Originally Posted by
jiejie
Exit Beihai Park out the north gate. Cross the big boulevard to the other side and head into the old hutong area in the Houhai District. By now it will be late afternoon (estim 5:30-ish) and getting interesting, with the residents puttering about the alleys around the old courtyard homes, and the restaurants and bars around the lake ramping up for business. Pick a place and eat.
He should obviously do a quick stroll around the east side of Qianhai because it is directly across the street from the north gate of Beihai Park, and Yandai Hutong is mildly interesting, but Nanluoguxiang is much cooler IMO, and has better restaurants. It's only a 5-10 minute walk from Yandai Hutong (go east); maybe print out a map of the area because it's easy to get lost (I speak from experience).
Friday: Try to leave around 7:30 am and get a taxi to the Summer Palace, which may take about 45 minutes. Wait until 8:30 and it may take twice as long. Go to the East Gate. Enter and wander around. You can research from a guidebook. Most of the buildings are on the East and North side, so I suggest you concentrate your time there, then head out the back of the north side where the gardens are. Also the north gate which is closest to a Line 4 Subway Stop. I presume that it will now be around noon. Go south and get off at Xizhimen station, switch to Subway Line 2 and head east to Lama Temple (Yonghegong).
Personally, I'd rank Wudaokou ahead of the Lama Temple because there are thousands of temples in China, but only one Wudaokou. Zhongguancun (on the way back) is also worth a look for those that are into electronics.
Massages can be done on Thursday or Friday evening (or both!). Search this forum for recommendations, most of them are in the part of town east of your hostel but not horribly far away, perhaps block out time for dinner and massage or viceversa in that part of town, returning to hostel later by taxi.
If I didn't live in China, I'd get massages every single day I was here. There are massage places everywhere; just look for the 足 character. While I know some people are fearful of being ripped off and/or offered special services, and therefore stick to the high end chains (most of which aren't all that expensive; e.g. 138 v 80, but the former often includes some sort of food), I've never once been fleeced by a massage parlor. I know of only one person who was, and this was kind of his own fault (I won't go into further detail; wink, wink). Basically, a little common sense goes a long way.