8 hours in PEK, What to do?
 

I have seen several posts related to getting out of PEK without a visa but I was hoping for some guidance and input on PEK airport while we wait for our next flight. Ideas on where to eat? Things of interest to see or do while in the new T3? I know the terminal is new but was hoping for some of you mega flyers to fill me in.

I do have *A gold status so will we have access to the T3 lounge? Some posts indicate this can be iffy. This will be 8/12 so it will in the thick of the Olympics which should make the people watching pretty interesting.

Another question is will we have to go through customs for the plane change (we are on a *A award and going from UA to CA going onto SIN-DPS) or do we wait in the terminal for the next plane?

Do the lounges in T3 have showers? Again some posts say "yes" some say "no".

The last one is my lovely UA *A reward is C the whole way EXCEPT the red eye on CA. The age old question, does anyone have tips for getting this one segment upgraded? 8 hours is a lot of time to schmooze someone, just not very familiar with international schmoozing (pretty good domestically).

Thanks one and all. (Oh yeah this is our honeymoon, so if you see us say HI!)

I just passed through there so here's the lowdown. If traveling through the international terminal, your gate will most likly be in the E terminal. They have only one lounge that *G can acess, the Air China lounge. It's decent and much better than other Air China lounges. They have no showers, but they do have plenty of computers, plenty of comfy leather chairs, and private rooms to sleep in upon request.
In the terminal it self, aside from the stunning terminal, there is the usual duty free, three overpriced cafes and a pizza hut, which frankly is your best bet when it comes to food. The lounge does have snacks and hot food at certain times.

Oh and yeah, you have to go through customs when changing at PEK. Make sure you have a visa if you hold a US passport or you will not be allowed into the country and it could get messy.

Have a great honeymoon!:D

As above on *Golds having access to Air China business class lounge in E. As to visa-free entry, I'm not so sure you will be successful due to your timing on 8/12. Normally you would pass through immigration and customs, and with US (or EU/AUS-NZ/Jpn + some others) passport, you could get at Beijing airport, limited time visa-free entry, and this is stated in official regulations. However, due to heightened Olympic security measures in place right now across the city, be prepared to get denied entry and have to remain inside the terminal in transit only. Post a followup on success or not, as it would be useful to have real-time anecdotal evidence of whether the security policy has defacto suspended visa-free entry....and right now we don't have any evidence one way or another.

Japan has a pretty sweet visa arrangement with China; it's passport holders don't need visas for stays less than 30(?) days.

15 days. Ditto Singapore (although for the summer, Singaporeans have had to get visas.)

I'm curious to see how this works. There's no way China will let anyone in without a visa. The flight to SIN would also be leaving from the international side of E so I don't think the OP would need to clear immigration. I'm happy to be corrected on this because it's interesting how this might work. I'd be even more interested to see how the luggage does getting off of UA, onto CA, then onto SQ (I assume) going to Bali without re-checking.