Beijing Continuing my oriental adventure, my next stop was China's capital city, Beijing. I feel at this point I ought to inform you of my bias, favouring Beijing over Hong Kong, and admit that much of this may have been due to my having recovered from the mystery illness. In stark contrast the compact and crowded Hong Kong, Beijing is a big open city. I understand that much of it'd current cleanliness comes as a result of the clean up for the 2008 Olympic games, nevertheless it really was a surprisingly clean city, with far less pollution than Hong Kong. It is very obvious in Beijing that China is a communist state. I was never ...  Read the complete review

I recently returned from a trip to Beijing, which was the destination of our month long trip by train from Latvia. I loved every minute of my time there, it is a truly amazing city. There is so much to see and do, highly recommended are Tiananmen Square, Beihai Park on a Sunday, the Hutongs and the Temple of Heaven. However, my favourite part about Beijing was just wandering around, getting lost in back streets, watching what people were doing, and eating lots and lots of good Chinese food. The Hutongs were awesome, however my favourite time to go for a wander was at around 7pm, which is when people are going out, eating at home, or even welding. A favourite ...  Read the complete review

I visited Beijing for the first time fairly recently, during the month of June. On arrival at Beijing International Airport everyone on the flight from Heathrow, including myself were subjected to Swine Flu checks. It involved four government officials boarding the plain, sporting rubber gloves and face masks of whom were armed with temperature scanners, which reminded me of Ray Guns! I did not have a high temperature fortunately, although one passenger was not so lucky, i later found out they spent the following week in a detention center. Sounds delightful, doesn't it? I was supremely impressed by Beijing Airport, it was modern and well run. The sheer scale of it ...  Read the complete review

On part of my trip to Beijing I visited the Temple of Heaven or Tian Tan. The temple is located in South Beijing and as one of the main sights, pretty easy to get to. Tian Tan was built at the same time as the Forbidden City, and completed in 1420 by Emperor Yongle. The temple was built for the Emperor to pray and make sacrifices to Heaven at the winter solstice. The first section I saw was the Temple of Heaven (or Qinian Dian), it is a beautiful building. The building is round, and built of wood - apparently without any nails! The building is round to symbolise Heaven, and the actual park around it is square to represent the Earth. The building is ...  Read the complete review

Introduction Having lived in Beijing for ten years until recently, first as a student, then working, I wanted to give a more personal view of the city – all too many people go to Beijing with the wrong expectations and come home disappointed. I hope that this will help to guide anyone that is planning to visit Beijing in the near future. If you are planning to go, then the first thing that you should do is buy a copy of the Lonely Planet Guide to China - I think there is even one that concentrates on Beijing - this provides invaluable information on places to visit, how to get around the city and has a language guide for emergencies. Getting there A ...  Read the complete review