Hi guys.

I'm in Beijing with my young teen kids next month. I'm booked into Holiday Inn Express Temple Of Heven. It's only for a few nights stopover. I'm now considering changing hotels. I'm looking at Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel,Dongsanhuan Middle Road. Does anyone have any experience with this area? I'm confident on the metro so getting around isn't an issue. The hotel seems like an upgrade compared to Hi Express..

Another question, in Beijing, can anyone recommend a good night food street/ market?

Thanks

It really depends what you want to see and do. Beijing has been massively gentrified over the last 5-10 years and everywhere is much of a muchness. The Renaissance you're looking at is in ShuangJing I believe which is quite popular with foreigners to live but there's really nothing to do there. I'd maybe look at the Renaissance Wangfujing or somewhere central like that. Can walk and bike around quite easily, Hutongs to the north and Tiananmen etc to the south. Nice enough to do some mindless wandering. For a short stopover not much worth seeing outside of that area.

Unfortunately the gentrification has all but obliterated the Beijing street food scene. Dashilan has options but its all a bit 'if Disney did China'. Street food in general in China seems to be coming a thing of the past unfortunately. Everywhere you go they just seem to have the same chain vendors selling awful frozen squid on a stick, spam sausages in a pancake, and half raw 'BBQ' sticks cooked over an element from a kettle (Sorry for the rant!).

Are you travelling for PEK or PKX?

I actually lived in Shuangjing for about 3 years and learned to love the area (it used to have a slightly bad stigma for being south of Chang'an Jie, but that changed as more money rolled in). That said, as LOUDNOISES mentioned, it's not really optimal for tourists. If you just get a little north though (e.g. Guomao), you'll be in good shape. I'd definitely pass on the ToH location in any event, though.

Thanks for the advice. The only thing that is on our to do list is Badaling section of the Great Wall. I understand it's very touristy, but for the two kids, taking the bullet train there is going to be different (we don't really have passenger trains where we live). Like I said, I'm comfortable using the Metro, i have in 4 Chinese cities already.

Shame what was written above regarding street food. I really liked Shenzhen for the streetfood mall vendors. Or the eating halls in shanghai. Is there anything like that around the city?

If you go outside the center, there's plenty of street food vendors like in the 'old days'.

I don't know. SLT isn't in the center, it had the best street food, and was effectively transformed into a shopping mall (or collection of malls, if you will). The inherent conflict is that Chinese regard malls as symbols of progress and street food as reminders of the less polished past, so it's difficult for street food to survive in cool areas long term.

The ban on charcoal within the fifth ring basically killed it all off. I'm in Shunyi and we do have some vendors in our area but they are catering for construction workers. My wife went and got some as it was only 10rmb a dish - first time in twelve years of marriage I've seen her thrown food in the bin! As I said, any 'street food' nowadays is absolutely awful, mass produced frozen rubbish.

Back to accommodation anyways.... Presuming in and out of PEK I'd suggest staying in Dongzhimen (30 mins on airport express train). Holiday Inn there is about 15 mins walk to subway line 2 or the Ascott (pricey) is directly across from the station. Think its only about five stops on line 2 to get to Beijing North where the train to the wall leaves. Line 2 also has most of the tourist sites on it, and you're also a short walk to Sanlitun.

Edit: Dongzhimen also has 'Ghost' Street with hundreds of restaurants on it - famous for frog hot pot!

Yeah, I could endorse that plan for the OP. In fact, the entire NE section of Line 2 has interesting spots along it, and Dongzhimen is right at the bend.

That's "city center" to me!
This thread made me want to stop on the way back from work and get a Jian Bing...

Yes, into and out of PEK. Thanks for your recommendations, I'll look into them right now.

Hi again.

I was unable to get rooms to suit us at both hotels suggested.

In the north west corner, there is a Holiday Inn, Focus Square. Any idea if this location is any good?

The other ones that is drawing my attention are Novotel Peace, or Renaissance Bejing Captital.

I'd pass on anything northwest and ToH myself. I like the Capital Renaissance, but this is definitely affected by my fondness of Shuangjing that few tourists are likely to share or appreciate. As such, I'm guessing Novotel Peace would win this battle if you had the luxury of lots of opinions.

That said, since your main objective is to visit Badaling, (NE) 2nd or 3rd Ring is marginally more convenient than the center.

Thanks for the advice. I think we'll go for Renaissance. Can you confirm (from using my own maps, as Gmaps is terrible in China) that the best metro would be Line 10, Shuangjing Station, exit A. Walk directly north, along Ring 3 for approx 400m? Looks to be about a block?

As long as I can locate hotel in relation to a metro line, we can get anyway. Failing that taxi, I've always got Wechat with Wexin Pay set-up on my phone and ready to go. 6th stopover in China in past 12 months.

You're sort of right about exit A, but walking along 3rd Ring is the least desirable way to play it. Basically, going through the mall (all the way to the north doors) is my preference; the Ren is just across the small street.

My second choice would be to exit the mall on the west side and walk north on that street/path.

As you approach exit A from inside the subway station, there are a few sub-exits that put you inside the mall; just look for the signs: Viva or 富力广场. If you happen to miss those, it's not the end of the world; you'll have no trouble figuring out how to go north.

Ok great so that's a mall between exit A and Ren. Good to known. Google maps has the hotel about 3 blocks to the east. Thanks for your assistance.