safra1

Can any Beijing experts take a quick look at the proposed 4 day itinerary below for a September trip and let me know if you have any feedback/suggestions for any changes?

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Friday:

• Arrive PEK 1:35pm
• Check in to Grand Hyatt
• Dinner at “Made in China” at Grand Hyatt
• Walk around area near hotel (Wangfujing Street, Donghuamen Night Market, Oriental Plaza Mall, Qianmen Dajie)
• Dragonfly Massage

Saturday:

Morning:
• Tiananmen Square
o Mausoleum of Mao Zedong
• Forbidden City / Jingshang Park
o Terrace Tea House

Lunch:
• LiQun Restaurant (best authentic duck) or Xiangyangtun Restaurant

Afternoon:
• Temple of Heaven
• Dashilan Shopping Street
• Summer Palace
o Boat Ride in Kunming Lake?

Dinner:
• Ding Tai Feng (best dumplings)

Evening:
• Hongqiao Pearl Market, Panjiayuan dirt market

Sunday:

Morning:
• Great Wall at Mutianyu (Transportation TBD)

Lunch:
• Xiaolongpu Restaurant

Afternoon:
• Lama Temple & Drum Tower
• Birds Nest / Water Cube
• Nanluoguxiang Hutong
• Shopping (Silk Market, Pearl Market, Panjiayuan Weekend Flea Market, Malls)

Dinner:
• BeiJing Dadong Roast Duck (JinBao Hui) or BeiJing Haidilao Hot Pot (Wangfujing)

Evening:
• Kung Fu Show 7:30pm
• Houhai Bar Street
• East Shore Live Jazz Cafe

Monday:

8:30am-5:00pm:
• Private Day Trip to Cuandixia Village
o https://www.viator.com/tours/Beijing...aid=vba6296en2

Evening:
• TBD

Tuesday:

• Breakfast TBD
• Depart PEK 12:00pm

jiejie

You really only have 3 days, not 4. I think your plan is overscripted in extremis and unworkable. You have an overly optimistic understanding of how fast you can move between places in Beijing, much less inside the major attractions. For instance, Saturday you're all over the map with three major sights (FC, TofH, SP) all on the same day. You've got marginal sights on Sunday (Nanluoguxiang, Olympic Park). You've got things I wouldn't bother with (Mao Mausoleum, assuming it reopens as planned at beginning of September). Shopping in the evening at Hongqiao and Panjiayuan is not possible (they are closed). Shopping in modern shopping malls is possible, usually they are open until at least 21:00 but with limited time in Beijing, you should be able to make better use of yours).

First thing you need to do is make a decision on Cuandixia. With such a short time in Beijing, I'd skip it entirely. Otherwise, at least one of Beijing's major sights and some of the minor stuff has to be jettisoned. Second thing to do is spread out some of the Saturday and Sunday over to Monday. Third thing to do is bundle the Great Wall, where an investment in private transport is highly desirable, with something else in the afternoon that a driver dropoff could be useful. My pick is the Summer Palace since driver can access using the outer ring roads and it's open late. Fourth thing to do is be realistic about restaurant locations, evening shows, and logistics. With good places to eat everywhere in the city, you don't run to the opposite corner of the city just to hit a certain restaurant. You probably need to look at other options for meals and only pick one meal for the duck dinner (not the initial night).

A more sane and workable plan:
Friday: As you have, using the hours between check-in and dinner to explore. I would suggest Legation Quarter and not so much Wangfujing, which is just a big outdoor pedestrian shopping mall, and at any rate is open in the early evening hours. Donghuamen Night market is permanently closed. Dragonfly Massage locations are not convenient to your hotel, at all. If you want an independent upscale Massage/Spa, try Oriental Taipan (Sunjoy/Ritan Rd location) which is not too far away.

