Beijing Port Review - Diamond Princess

[Denverite]

May 1, 2009: We requested disembarking for 8:30am and received Orange 2 luggage tags. We located our luggage, met our guide and driver, and headed to Beijing. The traffic, for the most part, moved okay, although it did take about 3 hours to reach our hotel, the Park Plaza Wangfujing, within walking distance of the Forbidden City. We had arranged for a complete private tour of Beijing for the 3 days we were there, as well as pick-up at the port and drop-off at the airport. We never had to worry about how to get where or what to do, as we had worked out a complete itinerary with the tour company ahead of time. It was a very complete agenda with very full days. Our price included most meals (excluding breakfast which was included with our hotel), all tickets and entry fees, private van with guide and driver.

 

After we checked in to our hotel, we headed back out with our guide and driver for lunch in the hutong area and a hutong tour by rickshaw. We did have some light rain but it cleared up by the time we had our hutong tour. Hutongs are still a part of China, although many were torn down for the Olympics. We did a rickshaw ride through the hutong area and visited one of the hutongs. Hutongs were formed when people left a passageway between two courtyards to make entering them more convenient. Basically there are about 4 small "rooms" in individual buildings surrounding courtyards where one extended family lives. There is some running water, but didn't locate any bathrooms. We visited one hutong where the owner took us around the small buildings. First, we sat in a small room (about room for 6 chairs and one small table) where he served us watered down tea from a pitcher that looked like it had been used quite a bit. We drank the tea not wanting to seem discourteous. After asking him some questions (our guide translated), he took us through the "kitchen" (I use that term loosely) that was in its own little building, looked through the window at a bedroom that had been turned into a "hotel" room (hmmm--no bathroom, no running water...), a room with "relics", and finally the "wedding room" that was red and pink. The bed was built on a concrete base with a heat core to warm up the bed.

 

That evening we walked to the Night Market near our hotel--extremely crowded but we had to see it. Basically in addition to vendors selling souvenirs, there are food vendors selling scorpions on a stick, sea horses on a stick, crickets and other meat parts that looked interesting. We didn't try any of the selections!

 

May 2, 2009: Breakfast was included at our hotel and contained plenty of food, as well as made-to-order omelets. We were not missing the Horizon Court. We started off early for the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section. Once there, we had a bit of a walk from where the van left us off. We then had to go through the gauntlet of vendors on our way to get to the cable car. Everything is $1 (but our guide had warned us that the t-shirts would fall apart if you washed them). We used our new phrase “Poo Yow” (don’t want it, no sale) and the vendors just laughed. Be aware that there is a lot of walking before you even get to the Great Wall (slopes, steps, etc.) We finally reached the cable car and took the short ride up to the Great Wall. But wait…more steps and a small entryway to actually get on the wall. Our guide told us to go to the left and it seemed less crowded than on the right. We walked through some of the towers, up and down steps and sloping walks, took bunches of pictures. Definitely a highlight to be on the Great Wall.

 

We then went for lunch (rice, vegetables, chicken, pork, and the restaurant's specialty--toasted fish that was good but you had to watch for the tiny bones). All meals end with watermelon for dessert. We had the local beer. We didn't drink a lot of water on this trip because bottled water is warm and you can't use the ice cubes, so we usually had beer or Sprite. We had a quick photo stop at the Olympic venues, Birds Nest, Water Cube and the 7-star Olympic hotel and a stop at a silk store (they had really nice things—I did buy a silk jacket here). Our day was not over yet…on to the Temple of Heaven. I thought it might be just a building with a bit of grounds. I was in for a surprise! The park was very nice—many local people out playing instruments, singing, playing cards, dancing and just having a good time. The temple is no longer used but was originally built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to heaven. The park was large (larger than Forbidden City).

 

Time to eat again—this time Peking Duck dinner at one of the famous Quan Jude restaurants. It was interesting to see how they roasted the ducks and sliced the ducks and the meal was good; something to experience, but I actually enjoyed the meals we had at the small, un-touristy restaurants more. We also had duck bone soup--it was kind of like a light broth soup. We also had some undescribeable mustard-colored stringy stuff, probably some of the innards of the duck, that I tried and it was the only terrible food I had tasted on our entire trip. Our guide told us that practically everything was made from some part of the duck.

