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An ex-pat's guide to Beijing


kaisatsu

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We would like to do a 3-4 day Yangtze River Cruise. Can you recommend a company who could help us with the air within China, the cruise and transfers fm hotel to airport and airport to pier in Beijing. I also understand from reading lots in the Princess threads that check-in for the cruise is done at some hotel instead of the pier. Do you know anything about that?

 

In addition from the company mentioned before, CITS is one of the biggest travel companies in China. I recently did a day tour with them in Xian (the terracotta warriors) and was fairly impressed. China is notably un-tourist-friendly, and using one of these companies makes things a lot simpler. However, it certainly comes at a price compared to booking everything on your own.

 

If anyone's interested in trying to set things up on their own...

 

We never got a chance to do the Yangtze Cruise, so I can't recommend a particular cruise company. However, do go higher end, because I've heard that some of the low-end local ships are pretty bad!

 

For flights within China, your best bets are http://english.ctrip.com and http://elong.net, both of which have English sites. Elong is actually Expedia's partner in China. However, it may be difficult to set things up overseas since they require either a Chinese credit card or payment in cash!

 

I don't know much about sorting out transfers, so you may want to check the posts about travelling between Beijing and Xingang for some recomendations of companies.

 

Finally, the check-in for our cruise was also done at the hotel. My TA called Princess a month ahead, and they said it would be done at the pier. When I called again 2 days before, they said it was being done at the hotel! I would bank on it being done at the hotel, but check with the cruiseline right before you leave to be sure. Ours was done at the Renaissance Tianjin Teda Hotel (in Teda, outside Tianjin; Note that there's another Renaissance Hotel in Tianjin itself). You can find information about the hotel on the two travel sites listed above. I got the following contact info from cTrip:

Address:No.29 the second Ave. Economic and Technology Development Area, Tianjin

ZipCode:300457

Telephone:022-66218888

Fax:022-65709650

I advise double-checking the phone number and address with the cruiseline.

 

Also, due to customs delays at the port itself, the embarkation for our cruise was extremely slow and painful (people waiting on buses outside the terminal for ages before being allowed inside to wait in line for ages). We were travelling on our own and were worried about getting lost, so we called the hotel on the number Princess had given us to confirm the location. Although our boarding pass said we should arrive between 2:00 and 5:00, we asked if we could come early, and they said it would be fine. We arrived around 11:00, checked in, and were on the first shuttle to the pier, where the lines weren't too long, and we were on the ship by noon. I'm glad we spent all that time exploring the empty ship instead of waiting in line for hours!

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Kaisatsu...again, thank you for the information you took time to pass on to me and us. While the precruise price from Princess seems quite costly, if we decide to do this, it might just be better to go with them. While I have done my share of travel in different parts of the world, somehow China seems so far away and daunting to arrange. Anyway, I will continue to read this thread as the information given is phenomominal.

 

Thank you again.:)

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While the precruise price from Princess seems quite costly, if we decide to do this, it might just be better to go with them. While I have done my share of travel in different parts of the world, somehow China seems so far away and daunting to arrange.

China is pretty tough to organize. Even for those of us who live here and speak some of the language, travel is a little difficult. Other than the main attractions, the country isn't very tourist-friendly. For instance, trying to take public transportation to the other parts of the Great Wall besides Badaling seems impossible, and the people I know who've tried still ended up hiring a taxi for the last leg!

 

I do suggest contacting one of the major travel companies like CITS to get a comparison, because the Princess packages can be quite expensive, and they run their trips through the local tour companies anyway. Also, you'll get a little more flexibility setting up your itinerary, in case you want some time to explore on your own.

 

Good luck with your planning!

-Meg

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  • 1 month later...

I am very interested in the great shopping in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc.:D ), but with the very strict weight restrictions on luggage for the inter-China airlines, how does one get everything home???:confused: I am sure that there must be several (I hope!) options, and I'd love it if you'd go through all that you know. I am afraid that I'll get some great deals, only to have to pay through the nose to get them around China with me so I can take them home:eek: . Then they wouldn't be such great bargains anymore:(. I think I'd like a rug amoung other things...many other things.

