My best friend and I spent four days in Beijing from a Saturday afternoon through Tuesday night. We knew nothing about the city, with limited Mandarin abilities (mainly mine), and we had a great time.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon, ready for vacation. We stayed at the Great Wall Sheraton Beijing near the embassies in Chaoyang -- I heart those Starwood points.
After settling in, we head off to get massages.
Dragon Fly is a high-end spa chain with locations across major Chinese and few other cities. We went to the Beijing location by Lufthansa Center and our hotel (
@Yan Sha), in the middle of an expat village complete with a City Market and Fatburger. As this was day 1 of vacation, we went for the "Ultimate Indulgence" full body and foot massage, 290rmb for 120 minutes.
My friend happens to be vegetarian and I definitely am not, but we both enjoyed
Pure Lotus, a Chinese vegetarian and uber traditional medicine restaurant. I definitely rolled my eyes a few times at the menu, but the food is absolutely delicious and the presentation is fantastic. We went to the one in the Courtyard of Tongguang Building, The West of Agriculture Department, ChangHong Bridge, East Third Ring Road. We went back to their second location at the Holiday Inn Lido on the way to the airport on Tuesday, but found it to be a much worse experience with ok food (mamahuhu if you will) with cheesy feel next to the astrobowl.
Forbidden CityWe did this on Sunday. Our guide book said to start at
Jingshan Park north of Palace Museum (which is what the Forbidden City is really called), but we ignored it and saw Tian’anmen Square and got tickets at the south gate. Big mistake – we waited in line FOREVER (I don’t wear watches on vacation but it was a long, crowded Chinese line, went through a full bottle of water waiting). We ended up walking out of the north gate and across the street to Jingshan Park, where you can climb up a hill for the full aerial view of Forbidden City which is pretty amazing. And the north gate had zero lines for tickets, doh.
Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, and Jingshan Park from Aki Naito on Vimeo.
So we recommend
- See Jingshan Park first (10rmb I think)
- Enter Forbidden City from north gate, across the street from Jingshan Park (60rmb)
- Get an English audio guide (40rmb charge plus 100rmb deposit that they give you at the end). The GPS is imperfect and audio lady is a bit verbose, but worth the 40rmb, we each got one
- If you do subway to Tian’anmen West, the #5 bus goes to close to Jingshan. They definitely do not have English on the bus signs or on-board so write down Tian’anmen Sq (天安门广场) and Jingshan (西景山)
After a little rest, we went over to the 798 Art District. Like 50 Moganshanlu in Shanghai, this is the hip art area with a ton of art galleries. We were recommended a Peking duck restaurant across the street from 798. We got there a little late as 798 Art District closes around 7:30pm, but found some cheap shopping across the street before we set out to find my duck.
You Xin Kao Ya (友鑫烤鴨) is not on the main street and in an alley so will take some searching, but was definitely worth it. Delicious roast duck and actually an amazing vegetarian-friendly selection of dishes as well.
Great Wall
The Great Wall at Mutianyu from Aki Naito on Vimeo.
We went on Monday and it was awesome. There are several parts of the wall that you can go to. We were recommended
Mutianyu (慕田峪) because it is less crowded and more of a hike. It’s a little farther than some other spots, but the big tour buses can’t get there so you don’t have as many of the flag waving guides and some of it can be hard (big steps and lots of them) so not everyone likes it. Mutianyu also has a toboggan slide that you can go down
Tobaggon Ride Down the Great Wall from Aki Naito on Vimeo.
We got a driver for the day. Got picked up around 7:45 and it’s about 90 min drive. Once you get out of Beijing, open roads. Definitely go early, the first few hours on the wall were really nice and quiet with people but not too many. Last hour or so of walk was starting to get pretty crowded, especially on the lower part of the wall that’s easier to get to.
I couldn't find Mutianyu on any English weather sites. This weather site is Chinese, but you can still figure out
Mutianyu weather.
There’s apparently 20 watchtowers that make up the Mutianyu stretch of the Great Wall (they only number #6 and #14). From the parking lot, we took the cable car to #14 (45rmb + 45rmb Wall entrance fee), walked up as far as we could towards #20 (left), then walked back to #6 and took the toboggan (50rmb) down again. Maybe 3-4 hours, including lots of rest and photo stops. We went through 3 bottles of water each – they sell them for 3-5rmb at the bottom and about 10-15 on the Wall. My Power Bar was a lifesaver, would recommend you bring some sort of snack.
We were recommended lunch at
The Schoolhouse, which is probably 100m from the bottom parking lot. It used to be a school but now a converted inn and
restaurant. Cute, a little hippy, Western food (I got a burger). +86 10 6162-6506, they sat us inside without a res (though we were happy with A/C) but you should call esp for weekend.
Our driver Tony was awesome. Great English and we got a full Chinese history lesson in the car there (ok I liked it, Yell fell asleep). He’s also helped us out with the acrobat show and another massage today. His number is 139-1186-0851 (office phone 10-5129-4091,
tonyyue2008@yahoo.com.cn). 500rmb for full day driver.
MassagesWe’re on vacation and my friend is a masseuse so we like our massages
Hanlife 漢方洲
Tony brought us here, super authentic Chinese massage without frills. Definitely was manhandled but was really good. Upper body 60 min plus 20 min foot massage for 150rmb. We went back on out last night for a "navel massage".
6500-3853 or 8407-4455. Dongsheng, Beimencang 6 haolou 18hao 东城区北门仓6号楼18号
Acrobat Show
Super tourist trap and they have these all over China, but we loved the Chinese acrobat show. It’s at TianDi Theater (near Hanlife). We got hooked up through Tony, 250rmb each for front-middle seats. 19:15 show every day, and it was surreal. Loved it.
