Beijing Travel Guide

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Beijing Hotels
With some of the priciest real estate in the country Beijing has few budget beds available to foreigners. There is a plethora however, of mid-range reasonable value accommodation and a selection of stunning five star hotels. Hotels catering to the business traveller are clustered around Hongqiao and Pudong and tourist-focused ones in the Bund and Nanjing Lu. For best deals on Beijing hotel bookings, visit Traveller's Discounts HotelClub - the web's best online hotel reservation service. For the cheapest deals on budget Beijing hotel and hostel bookings, visit Traveller's Discounts Hostel Bookings - the web's best online budget hotel and hostel reservation service.

Beijing sits astride a vast plateau, 180km from the sea to the east and ringed by mountains on three sides. The city’s name means "Northern Capital" and for centuries has been at the heart of China’s introspective political power. Now, as the country turns to face the world and become its next superpower then so shall Beijing be its central axis. Seat of imperial intrigues, fought over by Mongol tribes, seized by Mao and courted by the West, it disdains the cosmopolitan hedonism of its coastal siblings Shanghai, Macau and Hong Kong and focuses purely on the ascetic pursuit of building and exercising its political muscle. To reflect this, Bejing has been designed to inspire awe in the visitor. The immense scale of the city with its runway-like boulevards, sprouting skyscrapers, historical showpieces and constantly flowing rivers of people can be overwhelming at first until you plunge in and stride with the purpose of its 14 million inhabitants. While it has its magnificent imperial treasures acting as anchors to the past it is also dazzlingly modern and is already well buffed for its prized role as host of the 2008 Olympic Games. Admire its colossal size and influence to be sure, but don’t forget to take a peek at its human side that can found by wandering down a laneway, through a tucked-away park or at a curbside stall where the locals slip away from the gaze of the city and for a moment escape its insistent presence.

Beijing Hotel Bookings
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Recent Traveller's Tips Submitted by our Members The Beijing Tea House Scam The Beijing Teahouse scam is a well known and common scam where western tourists are befriended by young Chinese students who are eager to "practice their English". The tourists are lured into near tea houses to sample various Chinese teas. All goes seemingly well until the bill arrives. The Beijing Tea House Scam Posted By murray from Melbourne on Sun August 12th, 2007 Login or register to post a tip.

Beijing Airport
Beijing’s airport – Capital International, is 28km north-east of the city centre which takes around 40 minutes by road. Bus shuttles cost Y16 and a taxi trip is about Y70 plus a Y15 charge for the highway toll. Avoid the taxi touts who may approach you to try and get triple the going rate. Few taxi drivers speak English so make sure you have the name of your destination written in Chinese.

Sightseeing Highlights
Other civilizations housed their rulers in castles and grand palaces but such was the scale of the Middle Kingdom that it took an entire city to do justice to the power of the Emperor. Closed to ordinary Chinese for half a millennium and a pleasure dome for generations of Emperors, the Forbidden City is Beijing’s magnetic core drawing in armies of tourists to gape at the walled metropolis. Visitors could easily spend a day roaming its halls, pavilions and vast plazas in the state of awe that the City was specifically designed to engender.

Almost a kilometre long and built on a north-south axis, enter its southern end at the Gate of Heavenly Peace to see it unfold in all its glory. A vast semi-open area contains Zhongshan Park and a series of buildings including the Workers Cultural Palace, the Forbidden City Concert Hall and the Square Altar before you enter the walled City. Progress through the Meridian Gate, that was once the sole preserve of the Emperor and choose one of five marble bridges to cross the Golden Stream. Then comes the Supreme Harmony Gate which affords a panoramic view over a plaza that can contain 100,000 people and at the centre of the City itself, are the three great halls – Supreme Harmony, Middle Harmony and Preserving Harmony. They all perch on a raised terrace made of marble. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the single biggest structure in the complex where the Emperor held court from the Dragon Throne and was used for the most important ceremonies such as Imperial coronations and celebrations for the Emperor’s birthday.

Pass through the Heavenly Purity Gate into a compound holding three smaller buildings that echo the great halls – the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union and the Earthly Tranquillity Palace. The last section of the City is made up of the Imperial Garden, the Thousand Autumns Pavilion and the Imperial Peace Hall before you exit via the Divine Military Genius Gate. On both flanks of the City’s central axis are a maze of living quarters for the household staff along with what were once libraries, garden courtyards, theatres and temples and more recently built museums to showcase aspects of imperial life.