 

May 3, 2009: Breakfast again at the hotel. There is a Starbucks right outside the hotel if you stay at this hotel and don’t want to include breakfast. Also, the hotel gives you two free bottles of water each day. Today we started off with Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. It was still the holiday weekend and Forbidden City was very crowded. We walked Tiananmen Square (it holds 500,000 people) to the south gate of Forbidden City. Very crowded! We then walked from the south gate to the north gate going through various buildings and courtyards. It was interesting but after a while, all the buildings looked the same and the courtyards looked the same, although they had interesting names--Hall of Banquets, Hall of Heavenly Pleasures (or something like that). We did stop to see a performance by the Peking Opera on one of the stages in the Forbidden City (they just do a short 15 minute or so performance) but it was a nice break. Yea--they sold COLD bottled water at one of the shops so it was our first taste of cold water in a while. At the end of this we were pretty well tired (it was hot and crowded and we had walked a lot).

 

Lunch time--again Chinese food but this time a more westernized lunch as it was Chinese more as we know it--and watermelon for dessert. Oh, but we still had more to see and do--on to the Summer Palace, or Garden of Nurtured Harmony. We did quite a bit of walking here also and then took a dragon boat ride on the very large lake.

 

We had 5:15pm seats for the Acrobatic Show at the Chaoyang Theater, so went straight there. The show was very good (we had VIP seats about 5th row center) and it was a nice break to actually sit down and rest. Dinner was not included in our tour, so we went to the local Hagen Dasz near our hotel. I think we were finally tired of eating!

 

May 4, 2009: Our flight left Beijing at noon so we left our hotel at 9am. The new airport was very nice and our guide walked us in through the airport to make sure we got to the right counter. Our 11 hour flight from Beijing to San Francisco was uneventful and we connected from SFO to Denver with no problems. What more can I say--a wonderful trip!

[j2ink]

Denverite,

 

Thanks for your reviews of the ports you visited on your recent Princess Cruise. I'm going to be visiting several of these same ports on our June cruise. I have a few questions about Beijing, and i would appreciate your comments.

 

I have a room booked at the Park Plaza Wangfujing. What did you think of the hotel?

 

Which tour company did you use in Beijing?

 

It seems as though you were able to tailor the three-day tour to exactly what you wanted to see and do, and that you were happy with the service. Is that correct?

 

Joe

[Denverite]

Joe: We loved the hotel. It was very nice and great location. The area surrounding the hotel was first-class (the Pennisula Hotel was only a block or so away). You could walk to the Night Market, Forbidden City, Wangfujing Street (the pedestrian shopping street). The breakfast at the hotel was very good, the rooms were very nice and modern, the staff were great. We didn't eat in the restaurants, other than for breakfast so can't comment on that.

 

We booked our Beijing tour with China Highlights (http://www.chinahighlights.com) and Michael Hu was the person we dealt with. He was very responsive and very easy to correspond via e-mail. Actually, our review of Beijing is on the China Highlights web site. I can forward you Michael's e-mail if you would like. I actually came up with a list of things we absolutely wanted to see and asked them to tailor an itinerary. We did book our own hotel on-line on the Park Plaza web site. I definitely would use this company again and was really pleased with the service.

 

If you want more specifics on how we decided to do what and when, I would be glad to e-mail you. My e-mail is fsusman at comcast.net.

[j2ink]

Denverite,

 

Thanks for the additional information. My cruise spends the last two days in Tianjin, and I'm thinking about trying to get off the ship early and eliminate the two-to-three hour trip between Beijing and the ship on the last day. I know taxis are usually available at the ports, but since it is such a long trip into Beijing, I was wondering whether you noticed if there were taxis at the Tianjin port that would take passengers to Beijing for a reasonable price. If so, I would rather do that than book a tour to simply get a ride into town. I'll probably book a tour on the second or third day in Beijing.

