My recent trip to China was my first trip ever to the country. I was glad that my sister was able to accompany us. I consider her somewhat a native there since she has stayed for almost 3 years. Instead of going with local tour groups which I read in the internet is one of the things that you must avoid when touring China, my sister gave me a map and instructed me on how to get to the famous places. Not only did we do the usual sightseeing, we also did some other stuffs which I believe are fun bonuses to try while in Beijing.

If you’re a newbie traveling to Beijing, here are some things that I encourage you to do:

  1. Sightseeing – my sister’s friend told me that the top 4 places to see in Beijing which will qualify a person that he/she has really been to Beijing are: the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Olympic Park. I’m proud to say that we covered all four and more.
  2. Eat Peking Duck – I never like duck. It’s too oily and high in cholesterol. But my sister said that since I’m in Beijing, I should try eating the authentic roasted peking duck. So we ordered a whole duck. I only ate 2 slices. Then the waitstaff asked if we would like the remaining parts of the duck to be fried or cook in soup. We chose the latter one. I enjoyed the duck in the soup better.
  3. Eat at Ding Tai Fung – according to the New York Times, this is one of the top 10 restaurants in the world. For me, their food is so delicious! Try the fried rice, their vegetable viands (this is cook to perfection!), and their famous pork dumpling.
  4. Try their dessert – well I just tried one and didn’t really like it (not diabetic sweet for my taste). But just from the pictures of their dessert, your mouth will water. I think Chinese dessert is similar to the dessert found in Manila so there’s no wow factor for me. I enjoyed Coldstone creamery ice cream more. However if you’re craving for dessert, my sister recommends Bellagio for their dessert. We ate the bean ice cream which is their most famous dessert.
  5. Watch the Flying Acrobatic Show – if the Western has Cirque de Soleil, Chinese has the Flying Acrobatic Show. This is a must watch show. It plays in Chaoyang theater just outside Hujialuo station. Tickets go from 180RMB and above. The stunts are incredible and ridiculously impossible but the chinese made it look so easy. My jaw was hanging open almost throughout the show. It’s Aplusplusplus, 2 thumbs up, standing ovation show!
  6. Have a body massage – after a long day of walking, it’s nice to be treated with a foot massage. I went to a massage place where they practice reflexology. The shop has foot massage for 49RMB/1hour, back and foot massage for 68RMB/90mins. The massage was really relaxing. Sore points on my feet got pampered. I want to try it again!
  7. Get your hair rebonded – this is one of the things that I really planned to do on my stay in Beijing. I really wanted a straight hair and who better do it than the expert: Japan, Korea and China. They all have straight rebonded hair. So for 150RMB, I was satisfied with the result.
  8. Go ride the tobbogan at the Great Wall – there are many entrances to the Great wall you can go to: Badaling, Mutianyu, Simatai, Jinshanling, HuanhuaCheng, and JianKou. We went to Mutianyu Wall. We rode up the cable car and walked a lot of kilometers on the great wall to get to the toboggan ride area.  We rode the toboggan to go down the wall and back to the entrance place. It was a very unique experience and much preferable to going down by walking. If you don’t like to go down by toboggan, you can ride the cable car again, enclosed or open. The entrance fee is 35RMB, cable car is 40RMB one way, and toboggan ride is 40RMB.

duckbellagio dessert

Related posts:

  1. Sightseeing Beijing part 1
  2. Sightseeing Beijing part 2
  3. Going to China
  4. What I think of China…