There are much easier locations to do a milegae run to!

The best bet is to have your hotel arrange to pick you up. Otherwise make sure you have a card with the name and location of your hotel written in Chinese characters. Even this does not gaurentee success as a lot of taxi drivers are illiterate. Language is a huge problem outside the tourist industry and hotels.

Day trips can be organised by your hotel. I did a one day trip to the Great Wall plus a City Tour. Reasonably priced.

You do need a sVisa. This has to be obtained from the Embassy or Consulate. I had to get mine in a rush so has to go to the Consulate in person. Took about 4 hours to process.