 

Thank you so much for all of the time and effort you have taken thus far to help us all! Boy, have you done your good deed!:)

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First of all, thank you for this GREAT thread! There's so much good information here!

 

I'm concerned with a comment that I read on the cc about blood soup. It caused me to google it and I see that blood is used as an ingredient in some soup in China. One reference specifically mentioned "blood tofu".

 

I have a deeply held religious conviction that forbids eating blood in any manner. How difficult will it be to make sure that I do not accidentally eat something that is made with blood as an ingredient? Is this a common ingredient? Is it easy to spot? Would a foreign tourist typically be exposed to dishes that have blood as an ingredient? Are there any specific dishes that I should avoid?

 

Thanks, in advance, for taking the time to answer my questions.

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Thanks very much for all the information. This is really wonderful.

Can you give me a website for CITS. I cannot seem to find them.

I think I would be more comfortable working with a reputable organization. We are there for such a short while that we want everything to go as smoothly as possible.

Many thanks

Miriam

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with the very strict weight restrictions on luggage for the inter-China airlines, how does one get everything home???:confused: I am sure that there must be several (I hope!) options, and I'd love it if you'd go through all that you know. I am afraid that I'll get some great deals, only to have to pay through the nose to get them around China with me so I can take them home:eek: .

If you're facing luggage limits leaving China, you can ship things home using DHL, FedEx, or China Post. China Post seems a little less popular, because they've been known to be a little rough with items marked fragile.

 

As for shipping things around China, you can use China Post or you might try looking into having a local moving/shipping company forward some things on to yourself at your next destination instead of sending them straight home via DHL, etc. You may be able to arrange with your final hotel to hold anything that arrives before you get there.

 

If you fly in and out of a single location, a lot of people have been know to leave a lot of extra luggage and souvenirs with the hotel. If you're going to be checking back in a week or two later, they should have no problem holding on to your extra things.

 

Finally, if you're flying within China, go overboard with carry-on hand luggage. They rarely check the size (and never the weight). Also, the Chinese are notorious for bringing on gobs of extra hand luggage. Just make sure you fight the crowd to board early, so you can squeeze your stuff in! There's no organized boarding, so with so many people carrying lots of bags, it's really a mad rush to fill the overhead bins.

 

Unfortunately, living here means that we never have a lot of stuff to cart around with us, so I don't have much experience. We just go for the weekend and unload everything when we come home. When we leave Beijing (on Thursday, actually), everything will go with the movers.

 

As for the rug specifically, unless you're getting something really big, they should be able to roll/fold it into a fairly compact (but heavy) parcel. This is the kind of thing you'd sneak on as hand luggage. ;) We bought a 6x8 ft rug that folded pretty small when we took it home.

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I'm concerned with a comment that I read on the cc about blood soup. It caused me to google it and I see that blood is used as an ingredient in some soup in China. One reference specifically mentioned "blood tofu".

 

I have a deeply held religious conviction that forbids eating blood in any manner. How difficult will it be to make sure that I do not accidentally eat something that is made with blood as an ingredient? Is this a common ingredient? Is it easy to spot? Would a foreign tourist typically be exposed to dishes that have blood as an ingredient? Are there any specific dishes that I should avoid?

Do you mean you don't want any food that's specifically made from blood or do you need specially-prepared meat that's been fully drained before cooking. If it's the latter, you're probably going to be in trouble, but if you just don't want anything like blood sausage, you should be okay.

 

I've never really seen any dishes that are specifically blood-based, and I doubt that as a tourist you're going to encounter them without knowing about it. Even if you go to a local restaurant and starting pointing to random dishes on a Chinese menu, you're probably safe (though obviously not 100% guaranteed), since it's not very common.

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Do you mean you don't want any food that's specifically made from blood or do you need specially-prepared meat that's been fully drained before cooking. If it's the latter, you're probably going to be in trouble, but if you just don't want anything like blood sausage, you should be okay.

 

Thanks for your quick response! Your question makes a good point. I specifically want to avoid something I read about called "blood tofu" used in soups; I would say this is similar to blood sausage. If there's any other similar blood-based product, I'd like to know about it so that I can avoid it. I want to avoid any food to which whole blood or even a blood fraction has been added (like the soup or the sausage).

