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China Info | Going
To China | Beijing | Yellow Mountains |
BEIJING The list of things to do and see just from Beijing is quite impressive and planning the daily trips and tours on your own is half the fun. English will be spoken in the hotels, and they can advise you on where to go. You can see many of the highlights of China from Beijing. The Great Wall, Hutong Tour, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square etc. all of which can (should) be done by tour group or through your hotel after you get to China. Selecting a particular tour, a day or so in advance of the tour through your hotel, should be no problem. The tours are not expensive, will usually include a palatable foreigner-friendly lunch, and are very well run. Hopefully your hotel room has a Western style toilet. I'd strongly advise you to use that bathroom before you leave the hotel, because you won't want to make any stops at any of the thousands of sub-standard toilet facilities outside your hotel unless absolutely necessary. If you'd like to venture out on your own to a nightclub or restaurant, it is simply a matter of going to the front desk of your hotel and asking them to write your destination in Chinese on the back of the hotel business card. Show the written destination to the cab driver, pay the amount on the meter when you arrive and have a good time. To get back, show the hotel side of the business card to the driver to get back to the hotel. There is a strong possibility that you will find very few people who speak your language unless you are in Shanghai. (You'll hear English everywhere in Hong Kong, but that's a whole different destination) This is why it is important not to lose your Chinese notes and hotel cards. If you lose them, you'll have a whale of a time trying to explain to the sympathetic Chinese people around you what the heck you're trying say. When all else fails, always have a plan to get back to your hotel. The hotel is your friend. You need a friend in China. Put a hotel business card in your wallet, another in your pants pocket, and another in your shoe! And keep a stash of extra cash and your ATM/credit cards in your hotel safe (or the hotel safe behind the front desk) so if all goes terribly wrong, and your wallet drops out of your pants pocket into the sub-standard toilet (a deep dark hole cut into the floor) as you perch yourself precariously above it (wallets are lost this way more often than you would believe) you can pull out your hotel's business card, catch a cab back to your hotel, get your back-up stash of cash to pay the confused cabbie who followed you into the hotel wondering why you wouldn't pay him, and start over again with a fresh slate. The Hotel will calm the cabbie. People in the hotel speak your language. They will translate your problem to the cabbie. The hotel is your friend. They won't find it all that funny, and they will probably remain strangely serious throughout (making things even more tense) but things will work out . . . as long as you can get back to your hotel. Don't ever forget - YOUR HOTEL IS YOUR FRIEND. Fun Factor
- Communist feel. Think I'm kidding? It's the only place I've ever been
where I actually felt like they suspected I was James Bond. Don't let the above items fool you, I fully recommend this hotel. Choosing another hotel in Beijing could well get you half the comfort this hotel offers. Built in 1900, this large hotel is located within 5 minutes walking distance from Tiananmen Square. The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, and Hutong tour, all can be booked from your hotel. The rooms here are old and stately, though renovations have supposedly taken place. If you are lucky enough to get a front facing balcony in even a standard room, you'll have a perfect view of the main thoroughfare where the tanks and missiles are paraded during special events. McDonald's and KFC are within walking distance. After a couple days you'll likely be anxious to walk to these predictable jems with their familiar menus, and you'll find other Westerners there with the same idea. Don't go to China thinking you're going to have the best Chinese food you've ever eaten or you're in for a big letdown. Obviously there are exceptions and some great restaurants in the major cities, but finding them on your own will be tricky, reading the menu and conversing with the restaurant staff will be downright impossible, and outside the major cities - forget it. You are a stranger in Beijing and they are not yet set up for mass tourism.** Keep in mind that the McDonald's chain is a real hit in Beijing. Getting in will be an exercise and getting a seat nearly impossible. Whenever you encounter crowds in China - push your way in or be pushed back like a feeble lion cub. Cuing up in lines has not been adopted in most parts of Asia. * A note about travelers
checks. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but we Americans have
become sloppy with our penmanship. People rarely scrutinize the signature
on the back of a credit card, and we all figure the cashier is hardly
a handwriting analyst anyway, so who cares what they think. But if your
signature does not come out exactly the same as you stand in front
of the Beijing Hotel staff, they will have you sign it over, and over,
and over until you can prove you are really the owner of the checks with
an exact duplicate signature. So if you intend on using Travelers Checks
- sign C-A-R-E-F-U-L-L-Y. |
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