Beijing Things to Do Tips by aussiedoug

I'm not starting my "Must See Activities" with the UNESCO Heritage Listed sites or the other most obvious biggies. Instead I'll go with something we did on the last day of organised tours & something that, in many respects, I enjoyed most.

Of course it didn't elicit the superlatives from me like the others or go beyond superlatives which I think the Great Wall does. Instead it was relaxing & lovely, interesting & genuine. We were lucky enough to have a lovely "local, local guide" by the name of Jou Lie. She introduced herself as "Jolly" saying that was close to her name in English & did indeed describe her quite well. I was really lucky as I started the tour in a pedicab by myself, but because of the requirements of some of our party Jou Lie ended up riding with me & I had a fascinating conversation with her getting some insights into a "real" Beijinger's life.

This was part of our tour package. The Frommer's Beijijng Guide suggests doing a walking or cycling tour of some hutongs & I think this is a good idea for independent travellers with good map reading/sense of direction skills. However I was very happy to be pedalled round while doing whatever walking was required.

The most interesting part of our hutong tour was walking through "Pipe Tobacco Alley" near the Bell Tower. On this tour I felt I was near the real people's Beijing to a much greater extent than, of course, the 'big' tourist attractions. Although the other end of Pipe Tobacco Alley apparently has some of Beijing's trendiest cafes. Would have like to have tried some of them. Maybe next time!

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Phone: (10) 66 135 213 (our pedicab no)
Directions: There are many hutongs scattered around the city. The area I enjoyed most on our tour was around Hou Hai/Qian Hai, part of the Back Lakes District. Especially Pipe Tobacco Alley - Yandai Xie Jie.
Website: http://www.chinavista.com/experience/hutong/hutong

Had read about this area in the Frommer's Beijing Guide, but knew I wouldn't have enough free time to explore this area at all.

However, counted myself very lucky to see a little of it on our Hutong tour as explained a little in the above must see activity.

Please enlarge the accompanying photograph as it shows you just a glimpse of how beautiful this area obviously is. I would suggest on the little I saw it also has some very interesting sightseeing, some equally interesting shopping (that we saw glimpses of, but didn't have time to explore, in Pipe Tobacco Alley) & apparently some great coffee that I really would have enjoyed because I experienced a dearth of "good" coffee during my week in Beijing. Apparently there are also some very good restaurants around here too.

The entire Back Lakes Area (Shicha Hai)consists of 3 lakes - Qian Hai -Front Lake which connects to Hou Hai - Back Lake (see my photo looking back down Hou Hai from near Qian Hai) & Xi Hai - West Lake (now why wasn't it called slightly farther back lake - lol!) I read somewhere that these lakes were dug out during the 14th century to berth barges that were bringing the emperor goods to the Forbidden City.

I wish we had had a full day to explore this area. If you are going to Beijing & have a 5-7day stay in mind I strongly suggest you allow yourself a full day to do what I wish we had been able to do.

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Address: North of Tiananmen Square
Directions: If you were using the Subway then I'dsuggest getting on Line 2 - the Circular Line & getting off at Jishui Tan Subway station which would put you close to Xi Hai - West Lake

Dongzhimen Lu - known as Restaurant Street because it has a strip of at least 1 Kilometre or more which has nearly all restaurants along either side opened for lunch or dinner. The reason I add this as a must see activity is because the street is also lined with large orange lanterns & it's really beautiful to have a walk along during the evening, particularly a lovely summer's evening as Vicky, Charles & I had, to walk along it both before & after our meal at the Tong Li Garden Restaurant. If you come out then you must have a meal too, but make sure one of your party can read Mandarin as I don't think any of the restaurants (I'm happy to stand corrected if anyone knows otherwise so please let me know if that's the case) have menus written in English as well as Chinese (characters).

My attached photo is just one of the lanterns. My camera didn't have a powerful enough flash to capture what I was after which was to show not only the lantern, but also its reflection in the car's rear window. Now imagine how this looks like when multiplied by quite a few over a 1 kilometre (or more) stretch of not overly wide street.

