Miyun Tourist Traps

This place charges too much for entrance to the park. It is a nice park with a stream but nothing that special. At the back end of the park at Heilongzhentan there is a long-running scam which has not been shut down. It is a raft ride, pay in advance, which the operators claim will take you 60 meters into a cave. There is no cave and the ride itself is ridiculously short, basically around a corner. We found out later that this is a well-known scam to the locals, but nothing is done to warn people or to shut it down.
Generally, We found locals in this area of the Miyun countryside less helpful and more money-grubbing than anywhere we have traveled before. Also, somewhere along the way they learned to try to ask for a tip on top of the already high prices for services.

Unique Suggestions: If you go to Miyun, enjoy the clean and pleasant downtown, maybe go to the reservoir, but don't wander further afield without a knowledgeable guide, even if you speak Chinese as we do. People will try to rip you off.

Fun Alternatives: The alternatives include the pleasant Miyun Olympic Sports Park, and perhaps sections of the Great Wall in eastern Miyun. The villagers in western Miyun, including our at our country inn, were just so greedy that it put a damper on our overnight trip.