Beijing

SarahSassy

Has anyone been there, can you recommend somewhere to stay and which flight operators is best.

Also what is there to do in or around Beijing

Thanks

PonyP

Hi. I went to Beijing in January a couple of years ago. Very very cold at that time of the year. I flew out on my own to meet a friend who was living out there at the time. I flew with Lufthansa and flew Dublin- Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Beijing and I think the flight cost around €600.00 at the time. Great airline, good service on board, no delays, good in-flight movies so I would definitely recommend using them. While I can't remember the name of the place I stayed in, it was a budget hotel based near the Workers Stadium. It was really cheap but not that great so I would recommend staying in a fancier hotel as I believe that they are great value for money compared to 4,5 star hotels in Europe. I did loads out in Beijing, went to Tianmem Square, Forbidden CitySummer Palace, loads of markets, went outside the city and climbed the Great Wall at Simatai (this is a 5 km section of the Great Wall and quite a difficult walk if one is very unfit!). It's an easy enough city to get around as they have a very good metro (underground) system. Shopping wasn't that great in the shops but the markets were really good for bargains but the Chinese really make you haggle!

I had a really good holiday over there, a real experience and I hope you have a great time too when you go!

Imposter

I was a month there with work. i pretty much seen the sights PonyP mentioned. Simatai is really to be recommended if you are in any way fit. It's far from easy but the views are amazing and there are a lot less tourists than at other parts on the wall.

There are a few scams that plague the tourist areas. Never go drinking tea if you get invited. Take a proper taxi from the airport (yellow and another colour with a proper taxi sign on top) not some chancer with a random sign on top.

I'd suggest not going with Lufthanza though. I find them crap for long hall flights. I flew over to Beijing with Austrian Airlines and back with Lufthanza. I'd recommend Austrian over lufthanza any day for long hall flights. I'm sure there must be other options in europe though.

Girl From Tipp

I stayed at the Park Plaza Wanfujung and definitely reccomend it. It wasn't budget at about €70/night for a double room (in september) but the rooms were really nice, the staff were excellent and it was a ten minute stroll to Wangfujing st

Agree with PonyP and Imposter about Simatai, the hotel arranged a taxi for us and it was well worth the extra travelling. I really enjoyed visiting the Lama Temple, Summer Palace and Forbidden City - make sure you have plenty of time to explore the Forbidden city, there's so much to see if you're not rushing around it. I found the Temple of Heaven quite boring to be honest, and the Natural History Museum was a waste of time.
Houhai Lake was great for bars, with lots of comfy couches and lanterns lit around the lake at night giving the place a nice atmosphere, though drinks were very expensive.

As Imposter said, make sure you get a legit taxi, there'll be a big queue outside the airport arrivals but it moves really quickly and there are airport employees as you get in the taxi to help you with telling the driver your destination - we didn't find many that spoke english . Make sure the driver of any taxi you get while you're there turns on the meter, the dodgy ones seemed to hang out around the major tourist attractions looking for fares.

We flew with KLM, which turned out to be a codeshare with China Southern Airlines, there was no space on the plane when whoever is sitting in front of us put back their seat, i'm quite small but i found it cramped. But the price was the best for that time of year and i slept for a lot of the flight