I'll also pipe in and say here that your day two plans miiiight be a bit too ambitious. If you're go-go travelers, than you shouldn't have a problem making it to Summer Palace-Forbidden City-Tiananmen, but that won't exactly be a leisurely tour. You can hurry Tiananmen, but places like the Summer Palace and Forbidden City, I think, are best enjoyed at a leisurely stroll. That said, I would maybe push Summer Palace to the morning of day 5.

Also bear in mind that the sun sets (read: it gets dark and cold) probably around 4:30, so your afternoons are sortish.

I'll respectfully disagree. I think Tienanmen and the Forbidden City can easily be done (and enjoyed) in a half-day. The same for the Summer Palace, and that is at a leisurely stroll.

I guess people may be split on this one but my vote is that the Summer Palace will take a bit more time. It's pretty big!

Watch out for the fraudsters at the summer palace. They will return your money because of a tear that they've discovered and they want a new, fresh bill and once given, they'll give you back counterfient money! Someone in our group fell for it and got scammed for 3 fifty rmb bills. Be careful, but have a great time while you're there. It's fabulous!

Do you have a private driver taking you around to the sites or have you signed up with day tours? Your hotel concierge will be able to make recommendations for your 5th day that you have open. There's so much to do so it depends on what you like.

When we arrived in Beijing and walked out to the taxi area, the taxi driver did not understand where we were going (or she pretended not to) because we had it written in English. She was refusing to take us. The guard had to force her to take us so he must have told her what it was in Chinese... not sure? So it would be helpful to have your hotel name/address written in Chinese which I'm sure you can get printed from the website or emailed to you.

If taking a taxi, always ask for a receipt when you get in so that they will be honest with you and not drive you around to hike up the fare.

This never happened to us, but it's worth mentioning so that you are aware: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...g-warning.html

Actually there are almost no concierges in Beijing who function as you would expect a concierge to function (the concierge at The Peninsula is one notable exception). They have not been to the places of interest, they know nothing about them, and if you know something they are still unwilling to find out anything. Inspirational suggestions are certainly not their strong point. Suggestions that involve a kick-back to them are another matter. Some of the hotels do keep half-decent databases and their concierge desk staff will use Internet access to search locally-produced web pages (the Raffles, the Hilton Wangfujing, for instance) and also try to find something in English. But this is when you've said, 'Can you find out anything about puppet shows?' In short, do your reading and research before you arrive in Beijing, and have a list of what you would like to do in order of priority.

If it's in English of course she can't read it. This is China. But if you have your destination written down in characters for you that will work. Take a card from your hotel to show to a driver when you want to return. This is indeed essential.

It's not clear how would that stop anyone from driving you a long way round if you don't know where you're going anyway.

The meter is started just after the cab pulls away. The price to pay is shown clearly on the meter. Ask for a receipt as you get out because if you should happen to leave anything in the cab, this is the way to get it back. Point at the receipt (which is printed automatically in most cabs these days), or say 'fa piao'.

If you feel the need to suggest to the driver that you know what you are doing, have one person sit in front holding a map.

Better than nine times in ten there are no problems with Beijing taxi drivers these days except that the recent influx of drivers from neighbouring counties means their geography is lacking. The way to avoid difficulties with the few sharks is generally to flag down taxis in the street, rather than taking them from outside hotels (there are occasionally shenanigans involving the bell boys and dodgy cabs--particularly reject the large, black saloons called Hong Qi if these are offered to you outside a hotel), and in particular never board waiting cabs outside major tourist sights, such as the Forbidden City (north or south entrances), the Summer Palace, Hong Qiao market (which should be avoided anyway), and so on. Particularly never go with one that calls out to you. Just flag down a passing cab in the street.

Peter N-H

I think this is a MUST do. Good point! I also carry the phone
number of the hotel. Some taxi drivers do not always know how
to get to the address... but many will gladly call the hotel and
find out.

This also works with destinations. My wife, who is Chinese, grew up in Beijing and is a fluent Mandarin speaker, will frequently have to call the restaurant or other destination that we're headed to and hand the phone to the taxi driver so he can get directions.