I'll be adding a restaurant tip from this street.

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Address: Dongzhimen Lu
Directions: If you would be coming by the subway/metro then you will need to get off at Dongzhimen & after coming out of Exit A turn right & follow it around till you see the street with the trees & lanterns stretching straight ahead in front of you.

Now I go back to placing my tips in chronological order.

Tiananmen Square was our first stop on the first day of our 4 days of organised tours. So I wasn't here by a matter of choice (apart of course from booking the package tour. lol!). However, I would suggest that you begin your tour of Beijing from this spot for a number of reasons.

Firstly & most obviously are the historical reasons. For me, I'll work backwards from the most recent memorable event (unfortunately for the wrong reasons) & that of course is that unforgettable image of the lone protestor against that tank in 1989. I don't think I will ever have that image erased from my consciousness. But as you've already seen in my Beijing intro I'm so pleased that I've seen it the way I did with the ordinary humanity & hence the reason for the above title. We could go back further to 1919 when it was also a scene of protest for thousands of university students who were apparently protesting against the corruption & other issues of China's Republican Government of that time.

Another important reason for beginning your Beijing siteseeing here is that there isso much else around it & straight across the road. Mao's mausoleum (which I unfortunately did not get to visit - hopefully next time) is an integral part of the square which was once the Imperial Way there's an excellent example of the transition of China from Imperial to Republican to Communist government. And standing there I wondered what type of Government China will have in another 10 - 20 years as Capitalism seems to be taking such a firm grip of the economy.

Where else to ponder these things, but Tiananmen Square. Quite frankly there really isn't a lot to do in the square itself apart from people watch & watch the kite flying while perhaps also buying one as I did for my girls.

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Directions: In the very center of Beijing. If you can't walk there, get off the Subway at Tian an Men Dong on the Number 1 East-West line. You can also access it from Qian Men subway stop, a part of the Circle Line of Subway stops - Line 2.
Website: http://www.roundtiananmensquare.com/index.html

THE FORBIDDEN CITY was our second stop on Day 1 just by walking through Tian an Men Square & heading for the big portrait of the late Chairman Mao. This place really did challenge for superlatives to describe it, but I have to be honest here that the very next day the Great Wall was beyond superlatives, but that tip will have to wait for a couple seeing I'm doing them chronologically.
Apparently this complex of buildings set in a 72 000 m2 area sees the most visitors of any of China's attractions. I wonder if the Great Wall competes evenly with that. It is an amazing complex of buildings for different original purposes & our guide Jim gave us an incredible amount of information on each of these.
He told us that construction of the original palace buildings first began in 1406 so at least some of these structures are just on 600 years old. He also mentioned something about 1 million labourers & over 100 000 artisans/craftsmen being required to do the work. One fascinating detail that stuck in my mind & portrayed the insecure nature of being Emperor was in regard to a particular walkway of bricks that apparently was laid 15 rows X 15 rows the other way to prevent possible assassins from tunnelling below or through it. Now that's security conscious! Seriously now, it is almost unimaginable to consider how much expense was poured into this place by a succession of Emperors. Divine rule by a sole person certainly had its benefits.

The different components of The Forbidden City are justifiably worthy of stand alone tips, but I don't want to go into that much detail. Instead I will add a travelogue with some of my photos & some info about them with my impressions, albeit fairly briefly. I know how it can become heavy going trying to read tip after tip of dry historical detail about the same place, but different aspects.

I would suggest you give yourself a good couple of hours to a half a day to explore this complex.

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Address: North of Tiananmen Square
Directions: In the Center of Beijing

You can access it from the first Subway station I mentioned in the previous tip - Tian an Men Dong. We could have used this at it was only 3 stops west of the nearest Subway to our hotel.
Website: http://www.dpm.org.cn/

Under Construction - Will complete later

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