Beijing Transportation

Beijing has opened a new Rail Line called the Beijing Dongzhimen-Airport Express Rail. It of course connects the International Airport with downtown Beijing.

The 28.5-km light rail system ride is expected to take 16 minutes and can save passengers more than 50 minutes during rush hour and will travel up to 110 kilomtres per hour leaving every 10 minutes.

It will stop at two downtown subway stations, Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao, and airport terminals 3 and 2.

Updates to come ....

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In one of my previous Tips I explained how I took a taxi from the Airport. On my following trip to Beijing I took the Shuttle Bus to the city center. This is my preferred method: It's a fraction of the cost, less stress, comfortable and faster than a taxi.

To get to the city centre by shuttle bus leave airport via exit 11 if it is an international flight arrival, or exit 7 if it is a domestic flight arrival. You will see the a 'China Mobile' Tower not far from where you need to buy the tickets (see attached Photograph). You buy the ticket near the bus stops and it is easy to find. There are different shuttle buses but it is best to take the bus to the main Beijing train station which will cost you 16 rmb. You will want to take the Shuttle from Line #3 which starts at 7:00 am and run quite often throughout the day. You will see a Blue Kiosk with a Yellow sign with Red Chinese and English writing. You can point to the fifth Shuttle on the list. (see attached Photograph) to let the attendant know which Shuttle you want. The trip can take up to an hour to the city centre.

The bus stops about 100 meters west of the Beijing Train Station. When you get off the bus, continue walking in the direction of the bus and you will see the station on the same side of the street as where you are walking. Be ware of touts as they know this is an airport shuttle and will pester you to take a tour or whatever. You can walk the few meters to the train station or to the Subway.

If you want to take the Subway to your destination, the Subway station is very close to the train station. If you are headed to the Forbidden City take the subway to the Qianmen subway station which lets you out right inside Tiananmen Square almost in front of the Mao Mausoleum. Subway costs 3rmb and you buy a ticket just inside the station before going down to the platform. Signage for the station and routes are in English as well as Chinese. There is also a Subway stop marked Lama Temple which is a very worth while tourist stop and so easy to get there via the subway such as it is a stop on the route.

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For many of us the Beijing Capital International Airport is our gateway to China. It is where it all begins and the excitement, the journey, the challenges unfold from here when you first step off the plane. A long flight is not likely the best begining and somehow after our 18 hour flight from Canada I am not sure my 19 year old daughter and I were up to it. To this day, when we travel, we always refer to a bad experience as a cultural experience and somehow it gives it the significance to make it better.

The airport is very modern and looks like any typical international airport found in Europe or North America. You will discover some Chinese writing but always accompanied by English which is something prevalent even pre-Olympic. The washrooms will have western toilets, foreign exchange booths are available and kiosks selling you cell phones and phone cards and signing you up for a credit card will call out to you. Don’t call back.

You may find a few touts offering to carry your bags for you but this is just a ploy to rid you of some hard currency. A tout in the washroom will likely offer to hold your bag for you, offer you a paper towel and in return expects a small reward. This is likely a renegade employee and touts are not sanctioned by the airport authority. After we picked up our baggage, we headed over to the foreign exchange booth. There are no fees for exchanging money and the rate is the same throughout the country set by the Bank of China. There is also a Bank of China at the airport but it has regular business hours so don’t count on it. The foreign exchange booth will be attended by English speaking staff and will quickly exchange your money. Keep the receipt as you may need it to exchange money back or to take it out of the country if you find yourself with a surplus of Chinese RMB (Renminbi) or as it is locally called Yuan (pronounced u n as in the acronym for united nations). The foreign exchange booth will exchange cash only (to my knowledge travelers cheques must be cashed at a qualifying bank. Bank of China for sure at some of the other banks.) American and Canadian dollars as well as British Pounds and Euro is no problem at the exchange booths. Bank machines are more and more prevalent and more so with the advent of the Olympics. However, not all debit cards are equal. I would not depend on bank machines and the risk of a machine chewing up your card is too much of a risk to my thinking. Credit cards are not widely accepted and only at elite shops and large hotels chains catering to westerners. However, the Bank of China will for a small fee give you a cash advance on your Visa or MasterCard.

Depending on your first plans, $500 to $1000 in currency is enough to get you started and will be a fist full of bank notes to stuff in your wallet if at all possible. Depending on the rate of the day, $1000 will yield 6000 to 7000 rmb almost all in 100 rmb denominations. Larger notes are possible but you would have difficulties getting anyone to accept them. Going through customs for us was a breeze even with two large bottle of duty free rum loosely wrapped in a plastic bag. . If customs is busy, make sure you get in the foreigners line up, it may or may not be faster but you will at least be in the right line up so said my daughter at the time. Don’t confuse the customs line up with the immigration line up for your health declaration card that you will fill out on the plane. I thought it was customs and I was trying to show them my two bottles of rum making sure it was okay to bring them into the country but hey just smiled at me oddly as my daughter rolled her eyes implying I was the odd one..

Once we left the secure area the pandemonium began. We were transformed into another world. How are you going to get to where you need to be? For many of us it is a taxi or airport shuttle bus. Both are great options but beware, not always so simple. This time it was taxi but a few years ago my wife and I took the shuttle.

