Forbidden City extra ticket required
by Confucius
If you want to go up to the Tiananmen gate rostrum then you must purchase a separate ticket. (It is not included with the 40 RMB admission fee to the Forbidden City.) Come on, it's only 15 RMB! That's less than 2 US dollars and part of the proceeds go toward preservation of those nice big red lanterns. It is definitely worth it for the view of Tiananmen Square looking south and of the Forbidden City looking north.
For an additional fee, there is also a fancy souvenir certificate available marking the day and time that you ascended the Tiananmen Rostrum. It can be personalized with up to 4 Chinese characters or 16 English letters. It's really nice and comes with a booklet of beautiful photographs highlighting military processions during previous anniversaries.
The reason there is a strict 4 character limit for Chinese characters is because most Chinese names are comprised of 3 characters. This is a greedy tactic designed to prevent 2 people (you and your girlfriend/spouse/grandmother/concubine) from having both names on one certificate.
However if you look like a foreigner and pretend not to know much Mandarin, it is possible to trick the clerk by requesting the Chinese translation of your foreign name. This will enable you to have six Chinese characters, which of course is you and your Chinese girlfriend but the clerk will actually believe you are German or Croatian and make a special linguistic exception if you approach the kiosk alone and smile while asking. It worked for me, and I'm neither German or Croatian!
Playing chinese chess on the street
by Lemonita
When walking around in Beijing, especially in hutongs or by the lakes, we would see a lot of old people getting together to play cards, majiang, chinese chess or dominoes.
If you speak Mandarin, you can talk to them as old people are very friendly and they would even explain the rules of the games for you.
Covered Market
by herzog63
If you can find this market it is very interesting! I saw alot of people walking inside so I decided to follow !?! Hmmm.... where are they going I wondered? It ended up being a market that had an array of stuff. I have no idea of how to tell you how to get there or even where it was. I do know that it was in Beijing though. LOL Like alot of the things that I see while travelling are just stumbled upon. So I would never remember how to get back to the place again. But I guess that's the fun of travelling. I hope you can find it or a similar one.
HUGE WAREHOUSE -- WHOLESALE/RETAIL SALES...
by racayadi about BIG BUILDINGS CAN'T MISS.... ACROSS FROM THE ZOO..
I cannot choose only one category from the ones listed above... in this mega-warehouse ... more than five floors and 3-4 buildings -- stretching minimum 1.5 soccer football fields.... I may exaggerate but it is huge..
many stores in Northern China provinces buy here and then sell much higher in their stores... yes, I know basic math...
it is awesome.... you can't miss it... you find everything... shoes, purses, clothing, accesories, men's, women's, suitcases, brand stuff, junk, trinkets...
also, check out the basement floor -- even more stuff...
got money, got time, not too much energy to bargain, yet low prices..... go here...
take bus 111 heading north.... you'll find it north of St. Joseph's Cathedral square - on Wangfujing St.
go thru main streets, you leave the first ring road.... you see big shopping mall - pass it... then you see the BEIJING ZOO STOP -- most everyone gets off there...
get out... cross the street (use underground pedestrian path - safer) and buildings are to the left hand side of Planetarium or something like that... need to bargain.. not too much....
Local Buses
by M1rjam
You might think it is difficult to travel by local bus if you don't understand chinese, well it is at first :D but once you get the system it can be quite easy and the locals are very helpful. You should definately have a map or the address where you want to go written down so you could show it to them.
The local buses are also very cheap, so it is worth the effort if you want to save money on taxis.
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The Great Wall at Huanghua
Beijing
front
a vending machine
