Hey China, what's up?

May 29, 2007 12:29 AM

This time next week I'll be in China. To say the least, I'm extremely excited. I'll be there for more than a month and I'll be staying in Beijing for the most part. Tell me all the crazy things I can do, spare no details or costs [okay, maybe spare some costs]. I'm more than willing to travel around.
posted by 913 to travel & transportation (15 comments total)

Hey! I was in Beijing for five weeks a few years ago and had a really amazing time - exciting, energizing, eye-opening!

Just to add to the answers you might get here in this question here are the Ask Mefi questions tagged with Beijing. Some of them are about suggestions for vacations, so right up your alley. If you search for Beijing in the Ask Mefi search box you'll probably find even more... Good luck on your trip!
posted by Slothrop at 1:44 AM on May 29, 2007

I'd highly recommend getting a tour of the Hutong Neighborhood in Beijing. These neighborhoods are disappearing in the wake of China's modernization. Spring for the cost of a guide so you can get a real understanding of the place. Take a rickshaw to get close to the action.
posted by quadog at 1:53 AM on May 29, 2007

For heaven's sake, stay away from rickshaws if you want to see anything more than the standard "tourist route" of hutongs, crowded with 10,000 other rickshaws. Just get a bike (you can rent or buy an old used bike for something like $20) and go around yourself. You will get lost and find your way again, and it will be fun.

If you are going to be in Beijing for longer than a week, the best advice I can give you is buying this book: Insider Guide to beijing 2007. it is not a travel guide, but more of a city guide, oriented at the expats who live here. It will give you all the low-down, is up-to-date (much more so than any travel guide like lonely planet or rough guide) and is pretty well-written (although I dare say they employed a few too many bored English majors in copywriting). You can pick this up pretty readily in Egnlish language bookstores in Beijing so don't go out of your way to get it before your arrival. As far as other guides, in my experience the Lonely Planet guide to beijing is worthless, but the Lonely Planet guide to China is pretty good. If you will travel outside Beijing, I recommend it.

Some things I recommend:
-- Eat baotzi on the street! They are sold everywhere - buns filled with a myriad different thing, but usually meat or vegetables (sometimes sesame paste). They cost basicaly nothing, and are delicious. Wash them down with some warm soy milk, probably sold by the same street vendor. A perfect breakfast or snack.
-- Dashanzi (aka798 art factory district) -- a former factory in an indescript northeast neightborhood, filled with over 100 crazy art galleries. You can spend days here.
-- Summer palace, for a chance to gawk at the marble boat (search for "empress cixi marble boat" to get the story).
-- Forbidden city, because everyone does it. Come really early in the morning to avoid crowds and save the mid-day heat for the tourist buses.
-- Bars in Wudaokou district to see the effect of euro-american pop culture exports on China. Friday night at Propaganda is meat market supreme, and is just fascinating to observe. Stay away from Sanlitun bar streets, as they have basically nothing in common with China
-- Area just South of Ritan park, specifically around Yabalou Lu, for a bizarre experience of a little piece of Russia in China. Eat in a Russian restaurant with a karaoke show for a real "cultural experience". OK, so I am Russian, maybe this stuff amuses me more than an average person.
-- Great wall trips: do not under any circumstances go to badaling, this is what it looks like. Near Beijing, the most interesting sites are Simatai and Jinshanling, but they are getting increasingly crowded as well. The standard route is to arrive Jinshanling and walk to Simatai - hire a car and have a driver drop you off at one end and pick up at another. The wall in-between ranges from completely restored to crumbling apart and threatening to kill you. You will be relentlessly pursued by locals trying to sell you postcards.
-- One surreal experience you won't find in any guidebook is to go the Renmin university campus in Haidian around 9 pm on Friday night, and wander around until you find the English language corner (it's in a dark, unlit square, good luck). You will find dozens, sometimes hundreds of people all practicing their Chinese skills, most of them at high intermediate level. Anyone who looks Western gets mobbed with people who just want to talk to you, about anything. It's really an awesome experience if you are at all outgoing, and you are helping people practice their language skills, to boot.
-- The Temple of Heaven temple and park are really amazing, and really mobbed with tourists. But if you come really, really early - before 7 am - you can enter the park and watch beijing like it was decades ago - old people doing tai chi and playing badmindton and walking their song birds, and, and... the list goes on. If you are flying from US, you will probably be conveniently jet-lagged the first few days, and waking up at 5 am - use it to your advantage.
-- Speaking of hutongs, the area around drum and bell tower is pretty cool after 7-ish, when all the tourists leave. The tower courtyard has a couple of cool restaurants, or you can just buy a few 3 kuai bottles of beer from the corner store and wander around, and drink in the atmosphere all night. Beijing is super-safe, so you can let loose.
-- Personal services like massages are incredibly cheap in China. If you are at all into this sort of thing, I urge you to get a massage (foot or full body) as often as possible. A foot massage costs in the range of 60 kuai (the rate is 7.7 kuai to 1 US dollar) and you will feel like you are walking on clouds afterwards.


