Advice for Travelers in Beijing
In case I didn't make it clear enough, splurging on the Grand Hyatt was a really, really good idea. It's located two (hell-of-a-long-Beijing-style) blocks from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen square, at:
Beijing Oriental Plaza
1 East Chang An Avenue
Beijing 100738
Phone: (86) (10) 8518 1234
Fax: (86) (10) 8518 0000
E-mail: grandhyattbeijing@hyattintl.com
Since Beijing is so amazingly huge, and traffic is so horrendously bad, it is worth your while to stay right near the center of town no matter what. On the other hand, had we just relied on our hotel for a sense of Beijing we wouldn't have gotten much of a taste of the city.
Luckily, the MF group we'd bumped into in Xi'an had recommended we go to the Leo Hostel in order to avail ourselves of their tour to Mutianyu. The Leo Hostel is located in the heart of a lovely hutong (the traditional Beijing alleyways) with tea shops, parades of people, and yummy yummy street food. If you're going budget style, I'd definitely recommend it as a place to stay.
Leo Hostel 2
various phone numbers for it are:
(86) (10) 6303 1595
(86) (10) 8660 8923
(86) (139) 1192 7715
e-mail: info@leohostel.com
Regardless of where you stay, make sure you wander around in the hutongs south of Tiananmen square.
Leave yourself a leisurely morning to see the Forbidden City, but get there nice and early if you want to experience any semblance of peace while there. We got there at 8, and thought it was reasonably crowded then. By 10:30 when we left, it was wall-to-wall tour groups.
Leave an equally leisurely amount of time to see the Summer Palace, which is stunningly beautiful and worth going to despite the fact that it's on the outskirts of town. A cab will take 40 minutes or so, the public bus closer to two hours.
And, above all, do not do not do not, even if you are a vegetarian, attempt to eat at a vegetarian restaurant in Beijing. Instead of reveling in vegetables, what they do is take your favorite defenseless veggies, and some harmless tofu and then make it look and smell like traditional Chinese meat dishes. Except worse. At the Green Tianshi Angel Vegetarian Restaurant -- which proudly boasts "No Smoking. No Alcohol. No Eggs. No Meat." -- we had something that was supposed to taste like fried crab cake. And well, did. If the crab had been left out in the heat to rot for two weeks prior to our eating it. I wanted to smoke just to dull my tastebuds.
Beijing Oriental Plaza
1 East Chang An Avenue
Beijing 100738
Phone: (86) (10) 8518 1234
Fax: (86) (10) 8518 0000
E-mail: grandhyattbeijing@hyattintl.com
Since Beijing is so amazingly huge, and traffic is so horrendously bad, it is worth your while to stay right near the center of town no matter what. On the other hand, had we just relied on our hotel for a sense of Beijing we wouldn't have gotten much of a taste of the city.
Luckily, the MF group we'd bumped into in Xi'an had recommended we go to the Leo Hostel in order to avail ourselves of their tour to Mutianyu. The Leo Hostel is located in the heart of a lovely hutong (the traditional Beijing alleyways) with tea shops, parades of people, and yummy yummy street food. If you're going budget style, I'd definitely recommend it as a place to stay.
Leo Hostel 2
various phone numbers for it are:
(86) (10) 6303 1595
(86) (10) 8660 8923
(86) (139) 1192 7715
e-mail: info@leohostel.com
Regardless of where you stay, make sure you wander around in the hutongs south of Tiananmen square.
Leave yourself a leisurely morning to see the Forbidden City, but get there nice and early if you want to experience any semblance of peace while there. We got there at 8, and thought it was reasonably crowded then. By 10:30 when we left, it was wall-to-wall tour groups.
Leave an equally leisurely amount of time to see the Summer Palace, which is stunningly beautiful and worth going to despite the fact that it's on the outskirts of town. A cab will take 40 minutes or so, the public bus closer to two hours.
And, above all, do not do not do not, even if you are a vegetarian, attempt to eat at a vegetarian restaurant in Beijing. Instead of reveling in vegetables, what they do is take your favorite defenseless veggies, and some harmless tofu and then make it look and smell like traditional Chinese meat dishes. Except worse. At the Green Tianshi Angel Vegetarian Restaurant -- which proudly boasts "No Smoking. No Alcohol. No Eggs. No Meat." -- we had something that was supposed to taste like fried crab cake. And well, did. If the crab had been left out in the heat to rot for two weeks prior to our eating it. I wanted to smoke just to dull my tastebuds.
posted by Karen at 6:47 PM
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