 

As far as meat being bled, is it bled to the same standards that we have in the US? I'm looking for that type of standard. I have no problem going into an average restaurant here and knowing that the meat was bled before cooking. Is it 100% devoid of every last fragment of cells? No, but there are generally accepted standards for bleeding meat. Am I going to encounter dramatically different standards in China? For all I know, Chinese standards could be superior to US standards--I hadn't even given it a thought until I read about the whole blood soup thing here on Cruise Critic.

 

This may completely be my own ignorance and naivete showing in asking this question. I asked the same thing when served unfamiliar foods in Japan. I asked if the meat was bled. The response, "Why OF COURSE" told me that I was showing my ignorance in asking the question. I'm trying to figure out what the standards are in China and I'd rather show my ignorance here than there. So, thank you, again in advance, for taking the time to let me know what to expect.

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Honestly, I don't know the standard to which the meat is bled. Some meats are probably better than others, but the government regulations aren't clear, and they're often not completely enforced. I think your best bet will be to just look at the dishes and decide. I think most food will be fine (and I never encountered "blood" tofu or anything else). A few dishes like drunken chicken (not one of my favorites) may be a little questionable. However, the majority of food should be okay. Especially in tourist-friendly places!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been a bit unavailable lately, as life has been so busy for me, but I wanted to thank you so much for your reply! I had been a little concerned about using the Chinese postal system, and won't use them for any breakables. I am relieved to hear about the lax carry-on rules, b/c I love to carry my stuff on. Very important tip about boarding too, something that I never would have known without you!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I too, have printed all the info Kaisatsu has given and it is wonderful.

 

I have some specific questions to address to Kaisatsu and I hope he/she is monitoring this site. First off, is he or she correct? No offense to be taken please. I ask only because we are traveling with another couple this coming Nov. and I keep referring to the info you have presented and I don't know how to address you.:)

 

Now to the good stuff. I see you are now in Oslo. I hope you can still answer our questions. We have a quote from China Highlights for our stay in Beijing. We chose the Peninsula Hotel. Do you know it? Is it centrally located? Could you recommend something else very nice? We will be spending 4 nights in Beijing and while I would never call myself an "ugly American", in terms of creature comforts, I am more comfortable with the things I am used to in the U.S. I, at the least, would hope to find accommodations where I can make myself understood in English.

 

I've read that CITS also is a good source. Do you think they might present a lower price?

 

Any info you could impart would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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First off, is he or she correct?

"She." :) And kaisatsu can be quite a mouthful, so Meg works too!

 

I see you are now in Oslo. I hope you can still answer our questions.

I can certainly try! Although for some things like restaurants, Beijing changes so quickly that my information could be out of date even though it's only been a month since we moved!

 

We chose the Peninsula Hotel. Do you know it? Is it centrally located? Could you recommend something else very nice? We will be spending 4 nights in Beijing and while I would never call myself an "ugly American", in terms of creature comforts, I am more comfortable with the things I am used to in the U.S. I, at the least, would hope to find accommodations where I can make myself understood in English.

Obviously with an apartment in town, my hotel knowledge is a bit limited, but I do know the Peninsula. I've never stayed there, but I have friends who have. As far as I know it has a fantastic reputation.

 

Any high end hotel in Beijing should be able to communicate in basic English if you speak slowly and clearly. I doubt you'll have any problems with typical hotel requests and inquiries. For more specific or unique questions that may require slightly better language skills, you might run into a little trouble. Patience is the best solution, and if worst comes to worst, there's probably a native or fluent English speaker on site during the day. After hours, there's a chance you may be out of luck.

