PEK to intown hotel: transfer options
 

My wife and I will arrive at PEK at 7:25 pm this Saturday (March 7). We have a reservation at the Kerry Hotel. What are the options, and what are your recommendations, for getting from point A to point B?

(We're experienced travelers, but have never been to China before and don't speak any Chinese. We'll have a wheeled suitcase and backpack each and are fully mobile, so we can walk for short-to-medium distances, but we know nothing about Beijing.)

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggsestions.

Take a taxi. Traffic shouldn't be an issue.

Thank you. That is what we also would have picked from what we've read. Are taxis easy to find at the airport? Is there a central taxi queue? We've also heard that queue discipline is not a familiar concept in much of China. We can deal with that, China is not unique in that respect, but are airport taxis an exception?

Yes. Sometimes the lines can get fairly long, but they tends to move quickly.

If you have time, prehaps you might want to print out the hotel name in English and Chinese.

I have found it very helpful when at the hotel to pick up their business cards for directions AND often there might be a quick tourist list of popular destinations that can be ticked off or highlighted as to where you want to go for taxis.The bellmen/doormen are also helpful with hailing taxis and giving directions. (When we were in Guangzhou, the staff at the Peninsula would note down the taxi's # for security reference.)

You better have you hotel name and address printed out in Chinese (download from hotel website) and give it to the taxi driver as most of them do not speak English.

But, they ALL know where the Kerry Centre is, and the Chinese name is really easy to pronounce. Addresses are generally kind of useless in Beijing, by the way (landmarks are not).

No one has said "Uber" yet???

Not from the airport. Too much of a PITA to connect with the driver. And, I'm guessing that the OP probably doesn't have a Chinese SIM (not an absolute necessity, but drivers typically don't like calling foreign numbers).

No need for the address but you should have the phone number ready that the taxidriver can make a call.

Thanks to everyone. We have the hotel name in Chinese, from the hotel Web site, and a Google Maps printout showing the hotel with street and landmark names in Chinese. We also know we're not the first Westerners that ever landed at PEK and wanted to get to a hotel ...

The lineup is very orderly at the airport. You heard wrong. Just follow the signs and ignore touts.

Taxi is very well signposted from arrivals. On the basement floor.

You will probably find the scrum for the lifts down to the taxi is worse than the taxi line itself. Take the ramp escelators down if you can.

The Kerry is a well known hotel smack in the CBD so I doubt any issues but have their number prepared and give your phone to the taxi driver if need be. Hotels directing taxis is pretty normal for both foreigners and chinese so dont worry about this ( my wife always does this and asks thr hotel the cost of the trip to avoid any scenic routes).

I would imagine the cost to be about 100 - 120rmb. An extra 10rmb will be added for the toll road. Whilst scams are very rare keep an eye on the driver when handing over 100rmb notes in case of any switcharoo shenanigans. Not had an issue in 5 years of taking almost daily taxis but of course always pays to be vigilant.

Thank you. To clarify my earlier post: we had heard this about Chinese queues in general, but not specifically about the PEK airport taxi queue. My question was whether or not this specific queue is more, well, "British." Your answer says that is it; the post after yours suggests that the queue for the lifts may not be!

Off to the airport in 30 minutes. Just looked up the hotel's phone number and wrote it on the printout of the hotel name in Chinese, as suggested. Good idea, and thanks to everyone for their help!

On the way over, you can practice how to say
嘉里中心 and 酒店
If you get this remotely close to correct, you won't need to show the driver any of your print outs. :)