03-27-2006

Beijing Photos and Trip Report

Amanda and I got back from Beijing about a week ago. It was a whirlwind trip, since we only had six days to spend there.

The highlight of the trip was visiting the Great Wall. On our second day in the city, we woke up in the middle of the night. Since we couldn’t sleep, we decided to get started towards the Badaling section of the wall. Rather than take the $80+ tour or hire a private car for $100, we opted to take the subway, then the local #919 bus. For two of us, the subway fare totalled about $1.50 round trip and $6 for the bus. We got to Badaling around 7am and it was still pretty quiet. The tour groups were just rolling in around the time we left.

The Chaoyang Theatre Acrobatics show was also impressive. The tickets were pricey, at $25 each for a one hour show, but the talent was top notch.

The most impressive food was at the two restaurants inside the Grand Hyatt. I had read multiple recommendations on Chowhound.com for the Made in China restaurant, but it was booked up the first night we went. Instead, we tried the restaurant downstairs called Noble Court. The food and service were excellent. We went back for the “Beijing Duck” at Made in China a few nights later and were even more impressed.

The Beijing Zoo was mostly depressing. The pandas had a decent enclosure, but with $2 admission, it’s not all that surprising that the cages for many of the other animals were dilapidated. The newly built aquarium—located inside the zoo but with a separate $12.50 admission fee—was impressive at first. However, you soon realize that the exhibit area is rather small and most of the building houses the dolphin show. Unfortunately, we were pressed for time and weren’t able to stick around for the show.

Another downer was our hotel. Luckily, we got a good deal via Priceline. The lobby of the hotel smelled very strongly of stale smoke. Overall it had little worth recommending, except for the huge grocery store in the basement of the attached mall. I was amazed to find that I could get Dr. Pepper (in the imported foods section) for about $1 per can. My favorite find was the bottled green tea they stocked, at less than $1 for about 1.5 liters. I probably drank about 8-10 liters while we were there. Now that I’m home, I’m hoping I can find some comparable bottled green tea at one of the local Asian grocery stores.

I enjoyed the trip and I’m glad we went, but Beijing is not high on my list of destinations to recommend to others. I know that they’re trying to make the city more tourist friendly in preparation for the Summer Olympic games in 2008, but I wouldn’t consider it particularly tourist friendly yet. In hindsight, I would have planned and researched more, to try to avoid some of the less impressive attractions.

I’ve posted my favorite photos from the trip. I’d love to hear feedback about the photos or from others who’ve been to Beijing.

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Posted by Matt in food, photography, travel | RSS 2.0

2 Responses to “Beijing Photos and Trip Report”
  1. Sandra Says:

    Did you see any hotels you wished you’d stayed at instead (on the cheap side)? Also, about how much did your wife pay for the custom dress and was it Asian looking?

    Thanks,

  2. Matt Says:

    Sandra,

    I don’t remember any detail about other hotels, except for the Hyatt, which looked very nice, but definitely wouldn’t be on the cheap side.

    Amanda says she paid around $100 for the dress and yes, it was an Asian design. The store where we bought it was near Tiananmen Square and it was recommended in the Lonely Planet Beijing guidebook.

    - Matt

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