 

The Peninsula has a pretty good location downtown. The Beijing Hotel also has a great location, right on ChangAn Jie (aka "Eternal/Long Peace Street") a few blocks from Tiananmen. It's one of (if not the) oldest hotels in Beijing and was recently acquired by Raffles. The change of management allegedly came with a great facelift, and I believe the hotel housed the leaders of state who were in town a few months ago for the Africa Summit. The Crowne Plaza (on Wangfujing) and the Novotel Peace also have good central locations and have housed fellow Cruise Critic members. There are some other good hotels around the city like the Presidential Plaza, the Kempinski, etc. but they're not as central. This really isn't a big deal with such inexpensive taxis, unless you travel during rush hour. However, a hotel near Wangfujing will make it easier to see the sights if you want to just wander around on foot.

 

For finding and pricing hotels, I recommend http://www.elong.net (the China partner of Expedia) and the local travel site ctrip: http://english.ctrip.com as well as asiarooms.com, which handles prepaid reservations and sometimes has great deals (as well as traveler reviews). Also, use TripAdvisor.com to check up on any place before you book it! Star ratings are a mystery here, so traveler reviews are a much better way to gauge a hotel. I don't know what kind of price CITS, etc. will give you, but these sites will give you a benchmark for comparison. Also, if you want to book directly with a hotel, check the online prices before you call. We've actually had to bargain for a hotel room before!

 

Oh, and one last thing - when you check in, feel free to ask for little extras like a room with a view. Hotels in Asia are still very service driven, so there's some chance of getting a better room for no extra charge!

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Hey, Meg, Just thought I would check in here and say hey. Glad to hear that you made it to Oslo. Do you miss China? Did things work out for your DH? It had been awhile, but it's good to have someone who was a 'local' for so long still around to help out.

 

I don't know about their pricing, but our land tour used CITS and we were really pleased with the service that they provided. Our guide was attentive and extremely helpful. He helped someon find a lost back pack in the Beijing airport, got another passenger through security after they found a small jack knife in his fanny pack and even scourged the city looking for Gator Ade for a sick passenger. He was a manager with the company and very concerned that China's best face be put forward. You won't go wrong by using their services.

 

DD - my DH and I are foodies and really into cuisines. None of the food that we encountered (granted we usually ate in hotel restaurants, but not always) would compromise your religion. I never saw a piece of bloody meat served. The only time we found anything that would even come close was when we went to The Outback. Will you be traveling in connections with a cruise? The food on board will be fine, so you might just want to stick to the vegetarians dishes on land if you are really concerned.

 

Anyhow, just stopped in to say hi!

 

Cheers!

 

Charlie

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Hello kaisatsu a.k.a. Meg....Thank you, thank you. Your information is valued and I am going to investigate some of the sites you recommended. I imagine I'll come back a number of times before we finally leave late Oct. I'll be looking at this site lots and hope to hear from others asking questions too.

 

Nancy

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OK...I'm at a loss. I originally found CITS.net but now all I get is a pendant attached to a zipper and when I open it, I am getting a Happy New Year message. I can't get any further with even a way to ask for tour or guide prices. HELP!! Can anyone give me a specific e-mail address for Jackie Chen or even a way to get into the CITS site? Thanks.

 

Nancy

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OK...I'm at a loss. I originally found CITS.net but now all I get is a pendant attached to a zipper and when I open it, I am getting a Happy New Year message. I can't get any further with even a way to ask for tour or guide prices. HELP!! Can anyone give me a specific e-mail address for Jackie Chen or even a way to get into the CITS site? Thanks.

 

I just checked the CITS website, and it loaded fine for me. It redirected me to:

http://www.cits.net/citsonlineWeb/switchdo.do?prefix=/online&page=/homepage_EN/homepage_EN.jsp

which looks like it has lots of information. (I'm using Firefox, so I imagine it would work in most browsers.)

 

Also, I believe CITS has a US office as well:

http://www.citsusa.com/

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  • 2 months later...

What are considered the busy hours for travel from the area of Forbidden City to the Summer Palace? I am still trying to decide what to do on the one day I have free. Thanks. Marlyne

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Beijing is always fairly busy, but the worst is during rush hour. From what I remember, this is usually around 08:30-09:30 and 17:00-19:00. It's still possible to travel during rush hour, but plan some extra time.

 

The Central Business District is east of the city center (Forbidden City), so you won't have nearly as much trouble travelling to the Summer Palace on the west side.