If you have any questions about Beijing or traveling in China, feel free to drop an email to the address in the profile. I've been living in Beijing for the last 7 months, but am actually leaving (sniff, sniff) at the end of next week.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 2:26 AM on May 29, 2007 [6 favorites]

One more thing: I am usually a very independent traveler and loathe the thought of a tour company, but traveling in China can be difficult without an open schedule (especially because train ticket booking system is so damn antiquated). I ended up going on a tour with these people once, and was very happy with the result. They were what a tour compnay should be - friendly, helpful, give you lots of information during transit and then basically leave you to your own devices. Absolutely no shopping stops or attempts to extract more money from you than what you pay for the tour itself. I highly recommend checking out the list of things they do (particularly the 2-3 day trips outside Beijing) and seeing if there is anything you want to join.

On the other hand, I went on several trips around China by myself, and that was tons of fun too, partly because of the whole damn unpredictability of it. Your call completely.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 2:29 AM on May 29, 2007

Definitely what Slothrop said, but here's a few of my own favorite things to do.

Spend a weekend in Shanghai. Take the overnight train there and back to save on hotel costs. See the Bund, go clubbing, walk around the city in your pajamas at night.

Back in Beijing, look for the bomb-shelter tunnels that run under the neighborhoods south of Tian'anmen.

Eats lots and lots of food. Especially carmelized banana and Peking duck.

Look up the concert schedule for the Nameless Highlands and catch a punk or metal show.

Watch a Beijing opera performance at the Chang'an Theater. Ask for one with English sub-titles (I'm not kidding).

See if the Beijing Linux Users Group is meeting that month. Introduce yourself.

Don't miss the Great Wall at Badaling and the Summer Palace.

Take the metro lots. Take a random bus and get off when it looks interesting, and then catch a taxi back. Taxis are relatively cheap.

Take lots and lots of pictures. Learn a few Chinese phrases. And enjoy the crowds, don't hate them. You'll be in a country with over a billion people, they're part of the scenery.
posted by msittig at 2:33 AM on May 29, 2007

Did I say Great Wall at Badaling? Ugh, I meant Simatai.
posted by msittig at 2:35 AM on May 29, 2007

Don't be too embarassed to wear a bike helmet.

I've seen precisely ONE chinese cyclist wearing a helmet. They're like WWI pilots - the only reason they're alive is because they survived long enough to know how not to get killed.

It's a catch 22, and you're likely to die before your tour of duty ends.
posted by BeaverTerror at 2:42 AM on May 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Call this dude when you're ready for the Great Wall. Most of the other spots are as everyone else described them - reconstructed and full of tourists. The place that guy'll set you up with is completely empty, crumbling, and AWESOME. The pictures on his sites don't even do it justice.

If you like clubbing, Banana is insane (I assume it's still open).
posted by borkingchikapa at 2:59 AM on May 29, 2007

Take long wanders in the street at night and witness all the things happening between the hour of 11:00pm and 2:00am...
posted by NewBornHippy at 3:02 AM on May 29, 2007

I've been living in China for almost a year now but only bought a (good) bike last week. I'm floored by how much everything has opened up. I can stop anytime I see a little park or temple or interesting food stand. I can walk around or read or people watch. It beats the hell out of flying by in taxis and buses.

Find a good bike, bring a good map.
posted by trinarian at 4:45 AM on May 29, 2007

If you decide to travel to the rest of China at all and are interested in seeing some amazing places (like the Miao villages, etc.), contact Louisa Wumin. She is a guide who is reasonably priced and will take you everywhere. She negotiates prices for you and translates. Very trustworthy and extremely savvy. (She used to work for China's train companies, speaks excellent English.)