First, refuse and ignore the touts pushing their business card in front of you offering you their taxi service. Never never ever use them. Don’t say you weren’t warned. What you need is a legal metered taxi. I emphasize legal. English speaking touts will approach you asking if you want a metered taxi, and say no. Their meter likely has a mind of its own and doesn’t mind ripping you off. As a rule, now, I never accept a service from someone who approaches me. I always approach them. The first time I arrived in China I was armed with this great advice and bravely my daughter and I walked out of the airport refusing all the touts as we had been told to and saw the lineup of legal taxi’s all queued up as my daughter pointed out pointing in the direction, and yes there were the uniformed drivers I further pointed out as we walked towards them as one of the drivers from the taxi area approached me and in perfect English asked if I was looking for a metered taxi. I said yes, and my daughter asked if I was sure as he took our bags putting them on a cart and headed to the queue of taxis. I said to my daughter yes I was sure, it was a metered taxi from over there pointing to where she had pointed to earlier and the direction we were walking but strangely continued our walk right past the queue of taxis and uniformed drivers and I knew my daughter knew then I was taken, but I wasn’t sure, this guy seemed so sincere and he did speak perfect English? So we stayed with him a bit nervous but after all we were exhausted and he was carrying our bags for us and it felt such a relief after the 18 hour flight. It was only a short distance from the taxi queue, when a beat up old car with a taxi meter on the front seat pulled up and the sincere guy put me us and our bags in the car with a driver who spoke no English.

We were on our way. My daughter could see the taxi meter on the front seat from where she was sitting. I was behind the seat and could not. She was keeping her eye out on it and from time to time reading out 10 20 30 and so on. It didn’t sound too bad I hoped. Not too far from the airport traffic came to a stall as it turns out there is a highway like toll. I did not know that and when the driver started to make a fuss wanting something, my daughter pointed out it had to be money. She seemed to understand him. It made sense I had to pay the toll. It turned out to be 80 rmb at least that is what he charged me. As it turned out it should have been only 20 rmb, it was supposed to be included in the price of the fare and I was supposed to get a receipt.

This driver in his rudimentary game of hand gestures seemed to be telling me, as my daughter seemed to know what this guys was trying to tell us, did not know the destination for Leo Hostel. As it turned out, as he did, he hands me a cell phone with an English speaking voice on the line from a hotel offering me a deal to stay there. Of course I said no as I looked at my daughter. Of course I knew the driver gets a cut and its not a good deal or you could never trust the deal lasting longer than less the time it takes you to get there. The driver in the end literally dumps us off on a busy busy street corner not far (but we did not know) from Leo Hostel at 11:30 pm. He knew where Leo Hostel was, I also knew if he took us there Leo Hostel would know him as a con artist and catch him at the game so he pretends not to know and dumps you somewhere close by so as not to get caught. He charged us 400 rmb plus we paid 80 rmb for the road toll. From where my daughter was sitting, she could not see the second zero on the meter which indeed had a mind of its own. The toll should have been included in the price and the fare which should have been less than 100 rmb. I was taken and still not where I needed to be at 11:30 pm on a cold Beijing winter night with my less than enthusiastic 19 year old daughter.

Not far away I saw a rickshaw driver, a small carriage rickshaw like thing attached to a bicycle like thing. I was only innocently, as my daughter said “don’t”, asking the driver if he knew of the address on my little piece of paper where I had Leo Hostel’s address and as my daughter pointed out, we were about to take our first rickshaw ride. Without asking or negotiation, the driver put my bags on one rickshaw and whistled for another driver who promptly came over with his rickshaw and loaded my daughter and her bags up onto his rickshaw. The two of us were whisked away down the middle of a main street against the traffic and at one point passing a bus that I literally rubbed shoulders with. Talking about a culture experience. Before we knew it, we were engulfed in darkness going down a dim lit alley with just enough room for the rickshaw to make it through. The only way I knew my daughter was still behind me was the clinking sound of the two bottles of duty free rum we brought with us from the Air Canada flight. If the clinking sound ever stopped I was sure my heart would. I heard my daughter scream out asking me if we were going the right way and what possessed me to say I didn’t think so (as if I could know) screaming back is something to this day behooves me. I heard my daughter scream stop and in some odd way of understanding her, both drivers came to a screeching stop and out luggage went flying off the rickshaw. My daughter jumped off the rickshaw and meeting me in the middle of this dark alley within feet of and between two rickshaws and their confused drivers we felt we were in the middle of a bad Nancy Drew novel. I muttered something to the effect that we had no choice but to continue as we gathered up our bags. And we did. The five minute ride lasted what felt like half an hour but from a dim lit alley to an instant turn around a corner into a bright hustling and bustling much larger alley we saw the bright yellow sign that said “Leo Hostel”. After paying 65 rmb for two rickshaw rides, we had arrived.

Found out from the Lonely Planet book that we could take a minibus to Simatai section of the Great Wall. It was really cheap and departed from a youth hostel close to where we were staying.

It was a harrowing experience to say the least! The driver tried to fill up the little bus as much as he can and we were made to sit on the floor right in the middle section of the bus where there were no seats! All we were given was a thin piece of cushion.

The journey was 3 hours from Beijing and it was so uncomfortable sitting cross legged on the floor and when the bus stopped suddenly, we were like a pack of dominoes!

I would not recommend taking this bus no matter how cheap it was. It's just too darn uncomfortable. And after a hard day of trekking the Great Wall, you just want a more comfortable ride home.