If you're traveling with a non-Mandarin speaker, always carry a hotel name card (the concierge or the desk will give you one) -- these say, in Chinese, "Please take me to: [name and address of hotel]." The concierge will also write down the name and address of the destination -- many hotels have special cards for this purpose. At the better hotels, the doorman will confirm with the taxi driver that he knows the destination before letting you get in. Also, you should know that the government has greatly improved the ring roads and the major boulevards as part of its preparation for the Olympics. Frequently, you'll find yourself in a "can't get there from here" situation as a result -- to get somewhere, your taxi may need to go in the opposite direction for a while, or navigate a complicated series of switchbacks. You're not getting ridden around -- it's really the only way to get to some places from some other places.

English is taught in the Chinese schools from elementary school on. However, as with many things, some Chinese are better students than others. Many Beijingers will try to speak a few words of English to you, but with varying degrees of success. I'd recommend learning a few simple phrases, with the caveat that Mandarin is a fiendishly difficult language to pronounce, being tonal and using a phoneme set completely different from English. Because of the traffic in Beijing and the way the streets are laid out, taxi drivers will, frequently, get you near your destination, rather than dropping you off right at it. Just stop anyone on the street and say the following (this is not Pinyin, the formal system for transliteration of Mandarin, but the closest approximation I can come up with for English speakers):

"Doo a boo chi, ching juan: [Name of destination] t'sigh nahr?" (The "a" is a long a, as in "day")

This means, "Excuse me, please: Where is [Name of destination]?" If you don't know the name of the destination in Chinese, pointing to a picture of it in a guidebook will suffice.

Saying, "thank you," in English will be understood by most everyone. It's just a personal thing, but the way most foreigners pronounce "thank you" in Mandarin sounds flat and unpleasant to me.

You don't need to worry about talking to strangers, except around major tourist destinations. As others have noted, there are common tourist scams, but none of them involve violence and, if they're done well, you probably won't even know you were scammed. Just avoid the pretty girls who want to practice their English and then invite you to tea, and the "art students" who want to show you their gallery or school. The one exception to this is the occasional beggar who can get very aggressive -- they'll try to hang on to your sleeve (they're saying, "Please, give me money!"). If you ignore them, they'll eventually move on. If you like, you can give them a couple of 1 RMB coins, but I wouldn't suggest it as it just encourages their colleagues.

At the Forbidden City, you can rent a headset that will guide you around in English, so you don't need any of the numerous "guides" that will approach you (though they'll do so very politely and almost always take a polite, "no thank you" without argument).

If you find a taxi driver and taxi that you like (almost all of the taxis in Beijing are brand new, but there are still some of the old red bone shakers around), use the hotel doorman to negotiate a daily rate if you like. Also note that most cab rides in Beijing will be very cheap -- 10 RMB when the flag drops and, unless you're going to the outlying areas of the city, rarely more than 20 RMB. At current exchange rates, this is between $1.30 and $2.50. Taxi drivers aren't tipped in China, though if you hire one for the day or negotiate a flat rate to the airport and the driver is helpful (gets you a cart, helps you with your bags, etc.) a modest tip is appropriate and appreciated.

i have to admit that as a fairly fluent Mandarin speaker I had absolutely no clue what that was supposed to mean until I read the explanation. There is no chance whatsoever that making the noises set out there (and with no explanation of tones even if the vowels and syllables were correct) will result in comprehension, but nor is there any need whatsoever to make coherent sentences. Simply showing the characters for the name of a destination to someone will do the trick.


Unfortunately the quality of the information on the headset is very poor, so you'd be better to take reading materials brought from overseas, and use the map provided with your ticket. There are also English introductions posted at various points with much the same indifferent 'information' as the audio headsets available for free.

If you do, you'll be ensuring the doorman takes a cut which you, of course will be paying. Instead if you think you might want a car for a day have someone at reception help you write out your needs in characters, and just negotiate directly with a driver you like using this and pen and paper/calculator/mobile phone screen to discuss price. The 'daily rate' will depend very much on what you want to do. But note the drivers are only pulling in ¥300 to ¥500 a day, and much of that spend cruising around empty. This is a buyer's market, and you should ignore any 'information' that a flat rate has to be at least ¥500 (some expats say ¥1000). To a destination within a hundred km or so and back you shouldn't be paying more than ¥350. If you're just going round town it's better simply just to hop in cabs as you go, rather than hire one for the day. Note that the meter rate jumps by 50% after 15km in Beijing, so having one take you to a suburban destination and bring you back is also unnecessarily expensive. Just flag down a new cab to return.

