Alka

Greetings!

Mrs. Alka and I are traveling to Beijing for a 13-day visit -- pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us. I've looked through the stickies and, quite frankly, it's a little overwhelming.

We arrive at PEK very late on Dec. 21, have the next day to recover from FRA-LHR-DFW-ORD-PEK (used four SWUs to upgrade on AA; thus, the routing), scheduled a small group day trip to the Great Wall on Dec. 23 and a private tour of Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and a Tea Ceremony on Dec. 26 -- the basic tourist stuff. Other than that, we are wide open until our Jan. 3 return to FRA.

We're staying at the Beijing Hilton at 1 Dong Fang Road.

I'd appreciate any and all suggestions for trips, tours, sightseeing, etc. Our visa allows us two entries so I'd like to take a night or two to visit somewhere else -- Hong Kong (preferably), Tokyo, or whatever.

We'd like to visit the Terracotta Warriors and will make arrangements through Hilton's concierge to do that.

The biggest issue, and pretty much the reason for this thread, is my wife seems to have heard from anyone and everyone who has visited China that we need someone to guide us around anytime we leave the hotel. If there's ever been a problem, she's heard about it and thinks it will happen to us.

Can I get something from the China/Beijing experts to reassure her that basic precautions one would take when visiting any foreign city or country is more than enough for this visit? I'm finding it hard to overcome fear of the unknown (and stories of problems) with common sense.

Thanks for any advice, suggestions, ideas, recommendations, constructive criticism, or whatever, you can provide.

Warm regards,

moondog

On what -- for lack of a better word -- evidence, does she base this assumption? I honestly feel more at ease in China than any other country in the world. Granted, I speak the language and have spent 10+ years in country, but I host guests from abroad all the time, and have never heard a single complaint. Believe it or not, people born after 1980 who live in BJ, SH, and even Xi'an tend to speak decent English, pretty much as a rule... especially true for the well dressed set, which is easy to spot.

If you've read many of my other posts related to this topic, you'll know I feel about guided tours both in general, and with respect to the sites you've mentioned. But, I hate beating a dead horse.

Insofar as your side trip is concerned, check out the XIY airport wiki in order to get a feel for what's out there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi'an_X...tional_Airport

Basically, you can get from almost all of those cities back to Beijing, so XIY is your limiting factor (assuming you don't scrap Xi'an from your plans, of course). Bangkok could be a decent bet; just don't try to cram too much in because it would be a shame if 6 of your 13 days were spent in airports and on airplanes.

trueblu

You've presumably already booked your flight: but you are a little cuckoo imo if you think that a 24+ hr routing in J will be more comfortable than a direct 10hr flight in Y, not to mention the extra cost!

I also think booking a tour guide, especially through the hotel, is rather unecessary and expensive.

We arrived in China not speaking the language, and although I would not say it is totally easy to get round -- asking directions can be quite tricky -- I feel completely safe in Beijing, as do my family.

It will be extremely cold in January, and the wind is very bitter, so wrap up warm. If it's once in a lifetime, you may as well try the GW, but I wouldn't envy you out there.

tb

drewguy

I think speaking the language makes a huge difference.

That said, there's no reason you need a guide for everything, and perhaps not for anything. It's fine to use one, and you may get insights, but between English, hotels telling the taxis where to go, and a very basic phrasebook plus some sense of adventure, there's little to be concerned about going it alone in Beijing and other large cities.

If I were you I would not go to Hong Kong and back, or for that matter out of China. Tokyo and Thailand are worth separate trips at another point--use this for your once in a lifetime trip to China.

You should certainly consider Xi'an. Really no reason for the Hilton concierge to handle that--you can arrange a tour in Xi'an once you're there. Give the city a couple of days--one for warriors (which isn't a full day), and one for other things. Perhaps pick one other city to go to from Xi'an, and then return to Beijing before flying home (same route?).

As moondog suggests, air travel in China can consume a lot of time, between delayed flights and uncertainty of timing getting to the airport. Figure at least half a day to fly anywhere.

tiblot

Yo! I just booked my trip with a lot of input from people here. I did choose Hilton Beijing at first but switched over to Hilton Wangfujing. I thought the price difference was huge at first, but turns out its really not much different. Its much closer to all the things you listed.

Hilton Beijing is an easier trip to / from PEK though. If you can swing it, I might suggest swaping over to that hotel.

How do you plan on getting to your hotel?

rdchen

Hilton is running a 50% off promo for the next few weeks, the rate for Hilton Beijing is only 621RMB/night.

http://www.hhonors.com/thankyou

tiblot

Great find!

Loren Pechtel

I've been over there many times, always with a Chinese speaker but only once have we done a tour and we weren't happy with that--since then we've always done it on our own. (Note that while she speaks the language she does *NOT* know the areas we are traveling to.)

If I were to go alone I wouldn't be looking for a guide. The web will give you the information you need to decide where to go. Beyond that you need to have all the addresses you want to get to WRITTEN DOWN. Do not attempt to tell a taxi driver where you want to go, they're not going to understand you. Show them a card with the address and there shouldn't be a problem.

While the people in the tourist areas will speak little English they are at least used to dealing with foreigners who don't speak Chinese. Even when you get off the tourist track things usually work pretty well. When we are over there we normally mostly do our own cooking and I do at least 80% of the shopping--never have I seen any sign of a word of English being spoken there, the only time it's been an issue is when they moved what I was looking for.

travelinmanS

No need for a tour guide in China but I implore you, if at all possible, to reconsider your flight plans. Even in AA's business class you will be absolutely knackered when arriving. You're probably going to be flying for over 30 hours, when you could get there in reasonable comfort in 12 hours by flying a European carrier with an economy extra type product. If you need business class look into Aeroflot thru Moscow, better comfort and service than AA and much, much shorter and usually around 2000 EUR round trip to China.

moondog

+2. The insanity entailed by the idea of flying from Germany to China via Dallas (of all places) didn't sink in until TB and you brought attention to it, but count me in complete agreement. I have flown between Europe and China in Y, and it's really not that bad.

anacapamalibu

FRA-LHR-DFW-ORD-PEK - FRA

Around the world.^

mduell

The only thing I found really difficult in Beijing as a non-Chinese speaker was the taxis. Have your hotel write out business cards with each destination you may want to go to so you can show those to the taxi driver.

moondog

I prefer to give people maps, circle places of interest, and send them on their way. This way, in addition to the driver knowing the way, so do my guests (Beijing's layout is about as idiot proof as they come).

trueblu

Since Chinese people, as a rule, can't read maps (no idea why), I find showing a map to someone to ask the way fairly useless -- I tried several times my first couple of visits. However, I do agree with the passenger knowing the way being really useful. If one has an android phone, pre-loading an off-line map, with places of interest marked is absolutely invaluable, and doesn't require a data plan.

tb

anacapamalibu

One theory is their geography education mainly consisted of text with little study of atlases.
My theory is you don't need a map when your main form of transportation is a bicycle and now a traditional map is obsolete with a smartphone or gps.