Weekend in Beijing

Overview

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Beijing is an interesting place! After living in China for almost two years, and knowing what I know now, if I only had one day to visit China, I would make that day Beijing! Beijing has it all! Not only do they have breath-taking sight-seeing (don't miss seeing the Great Wall!), but they have exquisite dining, and fabulous shopping! But beware! Some items that you can buy in China are considered contraband in the US! Beanie Babies, for one, are taboo to import back! Quick Tips: We particularly like visiting the Hong Qiao pearl market. This large store has SO much for sale at great prices! The first floor hosts electronics, the second has clothes, shoes, and luggage, and ...Read More

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The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel

Hotel | "The Great Wall Sheraton - Beijing"

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Our room was large for just a basic room (not a suite), and extremely comfortable! The air-conditioner really worked, and kept the room at a nice temperature. The view was nice and we were able to see the main street down below. My only complaint would be to update the tub/shower combinations. I hate shower curtains that blow in and stick to me while I'm showering!

Our room included breakfast, so we went down each morning and ate before going out. The chef in the coffee shop made the BEST omelet I believe I have ever had! Too bad it was so big I couldn't eat it all!!!

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 21, 2000

The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel
10 NORTH DONG SAN HUAN ROAD
Beijing, China
86-10-6590-5566

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Hard Rock Cafe

Restaurant | "Hard Rock Cafe - Beijing"

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We always love to find Hard Rock Cafe restaurants, because you know what the food is going to be like. And luckily, you can find them in most major cities around the world. We've eaten at HRCs in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong!

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 21, 2000

Hard Rock Cafe
1F Landmark Towers, 8 East Third Ring Road North Section
Beijing, China 100004
+86 (0)10 6590 6688

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Thai Food Restaurant

Restaurant

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I'm sorry ... I can't remember the exact name of this restaurant, but it's the Thai restaurant in the Holiday Inn Lido Beijing. The food is delicious! Be sure and have the Tam Yan Gung (spicy shrimp soup). It's delicious!

If you sit on the non-smoking side, be prepared to sit at a sunken-pit style table. I always thought these were interesting ...! Even if they are a little hard for me to get in and out of. It's a fun atmosphere, with good service, and delicious food. Don't miss it!

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 21, 2000

Thai Food Restaurant
Holiday Inn Lido Beijing
Beijing, China
+86 10 6437 6688

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Paulaner Brauhaus

Restaurant

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Paulaner Brauhaus: located behind the Lufthansa Department Store and the Kempinsky Hotel. We have eaten at the Paulaner Brauhaus chain in both Beijing and Shanghai, and find them to be very similar. You can count on the food to be plentiful AND delicious! One of our favorites is the Sampler Platter, which has several different types of meat and sausages on it. This is such a big serving that we always split one, and usually still have food left over! This trip, in Beijing, we opted for the outdoor Friday night barbecue buffet. Although I actually prefer the Sampler Platter, it was fun checking out the buffet for a change. I certainly wasn't disappointed with what...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on August 21, 2000

Paulaner Brauhaus
Lufthansa Centre, Beisanhuan Dong Lu
Beijing, China

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Weekend in Beijing, China

Story/Tip

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On Friday morning (8-11-00), we (my husband, Steve, our friend, Don, and I) took the 9:45 AM China Eastern flight from Nanjing, China, to Beijing. After the 1.5 hour flight, we got in to the Beijing airport, gathered our luggage, and met the hotel car. In the past, we have always stayed at the Holiday Inn Lido Hotel, but this time we stayed at The Great Wall Sheraton, which is a little closer to downtown. I really like both hotels, and they both have their selling points, but it was good to see what the Sheraton was like. The rooms were clean and spacious, and I must admit that the a/c in the Sheraton kept a more constant temperature than any hotel that we’ve stayed in in Asia. We wanted it cool,...Read More

