staying 2 nights at beijing airport hotel(as get in midnight day before and leave v early day after)
what are the access options for getting to the great wall and then poss to forbidden city etc in the afternoon??

thanks

Easiest, most convenient, and most expensive way is to hire a car for the entire day to do a complete triangular journey hotel-CW-FC-hotel. Arranging through the hotel is easiest, but there are private independent companies that can also do this. You can hire a taxi off-meter for this and negotiate a fare directly, but I think is easier if you speak some basic Mandarin. If you want to cut your transport cost somewhat but retain most of the convenience value, then hire a car for half-day for a one-way two segment journey hotel-GW-city. Then use public transport and/or taxi for any short range city movement and to get back to hotel. I favor the latter one-way approach not only for cost savings but for flexibility--you can spend as long as you want at the FC and in-town without having to meet a transport-imposed timetable.

Have the car pick you up in the morning at the hotel 7 am and take you to Mutianyu Great Wall. Driver will wait while you go up the wall and do your thing. From the airport, it should take an hour max to get to the Wall, and allot a couple of hours on the Wall (depends on your interest and how long you want to hike). Then have driver take you into the City and drop you off at a convenient spot where you can have lunch (we can make suggestions later if you go with this plan), then take public transport to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City. You likely will arrive there by 1 pm and have the afternoon to explore as you wish. My post-FC suggestion is to get to Houhai and see some hutongs before dark and then find dinner in that area. Then go back to hotel. It is possible to get subway or taxi to Dongzhimen in-town hub, then take the Airport Express light rail which for RMB 25 will get you back to the Airport without fear of traffic jams. Then catch hotel shuttle, walk (depends on hotel), or taxi the remaining short distance. That's what I'd do.

jiejie

thanks!

i forgot to mention will be with 3 small kids-..
how much would the taxi be if i just took a half day or so?
also,is mutianyu the best bit to see with kids/
also anything exciting kids would like in beijing?

thanks

I just saw the mention of kids' ages on your Sanya thread. That changes my suggestion for Beijing a bit. I would still engage a private car for at least part of the day, if not the entire day. Trying to maneuver three kids (2 of which will be small enough to get tired well before day's end) on subway and public transport is not a great idea. Technically there is a limit of 4 passengers allowed in a taxi but since your 5th is a 2-year old "lap child", you might get away with it. I don't think it will be as comfortable as private car or small van, though--especially for the segments to/from Mutianyu. With 4 people (I think 2-yr old is free) on the Airport Express each paying RMB 25, you might as well be in a car or taxi for a flat fee on the return journey.

These days, a decent car with driver for the day for 8 hours-ish should be about USD $100-120 and a van about $150. To take care of all your transport needs with no worries, might be worth it. A half-day is probably about 60-65% of the full day price. For the first part of your day from the airport hotel, I wouldn't deal with the taxi in this situation, arrange a car ahead of time. One of our FT'ers recently used www.tour-beijing.com strictly for van+driver rental (her party paid for their own entries and "guided" themselves at each sight) and reported back favorably. Look for posts by worldiswide. You will not save that much money by taking a taxi to Mutianyu instead, and again, if you are not a Mandarin speaker you will have to figure out how to deal with communication issues as 99% of BJ taxi drivers simply do not speak English (or anything else).

I think the Mutianyu GW and the Forbidden City on the same day is really going to be too much for the two youngest children. I seriously doubt they would appreciate the FC. At the risk of being a BJ sightseeing heretic, after the GW, I'd blow off the FC entirely and go to Beihai Park which is not only historic, but has paddle boats to rent and just is more engaging for kids. Go in the south gate and out the north gate. It's a very pleasant place for the whole family, and you'll see other Chinese families with kids there. After exiting the north gate of Beihai, cross the main street over to Houhai area. I normally don't recommend adults do the bicycle pedicab hutong tours in favor of hiking/biking oneself, but by mid-afternoon your kids will need to rest their legs. I think they and you would find the pedicab tour through the old hutongs a hoot--you should be able to put 1 adult + 1 kid in pedicab A and 1 adult + 2 smaller kids in pedicab B. Drivers will do the pedalling, you just sit back and take it all in. After that, you should be sufficiently refreshed to find a place in Houhai to have dinner--lots of restaurants there and nearly all are reasonably priced. If you decided to keep the driver for the entire day, a meeting point will have to be arranged and a time--that's the downside of having the driver for the full day. If you prearranged to release the driver after a Beihai Park drop off, then you can get a taxi back from Houhai. I'd just have the taxi go all the way to the hotel, forego subways and light rail. Show the taxi driver a card from your hotel and you should have no problems.

I think this is a better plan to balance seeing some classic Beijing sights for the adults, yet keep the interest of the kids in the family.

ETA: what time of year are you coming?--I think the Beihai paddle boats don't operate again until April or maybe May 1. The sights themselves and the hutong pedicabs will always be running, though.

I have not done this recently, but a friend who lives in Dali recently took the train from Beijing to the wall and said it was a great experience and worked really really well.

I would recommend hiring a car as well. The driver can take you to the parking lot right at the bottom of the gondola station at BaDaLing. From what I remember from going last year, the train station is still a rather 15 min walk through the "town" with vendors bothering you everywhere. With kids, it's better to reduce any hassles if possible

The train would be to Badaling GW--not a recommended part when there are plausible alternatives, and it takes too long. With only one useable day, this OP doesn't have that kind of time to waste if he wants to see something in the city as well. And yes, as above poster says, there is a gauntlet walk from station to Wall itself. Stick with Mutianyu and car.