Greetings, all,

I'm about to book a flight which might include, depending on my final choice of airlines and itineraries, an all-day (almost 9 hr) layover at PEK. Is there anything worth doing or seeing that can be done or seen easily, in a few hours' time, from the airport? And are there any luggage storage facilities?

For what it's worth, I arrive very early in the morning and depart in the midafternoon.

How early do you arrive? And where is your next destination?

What do you like? Historical sights? Cultural oddities? Shopping? Food?

I arrive at around 7 AM, and depart for home (San Francisco, CA, USA) at around 4 PM. I guess my main question was just whether it was too difficult to get into the city and back into the airport (and back through security) to make a short hop (and $50 transit visa, I suppose) worth it.

I'm not a big shopper, but I like oddities, culture, and food, in approximately that order. A single interesting site (cultural, historical, or weird--anything short of a major museum, which I'll likely be too tired to enjoy) combined with a good lunch would likely satisfy me. Oh, and I'd prefer something relatively easy to get to/from, and to describe to a taxi driver, as I sadly speak no Chinese (although I have a pretty good ear, and speak some other tonal languages).

Thanks for any advice!

Either weeday or weekend, you'll have enough time to make it to the city. As far as oddities, the Beijing Underground City is pretty fun. It is a network of tunnels built during Mao's paranoia about war with the USSR, and it quite extensive.

During a weekday, the traffic may be pretty tough - but still should take about an hour (and cost 100-110 RMB, or $13-$14) The name in Chinese characters should be �地下 成� Its pronounced DiXia Cheng (or phonetically, Dee-Shee-ah Cheng) . the address is is 62 West Damochang Street, Qianmen, Tel. 6702-2657, 6701-1389. I don't know the charachters for "Damochang" - perhaps someone else could chime with better chinese skills than I.

You're also in a great location to walk north through tiananmen square, then into the forbidden city for an hour or too. I'd head back to the airport by 1:30 for a 4:00 flight if you already have a boarding pass. That time of day isn't incredibly busy for Beijing international departures, and it should be about 20 minutes from the time you get out of the cab until you get through security, assuming you already have your boarding passes.

Others who know Beijing better will probably chime in, but I would suggest Dongyue Temple in Chaoyang. You need to confine yourself to the north-east section of Beijing as the airport is out that way.

Visit the temple, then grab something to eat in the Jianguomen embassy area, which has lots of restaurants.

I guess you could chance going further into the center, but traffic is so horrendous I wouldn't risk it.

if you are flying in to beijing i think you will need a visa!

dp

I second the vote for the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. If there's time you could also go see Mao in the middle of the square. If you're going to see one thing in Beijing, I think that's the place to be. Dunno about visas, though. I'm pretty sure you can't get a regular visa at the airport, but there might be some sort of transit visa you can get.

Last week, while walking to immigration from the plane, we passed in front of a visa office that looked like one could get one on the spot. I don't think you need a visa if you are just doing an intl to intl transfer.

I'm not sure if you can skip the visa, but if you can manage to get a day
in PEK, its well worth it. If possible, make it an overnight stay and
relax a bit before you explore. Hotels are not very expensive
and you can do a lot in PEK.


Forbidden city is excellent, so is the Lama temple.
Shopping is plentiful. For little things, you can just sit at the
Tianamen square and the vendors will come to you

If you decide to spend only a few hours, just pick a place and stick to it.
Most of these attractions are huge and will take most of your time.

Its an amazing city.. enjoy!

tmk, you need to make special arrangements to use that service. also, taiwan and hk nationals appear to be subject to slightly less stringent restrictions

Thank you, all, for the very tempting advice! However, we got a better deal on a different route, so we're actually not going to pass through Beijing this time at all. However, I'm in Asia at least once a year, so I'll definitely make a plan to spend some time in Beijing proper on one of these trips. I'll be back to ask for advice then!