On Friday morning (8-11-00), we (my husband, Steve, our friend, Don, and I) took the 9:45 AM China Eastern flight from Nanjing, China, to Beijing. After the 1.5 hour flight, we got in to the Beijing airport, gathered our luggage, and met the hotel car. In the past, we have always stayed at the Holiday Inn Lido Hotel, but this time we stayed at The Great Wall Sheraton, which is a little closer to downtown. I really like both hotels, and they both have their selling points, but it was good to see what the Sheraton was like. The rooms were clean and spacious, and I must admit that the a/c in the Sheraton kept a more constant temperature than any hotel that we’ve stayed in in Asia. We wanted it cool, and the room stayed cool! Probably the only thing that I didn’t like about our room is the bathtub/shower stall combination. This in itself would be OK, but I really prefer a separate shower and without the shower curtain. They always stick to me! I thought I was really smart this time … I discovered that if I pushed the inside curtain out just a little, and caught a little water in it, it would not blow in and stick to me. But you know what, when you dump it, you’ve GOTTA hold both sides AND the bottom! I pulled both sides in, and the bottom came up and dumped all that water on the bathroom floor. Uh-oh … I made a BIG mess! Luckily, I got it cleaned up before Steve came into the bathroom, but I’m a little surprised he didn’t get up just to see what I was laughing so much about! Anyway, back to the story …. After arriving in Beijing, we decided to eat lunch. I personally don’t much like airline food, and Chinese airline food is even worse. We’ve taken this particular flight before, and the choices are the same … noodles or snake. I remember the first time I ever heard those choices … we were with another family, and my friend’s eyes grew pretty wide when she heard “snake!” Actually, I now think the girl is saying “snack,” but for a long time, I thought she was trying to say “steak.” I always choose the noodles, and I can assure you that they’ve never gotten any better … equally bad each time. This time they had greens (mustard greens) and pieces of chicken on top. I took a few bites, just to be polite, and returned my tray. But Steve just kills me … He keeps thinking that one day the Chinese desserts are going to get better. He took a bite of his dessert (pie, cake, pudding, whatever? I have NO idea what it is supposed to be), and immediately wished he hadn’t. I always love the look on his face when he does that. We have recently learned something new about eating Chinese food. Danny’s Pub (our hangout in Nanjing) has started carrying Slim Jim meat sticks, and even though I rarely ever ate those in the US, they are wonderful to have on hand in China. If you get something in your mouth that you don’t like, and can’t seem to get rid of the flavor, take a bite of a Slim Jim! You will forget all about the other! Unfortunately, I didn’t have any with me. So (back to the story again) once settled in our hotel, we all walked to the Hard Rock Café next door! (Talk about a good location!) After a great lunch there, we were ready to start shopping! You know, the Good Lord has blessed me with a lot of things in my life, and this weekend was no exception. Not only were we in Beijing, where there is lots of shopping to be had, but I was with two men that actually like to shop! How lucky can a person be? At Steve’s recommendation, we hit the pearl market (Hongqiao) first. Steve’s reasoning was this … if later in the weekend we thought about something else that we wanted to pick up, we could always come back. I like that way of thinking! After spending a little time there, we headed back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and get a little rest. Even though we were staying at the Sheraton, we still wanted to run over to the Holiday Inn Lido and shop their little shops across the street. They always seem to have some cool stuff at good prices. We were disappointed to see that the Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream and Dunkin’ Donut stores were gone. They have been replaced with some Chinese place (ice cream, I think). I was glad to see that the street massage vendors were still out! So, for 10 RMB (about $1.25 USD) you can get a 10 minute massage. I convinced Steve that he should get one (I already KNEW I wanted one!), so we each sat down and had a quick back/neck/shoulder massage while Don waited on us. Too bad he didn’t sit down and get one too, since I noticed he was getting hit on by the beggars. Ha! Friday evening found us dining at the Paulaner Brauhaus, a nice German food restaurant also within walking distance of the Sheraton. After dinner, we all called it an early night and headed to our respective rooms. Steve had sketched out a potential schedule for our weekend to try and hit the highlights, since Don had never been to Beijing before. Saturday morning after breakfast, we took a taxi over to Tiananmen Square. I have been to Beijing 3 times, and have yet to ever see Mao’s body (they have him in a big mausoleum … our would that me a Mao-soleum? Ha!). He is entombed in a glass coffin, and looks pretty much like any other dead person you would see in a funeral home. We stood in line about 30 minutes for about a 30 second walk-by look at Mao from about 30 feet away. I know, you all think I’m crazy for doing this, but I wanted to punch this activity off my card. As my friend Donna used to say, “been there, got the t-shirt!” ha! After seeing Mao, we wandered across Tiananmen Square, and across the street to Tiananmen (gate). This is a very famous spot that I know you all would recognize. It’s the gate that has the huge portrait of Mao hanging over the doorway. If you walk inside through the gate, and keep going straight, you will come to the entrance to Forbidden City. I guess we were kinda bad, since we discouraged Don from going inside, but it truly is just more of the same. We went in when Mom was here, but all of the buildings are empty. If it was decorated at all, it would be much more interesting. On Saturday, even though it was over-cast, it was just hot. We all decided that a trip over to Schlotzsky’s to eat lunch would be a lot more interesting! Ha! After lunch, we wanted to go over into the Embassy District and shop Silk Alley. We have bought some really nice items here. We usually buy coats and things, but have also bought shirts, knit tops, shorts, and other items. My first trip to BJ, I bought a Ralph Lauren short and top set. Later, while in the States, I saw the same identical suit for sell in an upscale department store. Wow. Makes my little $20 suit look a lot better! On the way over to Silk Alley, we passed a market in the Russian part of BJ, and decided to have our driver drop us off there. We wandered in and out of a few of the buildings, all full of Chinese made items, and decided to head on over to Silk Alley. Once back in the taxi, we discovered that they also had a fur area! I have NEVER seen so many fur coats in all my life! I know there was at least two blocks solid of fur stores, one right after another. Nothing else. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! Read Less