Saturday: Skip Mao Mausoleum entirely, queuing is a poor use of your scarce time and will throw off the rest of your morning. You need to be in the FC ticket queue early, in order to get a ticket as a walk-in; most people now are getting tickets in advance. Contact the hotel concierge about a week in advance of arrival and see if they will reserve them for you--there is an online system but it's impossible for foreigners. If not, you'll take your chances in the queue. The FC is now capacity controlled so when they run out of daily tickets, no entrance. On a weekend in early September, it's not likely you'll get shut out of tickets in the morning but possible in the afternoon. Spend morning there. Jingshan Park climb ONLY if it's not hazy/smoggy, otherwise that's a waste of time. Liqun restaurant is the wrong direction and has gone downhill and in a frankly disgusting setting, skip that also in favor of something more on route. Afternoon: walk through Beihai Park south to north, it has a lot of meaty stuff inside. Mid/late afternoon--explore Houhai/Shichahai Lakes area and the surrounding hutongs, Drum Tower, etc. Plenty of eateries there for dinner. Can do a show if you want but transport timing has to be carefully planned.

Sunday: Temple of Heaven first thing in morning. Walk south gate to east gate. Hongqiao Market after that, maybe Panjiayuan if you want. Lunch tbd. Afternoon to Lama Temple (don't be later than about 14:00-14:30 getting there since it closes relatively early), then if you are madly insistent on the Olympic Park, you can see that in twilight hours--it looks better when the lights are on and the sky is getting dark vs in broad daylight. You can do your duck dinner at Dadong Tuanjiehu location. Acrobat show is just one subway stop away from that. Sanlitun area in the evening after that for drinks and modern upscale China.

Monday: Private car driver. Morning Mutianyu Great Wall, lunch out there. Early afternoon drop off at Summer Palace north gate, pick up at east gate (or vice versa). I'd just keep the driver for the day and have him drop you at a restaurant afterwards, maybe something you can then use subway to get back to hotel.

Tuesday: Yeah, don't push it. Breakfast and getting to airport is enough.

safra1

Thanks jiejie for your insights... your post was extremely helpful.

If we followed your suggested itinerary, do you have any specific restaurant recommendations for dumplings and one for hot pot that work with our itinerary? Is there are a logical place to add Ding Tai Feng?

For Saturday mid/late afternoon, we will explore Houhai/Shichahai Lakes area, surrounding hutongs and the Drum tower. Are there any particular hutongs we should make sure we don't miss? Is there anything else in this area we shouldn't miss (you said "etc." so wanted to make sure we don't miss anything!)

Also, what would you recommend we do on Saturday evening? Is there a particular show you recommend? You mentioned the Acrobat show for Sunday night.. is the Kung Fu show different?

Also, what is the best way to arrange a driver for the day? We have 4 people in our group.

safra1

I updated the itinerary with many thanks to jiejie for his insights. This is where it stands now. Let me know if anyone has any additional suggestions! Thanks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday

• Arrive PEK 1:35pm
• Check in to Grand Hyatt
• Dinner at “Made in China” at Grand Hyatt
• Walk around area near hotel (Wangfujing Street, Legation Quarter, Oriental Plaza Mall, Qianmen Dajie)
• Oriental Taipan (Sunjoy/Ritan Road location)


Saturday

Morning:
• Tiananmen Square
o Mausoleum of Mao Zedong (time permitting and if open)
• Forbidden City / Jingshang Park (climb if not hazy/smoggy)
o Terrace Tea House

Lunch:
• TBD (Black Sesame Kitchen?)

Afternoon:
• Walk through Beihai Park south to north
• Houhai/Shichahai Lakes area and the surrounding hutongs, Drum Tower, etc.

Dinner:
• TBD (local) or Ding Tai Feng (best dumplings)

Evening:
• Houhai Bar Street


Sunday

Morning:
• Temple of Heaven (walk at South Gate and walk to East Gate)
• Silk Street Market
• Hongqiao Pearl Market
• Panjiayuan Antique Market

Lunch:
• TBD (at the markets?)

