Beiijing Hotel & Taxis

[adey22]

We are having a 4 night pre-cruise stay in Beiijing before enbarking on the Diamond Princess for thr Beiijing to Bngkok cruise. The Hotel that has been booked for us is the Beiijing Shangri-La. It looks a very nice hotel but quite a long way from central Beiijing, also the restaurants in the Hotel seem very expensive. If anyone has stayed there we would be very grateful for any information about the locality and availability of restaurants etc. Also any info re costs of taxis into Beiijing would be usefull as well

[j2ink]

I don't know anything about the hotel or its location, but taxis in Beijing are relatively cheap. However the traffic is really heavy at times, so be prepared to pay more during rush hours.

 

The biggest problem with taxis is that the drivers speak absolutely no English, and cannot even read Beijing place names written in Western alphabetical characters. If you call for a taxi from the hotel, the hotel workers should be able to tell the taxi driver where you want to go, but after that, you are on your own. So, I would highly recommend that you have a map of the city with the place names written in Chinese characters, so that you can point to where you want to go. Or, better yet, download the place names of places you want to visit in Chinese characters from the internet, and show the names to the taxi driver when you get into the taxi. Don't forget to get the hotel name and address in Chines characters. Beijing is huge, and the taxi drivers I encountered didn't even know where my large hotel was in the central Wangfujing area. Good luck!

[chipmaster]

We are having a 4 night pre-cruise stay in Beiijing before enbarking on the Diamond Princess for thr Beiijing to Bngkok cruise. The Hotel that has been booked for us is the Beiijing Shangri-La. It looks a very nice hotel but quite a long way from central Beiijing, also the restaurants in the Hotel seem very expensive. If anyone has stayed there we would be very grateful for any information about the locality and availability of restaurants etc. Also any info re costs of taxis into Beiijing would be usefull as well

 

Taxis are reasonable, but as the poster said, expect them to speak NO english. Every hotel I've been in China have little business cards with map, address, name in chinese. Take one/more with you and keep it with you so you can get back ;)

 

The Shangri-La is a good chain, never stayed at the one in Beijing.