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Weekend in Beijing, China - 2

Story/Tip

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After Silk Alley, we parted ways with Don for a little while. Steve wanted to rest, so I walked over to the Lufthansa Department Store (I can buy Lancome makeup there). When I returned, Steve said he wanted to go back to the Lido hotel and shop for food at their supermarket. Living at the Lido must be pretty nice, with a good grocery store inside, a Watson’s (drugstore), and other good shopping all around the area. When Steve and I shop for groceries, we go up and down each aisle twice, hoping not to miss anything that we might need. I’m sure the local people wish those 'out-of-towners' would get done and leave! Ha! As you can suspect, we picked up quite a few articles (HOW many bags of Dorito’...Read More

After Silk Alley, we parted ways with Don for a little while. Steve wanted to rest, so I walked over to the Lufthansa Department Store (I can buy Lancome makeup there). When I returned, Steve said he wanted to go back to the Lido hotel and shop for food at their supermarket. Living at the Lido must be pretty nice, with a good grocery store inside, a Watson’s (drugstore), and other good shopping all around the area. When Steve and I shop for groceries, we go up and down each aisle twice, hoping not to miss anything that we might need. I’m sure the local people wish those 'out-of-towners' would get done and leave! Ha! As you can suspect, we picked up quite a few articles (HOW many bags of Dorito’s was that?) and headed back to our hotel. We had decided that Thai or Indian food sounded good that night, but Don decided to decline and catch up with us later. That was pretty much it on Saturday. Sunday was our day to take Don to the Great Wall. In the past, we’ve visited Simitai (with the Pappas family), MuTianYu (with Mom), but we’ve never been to BaDaLing, where all the tourists go. Now I know why. Since we had never been to BaDaLing, I told Steve that was where I wanted to go this time. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw … When we first drove up, there were cars, buses, and people EVERYWHERE!!!! Oh boy, did I ever make a faux pas! It was like Six Flags would be with free admission, except it wasn’t free. And there weren’t any little shuttle buses anywhere to get you from Point A to Point B. After an extended wait in the car to find a place to park (and I was about to literally wet my pants!), our driver finally let us out in front of the gondola lift up. I hastily found the toilets, and then up we went. (Well, let’s just say up we went after a line to buy tickets and a 'little' wait.) Once up, I’m surprised the Wall didn’t come crumbling down from all the people on it! Of course, once up, we had to buy yet another ticket to go out onto the Wall. Now, to me, it would make sense to buy ONE ticket that would include both costs. But NO … another ticket, another line. We did finally make it up onto the Wall, and I must admit that no matter which site you are on when you see it, it’s still amazing. The Wall puts me in total awe. After a trip back by the hotel to rest and freshen up a little (and grab a quick lunch again at the Hard Rock), we headed back over to the pearl market again. You know there are always those little 'last-minute' things that you want to pick up … I’ve now decided that these two men that I’m with are professional pearl buyers! Ha! While I was out wandering around the booths, they are still over looking at more pearls! For dinner on Sunday night, we decided to go to TGI Fridays! For years, when I was younger, that was always my favorite restaurant in the world (or the world as I knew it). While I still like their food selection, I must admit that my tastes have broadened some (and that’s not all that’s broadened) … I decided to have the chicken fried steak, and when it came, it had about a TBSP of gravy on top. When I asked for a little more gravy, I was informed that it would cost me 8 RMB more (about $1 USD). What? HOW ridiculous is that? After a short verbal exchange, I got my gravy. I truly think this type thing is what makes life in China so difficult … day after day it’s one argument after another. To them, that’s the way life is. Monday morning, we all met for breakfast and then headed back to Nanjing on the China Eastern 12:05 flight. All-in-all, I would call it a very successful trip. We got to shop, Don got to see some sights, and we all had some “normal” food for a change. It’s funny how much good these get-aways do for us mentally. I do feel the monthly trips away from Nanjing are beneficial. I always feel like I’m refreshed and ready to handle whatever challenges Nanjing has in store for me. And you can rest assured that they are always there … Well … guess I’ve told you about all I know for this letter, so I’ll close for now. Hope all is going well on your side of the world. Bye for now! … elyse & Steve! Read Less

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Beijing Journals

Weekend in Beijing

Weekend in Beijing

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The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel

Hard Rock Cafe

Thai Food Restaurant

Paulaner Brauhaus

Weekend in Beijing, China

Weekend in Beijing, China - 2

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