And nor is anyone else. And this applies whether you're working on or off the meter. The appropriate price to pay is the one you negotiated, and not a fen more.

Peter N-H
China

Sorry, my experience is quite the contrary.

Excuse me.. dui bu qi

sound byte:

http://www.transparent.com/languagep...inese/cte07.au

Where is? Zai Na-Li

The Mandarin question word for "where� is z�i nǎli. It is made up of three characters: 在 (z�i) which means "located at," and the two characters 哪裡 (nǎli) are the question �where?� Z�i nǎli literally means, �Where is it located?�

Sound Byte example: Where is a restroom?

http://ecis.seattleu.edu/rao/china20...20restroom.wav

Thanks : xiexie

Sound Byte:

http://www.standardmandarin.com/chin...ases/Thank_you

Wow! Thanks everyone, that's a lot of good information. I started taking Mandarin Chinese lessons from a tutor in October so I will have about 6 months under my belt come May. We are "go-go" travelers, so I think we can fit in the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Summer Palace in the one day. And sounds like we'll avoid Silk Road.

Question - On our trip to the Great Wall we are going to avoid Badaling and head for Jinshanling to get dropped off, then hike to Simatai. Does anyone know if taxis are available and waiting there at Simatai for hire back to Beijing?

We didn't intend to hire any tour guides on our trip. Does the sun really set at 4:30 in mid-May? I would have expected later.

Thanks again.

Beijing May 15, 2009 Sunset 7:22 PM ^

Why would you expect a concierge that you are accustomed to? The "concierge" at our hotel was helpful in finding us things to do. (The front desk clerk was also helpful in suggesting things.) Sure it wasn't a concierge that we are accustomed to but they most definitely can recommend things. If you think just because they may not have been to a place of interest or know anything about them that they can't suggest something, then that's just silly. Also, you are ridiculous if you think that concierges here (or wherever you're from) don't get a "cut" for whatever tours/events/reservations/whatnot that they organize/set up for you.

Comeon! You think the airport taxi driver didn't know of the hotel when we said it in English? I think it's a very small percentage who can't read hotel names. You're being ignorant by stating "If it's in Engish of course she can't read it. This is China." Please! The real reason she was refusing us was because she wanted us to take 2 taxis instead of 1 (we were 4 people and she was indicating that we needed 2 taxis) but instead she was saying she didn't understand what the hotel name was. Not to mention, I had a map printed out with the cross streets and such of our destination. If you think they can't read it after bringing guests there (probably a large percentage of Westerners) hundreds of times, then I don't know what to say. This after all is not some taxi driver in the rural provinces. And on another note, every taxi driver we took in Beijing could speak some English (though limited)... much better than most of us do when we go to a foreign speaking country!

Asking for a receipt forces them to turn on the meter (as opposed to keeping it off) and will most likely keep them honest and not drive you around. I'm not saying that requesting a receipt will stop them from going the long way, but it helps. This is a tip that I received from my sister-in-law who grew up there. There definitely was validity to it. We picked up a cab outside of T-Square heading back to the hotel and he did NOT turn on the meter. When I said I wanted a receipt, he turned it on.

Does anyone ever get back anything they leave in a cab? Oh yea: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/200...miracle_2.html

Oh yea... that'll work real well! You should suggest to them to have a compass as well.

Not taxis as such. You need to return to the main road where you can flag down buses en route from Chengde to Beijing. There may be farm vehicles willing to take you to the road, and minibuses from Miyun looking for hire, although with an outrageous idea of what's a fair price. From Miyun you can also get a bus.

You're best to reach Simatai by mid-afternoon if you don't wish to get stranded or be faced with a long walk, or find your choices so limited that you have to pay a very high price.

Peter N-H
China