Afternoon:
• Lama Temple (no later than 1:30pm as it closes early)
• Olympic Park (Birds Nest / Water Cube) in twilight hours

Dinner:
• BeiJing Dadong Roast Duck (Tuanjiehu)

Evening:
• Kung Fu Show 7:30pm
• Sanlitun area (drinks & modern upscale China)



Monday

**PRIVATE CAR FOR THE DAY**

Morning:
• Great Wall at Mutianyu

Lunch:
• Xiaolongpu Restaurant (or similar)

Afternoon:
• Summer Palace (drop off at north gate, pick up at east gate)

Evening:
• BeiJing Haidilao Hot Pot (Wangfujing)
• Gui Jie (Ghost Street)


Tuesday

• Breakfast, leave for airport by 9:30am
• Depart PEK 12:00pm

aztimm

As noted, you are trying to do way too much with your limited time.

Here is what I did last year:

Day 1: Arrival, transport to hotel. Dinner/relaxing in hotel.
Day 2: Forbidden city, lunch at one of those restaurants (I can't remember which), Tiananmen square
Day 3: Great Wall Hike (through a group, about 5 hours on the wall, with snacks provided, lunch at a Chinese restaurant). Evening market.
Day 4: Summer palace. Stop at hotel, then swim at the Water Cube.
Day 5: Silk Market and Temple of Heaven, evening flight out

I think the Great Wall hike was through Beijing Hikers; someone here recommended them. I highly recommend them too, but you want to make sure you're up for that.

If I don't reply here shoot me a PM if you need more info.

JPDM

Additional comments:
- If you plan to have Beijing Duck at made in China, it must be pre-ordered
- No point doing the Silk market and the Pearl market. Same merchandise. Do the pearl market as you are already there. Any ways, you can't do all 4 places in the morning.

jiejie

Jiejie is a her not a him.

OP, if you have not worked with a map of Beijing--online will do--and located where each day's features are on the map, I think it might be useful to do so at this point. Then it will be more apparent that some of the sequencing you've still got in this plan won't work from a logistics standpoint. Specifically, to the extent possible, you need to group things geographically and not zig-zag all over Beijing on a given day and particularly not for markets or restaurants. You need to allot realistic time at each location--just walking through some of these large complexes takes a lot of time--and for getting from place to place given public transport timing, traffic concerns, etc. At least though, you seem to have realized that taking a day out of only three in Beijing and going to Cuandixia isn't a wise deployment of time or funds, so that's good.

Friday and Tuesday seem to be OK, except on Tuesday, I recommend you leave the Grand Hyatt no later than 09:00 if your flight out is international. 09:30 is OK if it's a domestic China flight. As for the rest:

Saturday: As said above, I think queueing and going inside the Mausoleum is a bust. Better to walk around Tiananmen 07:30-08:00 and get to Forbidden City ticket queue line so you can get in when it opens at 08:30. Unless you're planning to literally jog through the place, assume that it will take the rest of the morning. I don't see the point in a tea house there. Black Sesame Kitchen is a good choice for lunch. Jingshan Park climb only if a clear day. Beihai Park, leisurely walk-through and going to the island with the White Dagoba and see the Nine Dragon Screen and the back house/garden-- assume 1.5-2 hours. Assume you'll be at the Houhai hutong area about 15:00-15:30 and spend a couple of hours and into the evening exploring the streets and alleys there. There are plenty of eateries so somewhere in the vicinity, mark a tbd for dinner. Then I'm going to change my recommendation and suggest you use subway Line 8 to go up to the Olympic Park, once it's dark enough post-dinner, and see the buildings lit up.

