Looking at staying at the Marco Polo Beijing for our trip there in July/August. There is a good rate, at $110 plus 15% for a club room. Has any one experienced this hotel- the location seems good.

I have stayed at the Marco Polo Hong Kong, and Marco Polo Gateway, and was happy enough for the low rates I got at both at the time.

Other options for Beijing are Grand Hyatt, which friends have been pleased with, or Visa Platinum special at the Penn Palace (though that is double the rate of the MPB).

huh? there was a thread about that property about a month ago, but the search function is coming up empty for me. anyway, the location is terrible if you need to spend any time in the cbd (plan on 30 minutes each way most of the day), but is well situated with respect to the major tourist attractions. furthermore, houhai is a nice alternative to sanlitun (which seems a bit tired since they tore down the south bar street several months ago).

i certainly wouldn't pay 2x for the palace, but might be drawn towards the hyatt if you could get it for close to the same price (though there a number of things i don't like about the hyatt). if you do have meetings at kerry/guomao, i would certainly advise you to stay on the 3rd ring though. the st. regis could be ok as well, but --as the premiere hotel in town-- tends to run on the expensive side.

Just touring, it will be my first time back in PEK in 10 years, and my fiancee's first time there- we did Shanghai last year and stayed at the Grand Hyatt, Club Floor Bund view room on the 85th floor- WOW.

In PEK though, we have the following plan;

Sat morning arrival July 30- to hotel, then Tiananmen Sq, Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. Peking Duck for dinner.

Sunday July 31-nothing planned- might fly down to Shanghai to M on the Bund for brunch- Great restaurant.

Monday Aug 1- Great Wall- which section would you recommend? Acrobatics or Opera for night

Tuesday Aug 2- Mao Mausoleum/Summer Palace/ market of some kind/museums...

Wed Aug 3- head back to Korea lunchtime flight.

It seems that we have a lot of wasted time...anyhelp with the plan would be great

my favorite way to do the forbidden city is to start at tiananmen at around 4:30p (3:30p if you want to take your time) then walk north. then i cross the street to beihai park (adjacent jingshan park is also an option and offers better views, but doesn't have the lake; you really need to pick one or the other or your legs will hate you), rent a row boat for 30 minutes or so, and then climb to the top of the monument. then i keep going north to houhai park and eat dinner by the lake while the sun sets. the restaurants aren't all that special up there, but the ambience is great.

you could do temple of heaven prior to all of that and maybe have peking duck for lunch at the qianmen quanjude, but your fiance might kill you afterwards.


imo beijing has too much to offer to justify such a side trip. the st. regis brunch isn't quite up to the portman (shanghai) standards, but gets the job done. alternatively, if you want something more m-like, you could check out handle lee's courtyard, which overlooks the forbidden city.

huanghua ( 黄花城 ) is my favorite beijing wall site by far (check the beijing lonely planet), but going there necessitates an extremely strenuous hike. otherwise, simatai offers the same sort of untouched wall without the danger factor. in either case, i'd be willing to organize a small group if i'm in town at the time.

edited to add: i shouldn't dismiss badaling and mutianyu out of hand. although not as pristine as the afforementioned sites, these are still impressive and take less time (2-4 hours v. 5-7)

i can't really comment on acrobatics/opera (have done both; not my cup of tea; admit that they are part of the beijing experience).

the summer palace can be a challenge to access during the summer (it's that last mile that's a killer) and is big so i wouldn't plan too much else for that day.

you should try to set aside some time to simply explore the city and eat at some local restaurants. i recommend renting bikes and cruising the hutongs (if you stay at the marco polo, you'll find lots to the south). one of my profs at school --michael oksenberg-- used to advise his students that doing so was the single best way to learn about beijing.

my final piece of advice would be not to worry about packing your schedule too tightly because beijing can be a great place to relax in the summer and your proposed itinerary calls for an awful lot of walking as it is.

ps - you might as well try to hit sanlitun on sat night if you feel so motivated. while i think it's lost a bit of its allure in recent years, summer nights can be quite eventful.

This is the earlier thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=402572

Update: my friend just told me that they now stop selling tickets at 3p (you can still stay till around dusk) so please take that into account.

Hello again. I just returned from a grueling afternoon at Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven) with some visitors from HK. It wasn't too crowded because we snuck in just before they stopped selling tickets, but boy are my feet tired! (My hat's off to all of you that manage to do more than one of these attractions per day.)

Anyway, I just picked up the current issue of That's Beijing and there is an article -- Eight Ways to Fall in Love with Beijing -- that I am in agreement with for the most part. First, they support my biking idea, but encourage doing so at night because the city is very quiet then and there is much less traffic. Second, they also advocate Huanghuacheng, in addition to two other semi-remote great wall sites (Liangyunling and Jinshangling). You can also rent mountain bikes up there if that floats your boat. Third, they are hutong walkers/bikers themselves.

Their remaining five pieces of advice: 1) engage actual Chinese people in conversation/beer; 2) check out Ghost Street; 3) go to a modern play/performance; 4) take in a punk show; and 5) look for hidden treasures.

Point 5 is explained in more detail, of course, but nothing too exciting there. Regarding points 3 and 4, I guess I forgot to mention that the art scene here is pretty impressive. To quote the article, "Art loves adversity, and with its foul weather, censorious authorities, tough markets and tougher critics, Beijing has nurtured quite an art scene."