 

Traffic east of the Forbidden City on JianGuoMen and on the east 3rd Ring Road north of JianGuoMen tends to be the worst during rush hour.

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:) To Kaisatsu - can't begin to thank you enough for taking the trouble to post all the information you did - its so comprehensive & includes almost all my queries. Have you already written or thought of writing a tourist guide book. Shouldn't be difficult for you as you've already produced most of the material. I'm keep all your spiel with me as a reference when I finally arrive in Beijing.

 

Just a couple of quick questions, if I may. 1. We are arriving on 1st October,'07,which I believe is beginning of their week-long National holiday. Do you feel this will cause enormous traffic problems e.g. even on a booked guided tour by coach - will we just sit in traffic for hours & either never reach our destination or with little actual time to spend there??? Also wouldn't mind seeing the Olympic preparations - any tours? 2. I have booked a limo service (which may only turn out to be a taxi or private car???) to meet us at Port Xingang as I can find no other way (tried many avenues incl.train) & have been quoted about RMB1345. Is this too much - having looked at the prices you've given for an all-day car hire it seems exorbitant BUT perhaps we have to pay for driver to come to the port to collect us as well as return to hotel. Love your advice on this.:confused:

 

Again, what a great service you have provided to all of us with an interest in Beijing -

 

Thanks,

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The October holiday will really only cause traffic problems around the very center of downtown. I can't say for certain, but you'll probably be okay on a coach tour. Traffic on foot and on public transit around Tiananmen Square on National Day could be bad. All of Tiananmen is completely packed with people who've come in from all over the country. For this reason, train traffic in/out of the city can be difficult during the holiday. Since, most people won't be travelling by car, the streets may not be too much worse than usual.

 

The biggest concern will be the number of people at the tourist sights! Since the focus of the holiday is on coming to Beijing, expect everything to be packed! :( Not the best situation for appreciating the sights themselves, but you'll be able to appreciate the sheer number of people in China! ;)

 

As for Olympic preparations, I don't know of any tours in particular. Just look around the city while you're travelling. Anything shiny, pretty, or new is probably part of the Olympic preparations! ;) Haha! But I'm actually fairly serious. In the year and a half we lived there, they tore up our whole street, widened the sidewalks, replaced the corner newstands, and planted a gazillion flowers and trees! Down the road, they were allegedly digging a canal so that you could take a boat cruise halfway around the city. The improvement they're working on that makes me sad is that they're cleaning up a lot of the Enlish signs. No longer are there quite as many funny translations like "Racist Park" and "Obey the Statutory Height." I'm sure there will still be plenty, but it's sad to see some of the good ones go! (my "BeijEnglish" collection) On a more positive note, one of the other "Olympic improvements" is to try to get people to stop spitting all over the place! They couldn't get this to happen even during the SARS outbreak, when it was considered a serious health risk, so we'll see how well they do this time! I'd still watch your step though! ;)

 

There's a lot of new architecture going up in the Central Business District (around JianGuoMen and 3rd Ring Road), partly for the Olympics and partly from the growing economy. The actual Olympic structures are along the city's North-South axis, which runs throught the Forbidden City and the Drum and Bell Towers. North of these is where they're building the "bird's nest" stadium, the swimming complex, and originally a huge "Olympic Park" that still hadn't broken ground when we moved in February. The stadium and aquatics center are architecturally interesting and we watched them being built on our commute. I'm not sure what stage they're at now, but they can be seen from the north 4th Ring Road (across the highway from "Racist Park" aka the Ethnic Minorities Park).

 

With "Limo Service," don't expect a limo in the Western sense. It will probably just be a large private car. I don't know how much the transfer should actually cost, so I can't tell you if it's a good deal or not, but it does seem a little steep. I'm sure it partly depends on how many people and how much luggage. Also, they may charge more since it's a holiday. Sadly, it's not really a great port for just catching a taxi outside, so you're probably best booking something in advance. In general, as long as you're paying less than the cruise transfer, you're technically getting a good deal! ;) Check in some of the other posts (like this one) for more information on booking the transfer.

 

Enjoy China (and keep a really open mind)!

-Meg

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