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No.18 Dadoufu Alley, Dongsi West Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, Beijing Region, 100010, China
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That's me!
Imperial women!
facing 17 arch bridge in Kunming Lake
the detergent
Hi, I'm heading down to Beijing next week with my family and we'll most probably be staying at the NobleTimes Hotel (not Novotel hotel), is this hotel alright? It's some tour promotion and this was the hotel allocated to us.
How's the weather there like now? What clothings should I bring over?
Any nice shopping areas (for the ladies?)
Any good eating spots? Preferably chinese food?
Thanks for helping!
You must realise that this is China and there's no "Chinese" food around. Chinese cuisine has many regional specialties eg Shanghainese, Cantonese, Huaiyang, Sichuan, Hunan etc.
Also realise that you're in the capital of China which will have plenty of aforementioned restaurants. Without a price range or any other pointers, I don't think it's useful to list down all the "good" places to eat.
Try Gui Jie (near Yonghegong Lamasery) for food; and Xidan, Wangfujing etc for shopping.
Look on http://weather.msn.com/local.aspx?wealocations=wc:CHXX0008 and http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/54511.html for weather information.
You can hardly go to Beijing and not eat Peking Duck. The most famous Peking Duck restaurant in the whole world is Quanjude
http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_madeinchina/2006-02/20/content_79498.htm
guests have included Nixon and Kissinger
It is an enormous place, on three floors (at least). No need to book.
Another good place to visit is Lao She Teahouse. This one you do need to book. Basically it's a kind of cabaret with snacks served.
http://www.wcities.com/en/record/,56825/78/record.html
It will be a little cool in Beijing in March so you will need some warm clothes but too heavy. It probably will be reasonably dry though. I suggest you can buy clothes, food etc on Wangfujing Street - the main shopping area in Beijing.
I was fortunate to have been in Beijing when China celebrated 50 years of communism. The official anniversary is October 1, but the celebrations lasted for a week. The entire city was decorated with flowers and lanterns and at night the whole city was splendidly illuminated. Beijing really showed its best side during the week of celebrations. Please do not leave until you checked out my new 'China@50' travelogue where you can find more info and photos.
It's the most celebrated of the country's about 350 regional styles - a unique combination of song, dance, acrobatics and mime with some similarities to Western pantomime. Beijing opera is highly stylized and to the outsider can often seem obscure to the point of absurdity and ulitmately tedious since performances can last up to four hours, punctuated by a succession of crashing gongs and piercing, almost discordant songs. But it's worth seening once and if you can acquaint youself with the plot beforehand, there is a definite fascination.
For the most authentic performances try the Zhengyici Theater, the only surviving wooden Beijing Opera left. Nightly performances begin at 7:30, last two hours and cost 150 Yuan. Dinner (Duck) costs and additional 110 Yuan. (when I was in that theater, maybe now the prices are a little bit higher)
I have already posted a review about Houhai, but it is worth adding to that, recommending that the visitor takes a boat trip on the lake at sunset.
Hiring a boat provides a leisurely end to the afternoon. Electric (battery) powered motorboats cost from RMB60 (with RMB240 deposit) for an hour, with rowing boats less.
There are maybe ten different places to rent boats.
Many of the boats have a table in the middle, and whole families and gangs of people rent a boat, head out with a few beers and just play cards, drink or read on the peaceful waters.
The southernmost lake, which for many people *is* Houhai is usually more crowded, especially the bottleneck through the bridge. The much larger northern lake opens out and provides plenty of space to slowly motor or row around.
Watching the sun go down over the lake is just great!
Lai Tai is best known for being on the absurdly named 'Lady Street' and next to an alleyway called 'Lady Dressing Plaza'. It's common for areas or streets in China to have these kinds of functionally accurate, yet bizarre names!
Lai Tai is a big hanger full of plants, flowers, xiaoshan and aquarium shops: it's the horticultural Silk Market.
Yet below the roots of all these plants is two full floors of small shops. The first mezzanine floor has a lot of good jewellery shops, a number of shops selling porcelain and bags, and a good number of nail salons. At the back is an avenue of shoe and luggage shops.
Go down one floor further and there is a huge area of clothing shops, including some that sell ethnic clothing and even one with US army surplus. Lai Tai manages to avoid attracting tourists altogether, and is nowhere near as crowded as Hongqiao or Jilin Plaza.
Most of the shoppers are locals, and most of the foreigners work nearby.
I find the metro as a very quick and efficient way to get around Beijing. Very easy to understand and is guided in English. The chances of getting lost or getting on the wrong line is very slim. Annoucements are made (In Mandarin and English) prior to arrival at the next station so u always know what the next station is. I feel that the metro system deserves a credit. However, the ticket purchasing and collection system can be improved. Currently ticket is collected manually and this can be tedious at peak times.
It cost 3yuan (as at Mar2004) for each trip, doesnt matter where you get off. Which means the further you are travelling, the more worth it is.
As at Mar 2004, there are 2 lines - Yi Sian (Line 1) and Huan Sian (Circle Line).
However, try to avoid weekends and peak hours because one Saturday i wanted to take the metro from Xidan back to Wangfujing and it was crowded all the way to the stairway entrance. Couldn't even make my way to the ticket counter. And non-locals will never win the pushing competition against the locals!
So i ended up taking a taxi which is cheap too.
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