Made my first trip down to China at the end of September and figured it was time to share with folks here and hopefully this will helpful to anyone else who is heading out there for the first time. Thanks to all the people on this forum that gave me great advice.

Beijing: Getting there from the airport was an experience. Like most people will advice here, stick to the taxi lines and dont be taken into the black cars or the people who will come upto you and ask you if you need a taxi. Prior to leaving also do some research online or email your hotel and get the name and address in chinese which you should print out and take with you. Also don't forget to take the phone number of the hotel. Going there for the first time I did not realize I really needed the name of the streets in Chinese/Madarin. I had to spend 15 mins trying to give the taxi driver the address and then the phone number and he had to dial the hotel to figure out where it was. Do not expect to have a taxi driver that can understand any English so it will be a lot of hand signals and whatever chinese you know. Other than that the airport and the drive to the hotel is pretty straight forward. I would not recommend taking the train especially if this is your first time there.

Stayed at the St. Regis (cash+points) which was definitely worth it. I got upgraded to a suite and it included amazing buffet breakfast everyday which was excellent. Its also pretty close to most things so you want to see if you are there as a tourist.

Guides/Getting Around: I got a guide since I didn't know any mandarin and figured it would be easiest way to see places. I did this through trip adviser. All this was useful, it was not really required. Beijing is pretty foreigner friendly and there are a lot of signs in English. Also your hotel can tell you where to go and help you write down names of places in Mandarin so you can show a taxi driver or a person on the street to figure out how to get back. Having a phone and your hotel's phone number is helpful but not essential. If you are going to use a guide be careful of who you choose. I got a guide that I thought was the person who had emailed me from tripadviser only to find out later that she was just someone the real guide had passed the job to since she didn’t want to lose the money. Basically everything that was said in the reviews in the tripadviser didn’t really apply to her. All in all not the best guide, but it was ok.
Traveling around in trains is pretty straight forward and even without any understanding of Mandarin, the information is easy enough to figure out. Worst case if you end up going in the wrong direction, get off and take the train back. Used trains a number of times and it was never an issue. And it shows you another side of the city. Never used the buses though. Traveling further out you will need to use taxis especially if you are going to great wall in which case you may either want to do a tour or hire a taxi for a day.

Converting money: I would convert about $30 at the airport to get you to the hotel and then change your money at the hotel or a local bank. I did all my conversions as I needed at the hotel and had no issues what so ever and I dont think the exchange rate was more than a few basis points off. Also tried using my bank cards to withdraw money just to test them and found that they didn't really work there so keep this in mind when taking cash/travelers checks from here. I was able to use my credit cards for all the hotel charges but make sure you dont get charged conversion fees (make sure the hotel charges your credit card in yuan). I think there a bunch of threads on that here as well.

Telephones/Cellphones: If you really need a cell phone, get a phone from here that can take a SIM card. Or have someone give you an old cell phone which can use a SIM card. Once you get to hotel they can probably get you a SIM card or tell you where to get one. I got a card for 500 yuan and never really used more than half of it while as was there (btw if anyone traveling would like a SIM card usable in Beijing, let me know and I can mail it out to you).
Water: Always bought either bottled water from the grocery stores or got it from the hotel. The vendors on the street may or may not have actual bottled water, even it looks brand new. Thankfully I didn’t get sick which would have ruined the trip. Also with fruit any street food, you may want to be careful of what you eat especially if its been sitting outside for a while or was washed with dirty water.

Places to see: For those who like temples/palaces, there are tons to see and most are pretty close by. Personally after a while they all looked the same and most of them have been recently painted/cleaned up for tourists. The most interesting for me was the summer palace, which is a great place to spend a day walking around the parks and just enjoying the place. It is outside the city and I used a hired taxi since it was quite a while away. The Hutungs were interesting and are a nice walk for a couple of hours just seeing the local settings. Did one show but would highly recommend against those. And if you want do a show go with a tour – it’s a lot cheaper because they get significant discounts. And remember almost everything is bargainable.

Great wall of China: If you have just a couple of hours then you will want to go to tourist section of the wall (Mutiyana or Balding) which are the newer parts of the wall. The wall is relatively new and well kept/clean. Make sure to take a couple of bottles of water and some fruit if you want to have a picnic on the wall. Everything is a step so you will need to have wear good hiking shoes and keep yourself hydrated. If you have the time and are interested in hiking the older parts of the wall, I would recommend starting from Jiankou and hiking to Mutiyana. However this a full day hike and there are parts of the wall where you will basically be walking through shrubs and at fairly steep angles. Something to be aware of if you are going to start from here, there is about an hour hike to actually get to the wall and you will want to make very sure the driver knows how to get to the base (I went with a guide and the driver was totally lost so we spent two hours trying to find the entrance). However you will get to see the older parts of the wall and also see how far up you are from the base.


Xian: Since I didn’t book any flights from the US, I had the hotel concierge book the flights to Xian, which was in line with what I could see online. Only issue was they needed the payment in cash or would charge me a fee with credit cards. Hotels in Xian are all over the place. I got a place close to the center of town (by the drum tower) but it was at the level of a motel 6/super 8. And I got bit by some insect while I was there. Other than that the hotel was fine. I couldn’t get the Shangrila for the two nights I was in Xian but I have heard that is the best hotel in the area. The Sheraton hotel is really outside the town so not a good choice unless you have a car. Most of the cities tourist sites are pretty much within walking distance of the drum tower/center of town. The only place that I had to get a tour for was the TerraCotta palace which is quite a ways away. In the city the muslim quarters are a great place to get your trinkets and eat some local food. I would highly recommend a walk on the city wall or even doing a bike tour as it is quite huge and impressive. The Terracotta armies are a must if you come out to Xian but beware that it can get very crowded (a problem if you have small kids or are claustrophobic). I went in a tour and it was pretty stifling within the tomb areas as it very crowded. You will have to jostle to get to the front of the rails if you want to take any pictures. But it is worth it once you are there to see all the statues.

Hope this is useful to some of the other first timers heading out there.