We backpacked with her and had an incredible time.

chinese_louisa_wu (at) yahoo (dot) com

Hopefully that email is still current.
posted by jeanmari at 4:50 AM on May 29, 2007

Contact these folks. Its a really fun and good way to see the central city when you first get there to take one of their bicycle tours. They also have all sorts of excursion trips. Their prices are reasonable and they have friendly, English-speaking guides. The park across the street from their HQ is really fun on Sundays as it is mobbed with groups of old Beijingers singing patriotic tunes in groups.

You can get your own "good" bike at Carrefor or, gleep, Wal Mart for about 300 RMB. This bike will last you for the time you are there if you get a decent lock. Get a "lady bike" as it is easier to jump on and off in an emergency or at lights. Be sure you get a good basket too.

Any idea where you are living? I can give you area specific advise if youd like.

City wide, I'd say hit the Military Museum (for Socialist-Realist overkill), 798 Art Factory,... heck just follow Alex's advice above. Eat street food, baozi, jaozi, chuanr, anything. Drink baijiu until you puke (and then avoid it at all cost like the rest of us, at least the sane ones). Drink Yanjing beer, not that qingdao crap. Avoid Badaling at all cost!

More answers if needed username at hotmail.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:54 AM on May 29, 2007

Badaling is better then not seeing the great wall at all, and it is the most convenient location relative to Beijing, it is touristy, but it is still the wall.

EAT.DUCK. I do not care if you are a veagan (that wouldnt fly over there anyways, everything is either vegan or carne of some sort), you are not allowed to go to Beijing without having Beijing KaoYa(Roast Duck). Also try a Jidan Bing, this is my favorite street food (although its better in the south, southern cuisine is inferior in my opinion but they have better street food), and it is far superior to BaoZi for breakfast (but they cost like 35 cents, so you can do both).

I don't think anyone has mentioned the Summer Palace yet, and if you are lucky enough to go on a nice day you will see once of the most beautiful examples of landscaping east of Versailles, but go very early, like 6 am, it will just be you and old people then, and that is a great way to see it.

Also my favorite place in Beijing is the Dirt Market, it is an "antiques" market, located in a working class section of the city, and in it you will see amazing replicas of Chinese cultural history and art, it is by far the best place to buy your souvineers. It is called PanJiaYan(r), again go very early, all the good stuff is closed by 8 am. You should also see Silk Market and Pearl Market, but those are crap, unless you want to buy knock of clothing, which is also fun to do.

This is a city that wakes up early, and so should you, if you are coming from North America then it will probably be your inclination to go to bed early and wake up very early for the first few days, don't fight it, wake up with the Beijingren and see the real city.

For stuff in the area, get a guide to take you to Pingyao, its essentially a preserved Qing Dynasty trading city in the Shanxi province, and while it is very dirty, it is AMAZING.
posted by BobbyDigital at 9:10 AM on May 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hey! I'm going to be in Beijing June 11 - 15, and I don't have much planned. The Ting's tour of the Great Wall was ridiculously highly rated by my friend; if you'd want to try it with me my email is in my profile...
posted by armacy at 11:16 AM on May 29, 2007

I lived in Beijing for 9 months a while back, but most of my recommendations have been mentioned already. To reiterate:

If you can spare the time to go to the wild part of Yellow Flower (Huanghua) wall instead of Badaling, I highly recommend it.
Either walk or bike yourself though the city. Nothing beats finding weird and wonderful things around every corner.
We did bus roulette, like msittig said, all the time. No matter where you end up, you can take a bus or taxi back. The coolest experiences of meeting people and being invited to tea and such was from bus roulette trips.
The Dirt Market is amazing, but go early before the hordes of tourists show up.
Second whoever said to do the Temple of Heaven (or any major park, really) early in the morning to see the tai chi ladies, the walking-backwards people, the old bird men etc. that are not there later in the day. Then stop by the market on the NE side of the Temple of Heaven complex - it's a total tourist trap but you will see things for sale that you would never, ever imagine even existed...
Get a haircut from a street barber
Eat some Xinjiang food... ahhh yummy mutton!
Watch people fly kites on Tiananmen square, if you're lucky
Forbidden and Summer palaces are not to be missed
Watch the cook prepare pulled noodles that then gets served to you in soup - Malan Lamian was our favorite "chain" restaurant
Whatever you do, make sure to try to take the metro and buses, or ride bikes as often as you can - the experience is so far removed from taking taxis everywhere that it's not even funny...

Have fun! I wish I was going back, I miss it badly.
posted by gemmy at 5:07 PM on May 29, 2007