Continuing my chronicle of my recent China trip, if Shanghai has few tourist attraction spots, Beijing has so many and so big that 3-4 days won’t be enough to see them all. It’s a good thing that we were in Beijing for 6 days! We were able to go to the famous tourist spots at a leisurely pace. And it’s better to see them without hurrying and without complaining of tired feet, that way you’ll enjoy your travel.

In touring Beijing, here are some tips:

  • wear comfortable shoes (preferably trekking or walking or running rubber shoes),
  • bring your bottle of water and small snacks (some places like in Great wall charge outrageously for a bottle of water – 10RMB),
  • be prepared for the weather (bring umbrella, cap, shades, jacket – whatever the weather for that day is)
  • make sure you have enough battery and memory for your camera – lots of photo ops in the sites!
  • if you’re touring 2 destinations in a day, don’t idle too long in one destination or you won’t be able to see all sites.
  • instead of hiring a tourist guide, many tourist spots sell audio tour guide (around 40rmb) and you carry it like walkman as you walk around the site.
  • if you want to save money on tour guides, many of the attraction spots are accessible by subway. Subway has a flat rate of 2RMB. Only the Great Wall is the one we didn’t go by subway.
  • be practical when buying your entrance ticket. Some tickets are all inclusive entrance to all sites and they are expensive. If you’re going to buy an entrance ticket, be sure that you’ll be able to maximize the ticket. An all inclusive ticket means you’ll tour all the areas inside the attraction site, which can be challenging because as I’ve mention, all the attraction sites in Beijing are so big it’s almost impossible to finish them in a day eg. The Summer Palace.

My sister corrected me that the 4 most famous places that you’ve got to see in Beijing are: The Great Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace. The places we’ve been to are:

1. Great Wall – we entered the Mutianyu Wall. My sister said that this is preferable to the Badaling wall because the latter is so commercialized with lots of tourists. We thought that it’s going to be cold that day but it was so sunny and warm and there’s no shade on the Great wall. So bring water and a cap and put sunscreen. Great Wall is really impressive the first few meters. But after walking for a long time, it’s just the same throughout – there’s not much artifact and variety. So we walked for liked 2 hours (with lots of photo-ops in between) until we finally reached the place where we will go toboggan riding down the great wall. That was so fun! You must try the toboggan ride. Entrance fee 35rmb, cable car one way 40rmb, toboggan ride 40rmb. Allot half-day when touring this site.

2. Forbidden City – actually Forbidden City becomes Tianamen Square at the exit. People’s Square and The Egg building are just a street across Tianamen Square. You can get a picture of the places just outside Forbidden City, which was what we did instead of walking up to those places. To get a bird’s eye view of the Forbidden City, my sister advised us to enter Jingshan Park (2RMB) and then walked up the steps to the top pavillion. Although it was foggy, the vastness of Forbidden City was impressive from the top. After JingShanPark, we entered Forbidden City at the north gate. We just paid for the entrance fee (60RMB), we didn’t pay for the entrance to the Palace treasure museum and Clocks museum. My mom and I were not interested. These museums have additional 30RMB (I think) entrance fee each. My dad who toured it 2 years ago enjoyed these museums. If you’re going to see the museums too, allot 1 day to tour the place.

Forbidden City is so huge and the architecture is symmetrical, north area is mirror image of the south area. The structures are somewhat similar throughout. The details on the walls, on the roof, on the floor are pretty. There are lots of tourists in the Forbidden City so sometimes it’s really hard to get a solo picture. Do you suppose the Chinese of the old played hide and seek here? Because people can get lost inside! Then we exit the south gate and it turns to Tianamen Square where you can see the picture of their esteemed leader Mao Tse Tung on the wall.

3. Temple of Heaven – is a place where the emperors burn offerings to be able to go to Heaven. It’s a huge huge place. Temples are scattered from one side to the other. I advise if you enter in one gate exit out another gate, do not retrace your path! This was the mistake we did: we entered from the east gate and planned to go to Hongquiao Market (similar to Silk St.) which is outside the east gate after touring the area. By the time we see all the temples inside, we were at the south gate. It was a long way back to the east gate which we walked. My sister later said that we should have exited at the south gate and taken a taxi back to Hongquiao Market.

Even though this place is huge, you can see all of them in one half day. Entrance fee is 35RMB all inclusive. The most famous place to visit there is the temple of Heavenly Gate. I also like the Circular mound at the south gate. Be sure to visit the museums inside to learn more about the place. There are lots of old people here and they have their own fun activities going on. They were dancing, exercising, playing “sipa”, etc. They are inspiring because even though they’re old, they have the energy of a youth.

I’ll continue writing of our Beijing adventure in another post. This blog has become too lengthy. :)

Related posts:

  1. Sightseeing Beijing part 2
  2. If you find yourself in Beijing…
  3. Going to China
  4. Konnichiwa Kyoto part 2