Beijing or Bust

Beijing is what it is...the seat of Chinese history. Centuries of people have worked, lived, and died to make Beijing the city it is, and you notice. You can see the layers of life etched into every building of this city.

Anachronism. That is the best word for this place. Palatial compounds like the Forbidden City near glass skyscrapers and asphalt roads. Ancient buildings with terracotta roofs housing discos and shops. The past meets the present and there is little breathing room in between.

I visited Beijing just to see for myself the city I had read about for years in history classes. The culture and the history is brutal and beautiful and not to be missed. The architecture is breathtaking. And the food ain't like the take-out at home.

Quick Tips:

Eat off the street. Local street vendors are a cheap and easy way to get chow. Don’t worry, it's safe.

Shop the grocery store. Going to the grocery store is an experience in and of itself, have fun!

If you are going in the summer carry water and an umbrella everywhere you go. The umbrella is not just for rain. It helps to keep the brutal sun off your head. You will thank me later.

Haggle with a smile.

Wander off the beaten path. It is worth it. You will see the real Beijing.

Best Way To Get Around:

Use the bus, metro, or do what the Chinese do and get a bike. I enjoyed using the metro. It costs almost nothing and a trained monkey can figure it out in a day.

If you take the train buy a couple passes. It will save time.

This place was fabulous! Right in the middle of a hutong this guesthouse had a real homey feel. The guest house is run by three brothers and every evening they sit in the common area smoking cigarettes and listening to their older bother play the erhu, the Chinese version of the violin. The youngest brother collects red paper lanterns and every night he lights them, along with regular oil lamps, and it creates the most amazing glow that just draws you in. I really wished I could have stayed there longer.

Every morning they offer you the option of buying a hot breakfast, tea, and espresso. My favorite thing to do was to buy pork buns from the street vendor outside for 50 miao a piece...pennies on the dollar. I would just munch on them all day.

This place offers you everything you need:
-travel information of Beijing and beyond
-general assistance in English
-flight confirmation
-postcards and letter sending
-interpretation
-bicycle hire
-laundry
-Internet
-Tours and activites
-Trips to the Great Wall at all sections including the Great Wall at Mutianyu, Badaling, Simatai and Jinshanling.
-Beijing City Tour (Forbidden City & Tian'anmen Square, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven)
-Hutong Tour
-Beijing Opera, Chinese Acrobatics and Kungfu show
Tickets booking of train, flight (both international and domestic) and ferry.
-Airport pick up and drop off

Built in the 18th century as a traditional courtyard house attached to the famous Zhengjue Temple, the hostel aims to provide guests with affordable private and shared rooms and everything one could want from traditional Chinese courtyard buildings. This hostel is actually a restored heritage home, but it features all the comforts of a modern home with the ambiance and feeling of traditional Chinese decor.

Red Lantern House is located in the best and largest preserved Hutong area in the city and within easy access of all transportation terminals. It is less than 2 kilometers to all major sites of Beijing including Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden city, Wangfujing and Xidan business areas. Buses and subway trains leave outside the hostel regularly to all areas. The subway station is just up the street.

The cost is 6.70 a night.

To make a reservation look them up at www.hostels.com

Many of my friends thought I was crazy. There were bets on when I would get dysentery or worms...Eating from street vendors is the way to go in China. It is much easier than muddling your way through a menu in Chinese, because all you have to do is point and use your fingers to tell them how many. I saved a TON of money buying meals this way and also experienced the real flavor of Beijing.

Each morning I stumbled into the street and bought three pork buns and two rice triangles for pennies on the dollar. I would munch on these throughout the day and buy fruit lychees from another vendor for dessert. In the evening I walked down the street to the satay man and bought a couple sticks of barbecue. One of my favorite things to eat was the yogurt. They sell them in glazed terracotta cups with paper on top and you just stand there at the vendors and drink it through a straw...mmmmm....yuuuummmmy! Make sure you don't walk away with the glass, they wash and reuse them.

If you make it to the Walking Street in Beijing look for the nearby Snack Street. This is near the Forbidden City and at night you will find a cornucopia of things to eat, and it will all be on a stick. Be adventurous! If you can put it on a stick and grill it you will find it here. I ate a really good green onion pancake, I highly recommend it.

