were tour groups) including soldiers and police. Here’s the Square:
She was right though about the Forbidden City. Amazing place. 20 something emperors lived there in the 9999.5 rooms. Apparently several of them became so engrossed holed up in their massive city, playing with their concubines and practicing calligraphy that they made no effort whatsoever to rule their country, leaving that task to their subordinates. Not surprising as the FC is a huge and impressive place. Amazing too that it wasn’t opened to the public till about 1950. Here’s one of the various thrones in the City.
And, here’s the front gate to the City.
I wish I could speak Chinese, so I could have asked some locals how they feel about Mao and Communism, but I don’t so I couldn’t. My wife, being Taiwanese, refuses to discuss politics, especially over there. In Vietnam I asked a bunch of young people about Uncle Ho and Communism and most people I spoke with don’t like either and prefer capitalism and the American Way. Someone told me Shanghanese are more future oriented in that regard and Beijingese aren’t, but I don’t know.
Saw the Summer Palace, too, where the ugly, cunniving old Dragon Lady holed up. It’s mostly a huge park around a lake, but there are some nice buildings there and one nice little pond with Willow trees. Here it is.
We ate really good Beijing Duck twice at the famous Quanjude duck restaurant. Mmmmm. It really was better than other duck. As you can see, they carve your bird at your table.
We saw the show at the Lao She Teahouse, as several people recommended. That was a terrific combo of Chinese music, opera, flowerpot juggling and other entertainment, good even for one who can’t understand Chinese. Incidentally, the place is famous and has been visited by George Bush Sr., Helmut Kohl and numerous other heads of state.
Liulichang is a beautiful street with lots of old building fixed up new for the tourists, selling art, fake antiques and other cool stuff. Here’s a brush shop there.
Panjiayuan Market was also a cool place for shopping. It’s a totally massive collection of porcelain, carpets, Mao crap, beads, art and other stuff sold by people from all over China as you can see in the below photo.
Oh, my ride is here, I’ve got to go. Anyway, it was a great trip. Interesting to see Beijing. Shanghai next time.
Amazing as it may sound, I’m making my first ever trip to Beijing over Christmas. I’d love to hear what other posters consider the Beijing must dos. I like anything from the kitsch, to the zany outright funky or hip.
I’m meeting friends from Taipei in Beijing and I do have a couple of local pals, so I’m sure I’ll be sorted. In fact I also have the offer of a jeep if I want it. Is that wise?
Tigerman, god bless him, has made a solid suggestion to both me and the Taiwan connection, so that’s likely on the cards . . . any others?
Oh, and no, Fred, as much as I may also want to, I’ll not be pissing on Mao’s body.
HG
I heard there are some tunnels below the city. Unfortunately I learned about those after my visit to Beijing only, so didn’t see them.
china.org.cn/english/travel/125961.htm
gadling.com/2006/11/14/explo … -shelters/
Peking duck!
If you have a full day to do it, then go out to one of the further away sections of the Great Wall. If you don’t have a full day and you would only be able to visit one of the closer, more commercialized sections, then I suggest skipping the wall altogether. In August of 2005, I went to the 司马台 section. It was well worth the trek to get there. Take a bus from 东直门 to a town called 密云, then hire a bread van for a couple hundred (I forget the exact price). 司马台 was one of the only touristy things I’ve done in the PRC that didn’t feel absurdly touristy. Amazing views and good exercise to work yourself up for a big ass dinner of anything back in Beijing. Speaking of food, tuck into some Xinjiang fare while you’re up there. Good Xinjiang food is pretty easy to get in Beijing. In fact, good food of any sort is easy to get up there. I’ll be stuck here eating crappy HK food. 
If you’re into books at all, then the big bookstores on 王府井大街 are worth a visit.
Go to the Forbidden City and tell people you are the last of the eunuchs.
No, no, no. Tell them you’re the last emperor. Have a cricket hidden up your sleeve and pull it out from behind a trash can or portable toilet and tell some little boy that you put it there 80 years ago.
[quote=“Jive Turkey”]If you have a full day to do it, then go out to one of the further away sections of the Great Wall. If you don’t have a full day and you would only be able to visit one of the closer, more commercialized sections, then I suggest skipping the wall altogether. In August of 2005, I went to the 司马台 section. It was well worth the trek to get there. Take a bus from 东直门 to a town called 密云, then hire a bread van for a couple hundred (I forget the exact price). 司马台 was one of the only touristy things I’ve done in the PRC that didn’t feel absurdly touristy. Amazing views and good exercise to work yourself up for a big ass dinner of anything back in Beijing. Speaking of food, tuck into some Xinjiang fare while you’re up there. Good Xinjiang food is pretty easy to get in Beijing. In fact, good food of any sort is easy to get up there. I’ll be stuck here eating crappy HK food.
If you’re into books at all, then the big bookstores on 王府井大街 are worth a visit.[/quote]
I agree - 司马台 is the best of the great wall. Not such a mob scene. Get the concierge to rent you a van. For a small tip they’ll do it off the hotel ‘books’.
In all, I have to say I’m getting dissapointed with Beijing. I liked it much more 3-5yrs ago. Now it’s just turning into a concrete hell-hole. It’s not getting more interesting like Shanghai.
Thanks for the replies to date.
Just suffered a minor set back on learning the sleepers on the train are fully booked both ways.
A second shock was walking into an ice bar here in HK the other night. The temp was set at minus 4c. After 5 minutes in there it dawned on me that Beijing is gonna be bloody cold. Forecasts are for minus 8c tomorrow tonight. 
HG
I recommend getting a beer coat. And practicing your "er"s.
Drink the Yanjing Beer there. It’s completely different from the puke flavored Yanjing in HK. It’s just like a mainland beer should be: watery, little after taste and it comes back up smooth and easy when you’ve had too much.
No. Tell everyone you speak to that their pronunciation is wrong, and then teach them the “proper” Taiwan Guoyu pronunciation. Tell them that they need to get it right, because CSB and the ROC will soon be liberating the mainland. I did this when I was there a couple of years ago. The humor seemed to be well appreciated.
Got back in to HK last night. A fantastic week it was.
Managed to get a soft sleeper there and back. The train is a superb way to traverse that country. The Thai princess and her mum managed to see snow through the train windows as we hurtled through Henan. This was in additiion to walking on a frozen lake in Beijing. Mind blowing for the little princess.
Managed to do the bulk of the tourist thing, including a bizarre peep show involving Mao’s corpse. The man still manages to fleece the peasants from the grave!
Tigerman’s call for the show at Lao She’s Tea House was spectacularly spot on. Big thumbs up on that one!
We weren’t too fussed about the wall so grabbed a driver and headed to Badaling, which is the closest bit to Beijing. It was cold, bitterly cold, but a very clear day. A great outing including a funky dumpling place about twenty minutes before hitting Badaling (Tianjin Gou Bu Li).
Overall I thought Beijing was fantastic. If I had to live somewhere in China I think it would have to be Beijing. I particularly liked the fact that the local language is Mandarin, so you can catch everything people are saying around you. Mind you it took sometime to get my head around the accents. I also quite liked the gruff machismo of the northern blokes. It was a strangely pleasant change from all the nancy boys you meet in the south.
HG