Sunday: Morning cut the Silk Market out--as said above, it's redundant to Hongqiao (Pearl) Market and doesn't fit geographically. I'd make Panjiayuan Market a "maybe" not a priority. Then do lunch at Din Tai Fung in Oriental Plaza (same complex as your hotel) and dump all your shopping back at the hotel. Lama Temple: It only takes about 1 hour, maybe 1.5 if you are very slow, to see the inside. So as long as you get there by 15:00, you'll have enough time before it closes at 16:30. I'd then suggest going to the early 17:15 showing of the Kung Fu show--and I'm assuming this is the one at the Red Theater. You can taxi the distance or subway down Line 5 then taxi (or long walk). This will enable you to do dinner after and take as long as you want rather than having to rush to a show. Duck dinner at Dadong Nanxincang branch or there is another one at Wangfujing. If you want to do some later evening bars at Sanlitun, go to Nanxincang or Tuanjiehu; if you want to go back to hotel after dinner, do Wangfujing location. As @JPDM said, you normally make a reservation (for Dadong, can do this a week-ish in advance, online) and day before, preorder the number of ducks you want for your party and time you will be eating--that's so they can start the roasting at the proper time.

Monday: Pretty much OK. You can lunch at Xiaolongpu out at Mutianyu. For dinner, Haidilao in Wangfujing is fine, or you can try something like Dazhaimen which has an included dinner show--they aren't too far from the Summer Palace. If hot pot is on the must do list, consider doing it for your Saturday dinner--in Houhai there's a quite good, very old-Beijing, hot pot restaurant called Hongyuan Nanmen very close to the Silver Bridge, west side. It has a courtyard that's nice for dining if the weather cooperates. Gui Jie (Ghost Street) probably doesn't figure into this trip.

safra1

Thanks for all the help!!! One last important question - what is the best/least expensive way to hire a private car for the day on Monday for 4 pax? As you suggested, we are going to do Mutianyu, Xiaolongpu, Summer Palace, and figure Dazhaimen.

safra1

Also - is it worth it to do a guided tour of the FC in English? If so, what would be the best/least expensive way to arrange this?

Finkface

We used Simon for Mutianyu after seeing all the recommendations here on FT. He was fantastic - I highly recommend him. http://simon-service.com and https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...e-Beijing.html.

You can use him for all of the places you plan to visit and for airport transport as well.

jiejie

Simon gets good reviews and he's in demand, so contact him well in advance for that Monday. I don't think you need a private car for the other days. I don't think a regular passenger car is going to fit 4 people plus luggage, so if you want airport transport, you'd need to ask if he has access to a van....or just use a couple of taxis.

Forbidden City does have English speaking site guides available and if you want to go this route, I think they are available as a walkup and not too expensive. A better way to deal with the FC might be to contact the Grand Hyatt's concierge in advance and see if they can arrange to reserve four FC tickets for Saturday morning and the English speaking FC guide. There is an online reservation system, which unfortunately is Chinese-only and impossible for foreigners to deal with directly. Passport information for each ticket will be needed. Then you'd arrive on Friday, knowing that your visit is set up and ready to go.

qpr

The ticket windows will be closed one by one from July to October and from later October tickets are just available online.

So itīs maybe a longer queue in September as you donīt know how many ticket windows are still open.

jiejie

Even if the FC wants to go primarily to online sales, I do not believe they will ever completely get rid of a ticket booth for walk-ups. For one thing, the vast majority of foreigners who aren't on group tours, have no other easy way to buy tickets themselves. The online site is not usable for foreigners because of both language and payment options, and it doesn't look like the FC administration is making moves to fix it. There are also situations where somebody who didn't have the FC in their plans for schedule reasons, suddenly has their schedule clear up which allows for a last-minute visit. Particularly in the off-season, it has never been a problem before, for the FC to deal with walkups.

Most other major capacity-controlled monuments around the world that have primary sales done online, still retain a regular site-based secondary means to take care of the smaller number of walk-ups. Nobody in charge of a major public site wants to needlessly turn away revenue if they have the means to accommodate the paying customer. Least of all the Chinese.

But this is a separate issue of discussion, and not really all that relevant for the OP's trip. I've already suggested that he try the hotel concierge for possible advance booking.