On average I spend only $2to $5 per day on food. And believe me, I was not going hungry.

This place is not the place to go if you want to buy "Chinese things". The prices are hiked up even if you manage to haggle it down to 25% of the originally quoted price. It is more of a department store than a true market, however, if you are looking for knock-offs this is probably the easiest place to go. For true Chinese items at a fair price visit the Pan Jia Yuan Antique Market (18 Hua Wei Li, Pan Jia Yuan Road), also known as the Weekend Market.

This place is IT! For real, honest prices and a wonderful selection of goods this is the place to go. The vendors carry a variety of antiques, beads, chops, brushes, scrolls, lacquerware, wood work, jade, pottery, statuary, and Mao memorabilia...the list goes on and on! I felt so overwhelmed by the beauty of everything that I will have to go back when I return to China. Very little haggling needs to happen here, however do haggle, it is expected.

The atmosphere is wonderful...It is entirely an open air market..take photos

Please visit this place. You will kick yourself if you don't. It takes place only on the weekends, so don't try to find it during the week or people will think you are crazy.

One of the best kept secrets for traveling from Mongolia to China is taking the bus. Now, granted, if you are not a local, traveling with a local, or are unskilled in filling out customs forms in Mongolian, you may not want to choose this path. However, if you are an adventurer I'd say,"Go for it."

To take the bus, buy a ticket from UB to Ulaan Uud. At Ulaan Uud exit the station and walk over to the buses and figure out which one is going to Beijing. It helps to know what the characters for "Beijing" are. My fare cost 90 yuan. This was a HUGE discount compared to taking the train all the way. Once you are on the bus find a bed towards the rear and settle in. Make sure you take the sleeper bus or you will be sorry later on.

Now, let me lay something out....I am a 5'9" Asian American...the "beds" were not made for legs like mine. The bus ride was 13 hours long and by the time we got off the bus I was hurtin'.

All along the way we would make pit stops to go to the bathroom. Everyone would pour out of the bus, in the middle of the desert, and find a place to squat. The women tied shirts around their waists for a little privacy. Going to the bathroom was like using a litter box. At one point we stopped at a little roadside diner and I had the opportunity to buy some food and use the bathroom, or rather the cement building with a hole in the ground. Being a westerner I have very little experience using the "squatty potties" and my skills for peeing into a little hole in the ground are minimal, therefore I ended up spraying myself on the leg and had to role up my pant legs for the remaining 9 hours of the trip.

At the border I ran into a little trouble...not many, if any foreigners use the bus to go from Mongolia to China and I was stopped for questioning and a bag search. This delay angered all the bus people and I received dirty looks the remainder of the trip. Later on I found out that they other passengers were pressuring the driver to leave be at the border. That would have been very bad.

Once we crossed the border, the bus stopped at a hotel/restaurant to get some real food....it was very yummy. The city was called Erlian a little Outer Mongolian border town. The prices here were very cheap, I recommend going to the indoor market.

We arrived in Beijing at 3 am with absolutely no idea of where I was at. I finally hailed a cab and I managed to muddle out some broken Mandarin and made it to the guesthouse. Uuugh...I was exhausted! It was honestly the worst bus ride of my life, frankly, it was hell. But that is not to say I do not recommend it, especially if you are looking for an adventure.

I will remember this ride for the rest of my life. Even into my old age and the onset of Alzheimers I will still remember this bus ride.

If you visit China and decide to take a film camera, have your photos developed in China. The x-ray machines will kill your photos. I had 13 rolls of film destroyed. They say the machines are film safe, but this is a lie. Some places may let you have it hand inspected, but the chances are slim. Usually they require you to have special paperwork. However, the only way to get the paperwork is if you speak Chinese and know how the system works.

Digital is the way to go. Buy yourself a high quality digital camera. I like Casio Exlim. For its size and processing speed, it's the best compact camera on the market. I took this camera to Europe and fell in love with it.

Having your photos developed in China is just like having it done anywhere else, so no need to fear. You will actually save money in the long run and will not loose all your vacation images.