Brilliant Beijing (Beijing)

Member Name: Wiggles1988

Product:	Beijing
Date:	24/10/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great place for a different holiday

Disadvantages: Can be very hot

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 sure whether I felt more or less safe with all the police and soldiers/guard about.

The city area is very large (6,487 square miles), so you are not quite as aware of just how many people actually live there as you might be, as the metropolitan area has a population of almost 12 million. As for the nine million bicycles? I certainly saw a fair few, but I had more important things to be doing than counting them. I'm not convinced though.


Bizarrely, as I had always understood Beijing to be extremely polluted, the air condition in Beijing was pretty good. The sky was clear almost every day which I'm sure helped this. The only hint of pollution was an occasional odd taste in your mouth, the people I was travelling with didn't seem to notice so perhaps it was just me, but this was definitely worse on the few cloudy days.

There are many things to do and sights to see in and around Beijing. I think that during our stay we covered most of them, despite only being there 8 days. It was a very busy trip! We visited; Tian'amen square, the Forbidden City, the Silk Market, the Honqauio Pearl Market, the Temple of Heaven, the Lama Temple, the Olympic site, the Great wall, the Ming Tombs, a Jade carving factory, and saw traditional oriental pottery making. Also, as I was with a couple of theme park fanatical friends, I visited the Beijing Happy Valley theme park.

All these touristy things to do were pretty good; I particularly enjoyed visiting Tian'amen square and the Temple of Heaven which is situated in a large public park. However, visiting at a cooler time of year is a good idea as most of these areas are very exposed and you could frazzle in a minute if you are not used to the heat. I couldn't count the number of bottles of water I went through in my time there.


Transport in Beijing is alright, but certainly not as developed or reliable as in Hong Kong. I used the subway regularly in my time there, unlike in Hong Kong there was no pass you could purchase to simply swipe and go, you had to buy a ticket every time. The underground is a bit disjointed and not every stop is in English as well as Mandarin as we had come to expect from our time in Hong Kong so it is certainly worth finding yourself an up to date English copy of the underground route. Be aware that most tourist guides available in the UK currently have an out of date copy.

On the plus side Beijing taxis were much cheaper than Hong Kong taxis, however they also tended not to take you if it was a "short" journey, much to our dismay after a long day's outing where we then had to trek to find the nearest metro station.

As Beijing is such a large area it does take more time to do all the touristy things you may like to, so it is a good idea to plan in advance a rough itinerary for your trip.


Useful things to have for your trip to Beijing include; a basic Mandarin phrase book which also tells you how to pronounce the words phonetically, strong insect repellent if you plan on visiting the Great wall, sun-cream(!!) and an up to date city map. Also wise to have a body wallet for your passport and credit card as pick pocketing is common in touristy areas. I always wore mine and had a cheap bag with some cash and bits n bobs in it so that if someone did try to rob me they would think they had everything if I gave them that bag. Perhaps I'm simply paranoid.

Best times to visit Beijing temperature wise: March, April, October, November, May and September. I went in late June... Very hot!

Overall Beijing was a great city to visit, with lots to enjoy and plenty to do. There really is something for everyone in this exciting city.

Summary: Great place to visit, use your time there wisely