 

Joe

[Denverite]

Joe: Hopefully someone will have a better answer for you about taxis. Since we had a private van, I really didn't notice a lot. When we were picking up our luggage outside the terminal, a couple of people did stop us and ask if we needed a taxi, but I don't know how prevalent they might have been. There was a small parking lot where all the vans parked and there might have been some cab drivers there, but I didn't notice a line of cabs waiting for fares. You can contact any of the tour companies, as well as limo services, and they will quote you a rate for just transportation from the port to Beijing. You will want to make sure that the vehicle is large enough to hold both all the people in your party, as well as the luggage. Also, you may be able to share transportation with someone on your roll call in order to share in the expense. Good Luck--sorry I don't have more information on this....Fran

[vzirkle]

There will be four of us with six to eight pieces of luggage plus carry-ons that need to go from the Beijing City Wall Hotel and are interested as to the cost and how to arrange the transfer and also tours we can take while we are staying in Beijing. Does anyone have any suggestions. Thank you

[xiaokong]

There will be four of us with six to eight pieces of luggage plus carry-ons that need to go from the Beijing City Wall Hotel and are interested as to the cost and how to arrange the transfer and also tours we can take while we are staying in Beijing. Does anyone have any suggestions. Thank you

try to ask a guide called Lin Kong based in Beijing,kung316@yahoo.com.

he can arrange this for you.

[vzirkle]

Thank you I will contact Lin Kong. Have you used her services?

[xiaokong]

Thank you I will contact Lin Kong. Have you used her services?

No,Because I have seen lot of his reviews here,fodors and tripadvisor.

[Fabioluluka]

Hi Denverite, thank you for sharing your traveling experience. We booked a Tibet tour with www.chinahighlights.com after seeing your experience. We will start our tour on July 15th, 2009. I hope we can get the service as good as you.

[bryanwal]

And thanks from us, Denverite. We've booked a post-cruise package with China Highlights in Beijing after our Diamond Princess BKK-PEK cruise in April 2010. I was very impressed with the professionalism and detail-oriented nature of their bid.

[Denverite]

And thanks from us, Denverite. We've booked a post-cruise package with China Highlights in Beijing after our Diamond Princess BKK-PEK cruise in April 2010. I was very impressed with the professionalism and detail-oriented nature of their bid.

 

Glad you were able to work something out with China Highlights. For me, sometimes the best company is not necessarily the least expensive but the one that I feel most comfortable with and someone who is willing to work with me on a tailored itinerary. I 'lurked' on your roll call and noticed your itinerary. The two restaurants that are included for your lunches are the same ones we used. We loved the food at Beijing Ba guo bu yi Restaurant. The lunch was more "westernized". Perhaps we were just hungry that day but we really enjoyed lunch. The other restaurant, Xing Shuang Quan Restaurant, is the restaurant that is near The Great Wall. Their speciality is toasted fish, but there were a lot of other varieties of food that they included with our meal and we thought everything was very good. Also, beer or soft drink was included in our meal. Strangely, bottled water is never included so we didn't drink a lot of water while we were in China. The other thing about our driver and guide is that if we finished something early, they would ask what else we wanted to do. For example, we probably didn't spend as much time on The Great Wall as the time they had allotted, so we had a drive-by of the Olympic venues. I never felt that they rushed us from one place to another--we had plenty of time to explore and if we finished early, then there was always something else to do. Have a wonderful trip! ....Fran

[bryanwal]

GFor me, sometimes the best company is not necessarily the least expensive but the one that I feel most comfortable with and someone who is willing to work with me on a tailored itinerary. ... Strangely, bottled water is never included so we didn't drink a lot of water while we were in China. The other thing about our driver and guide is that if we finished something early, they would ask what else we wanted to do. For example, we probably didn't spend as much time on The Great Wall as the time they had allotted, so we had a drive-by of the Olympic venues. I never felt that they rushed us from one place to another--we had plenty of time to explore and if we finished early, then there was always something else to do. Have a wonderful trip! ....Fran

 

Thanks Fran. We feel the same way - lowest bidder is not always the best - in the USAF we asked ourselves "Would you fly in an airplane built by the lowest bidder?" Too bad about bottled water, since we don't drink alcohol and i suppose all the soft drinks have sugar. We told Michael ahead of time, no coffee, tea or alchohol for us! We don't want to embarrass anyone.

 

I like the flexibility and no rushing. He also told us that we should tell our guide we'd like to see an acrobatics show. He doesn't want to book it in advance because he says those tickets are not refundable. Do you think we need our guide for the night market?

[Denverite]

I like the flexibility and no rushing. He also told us that we should tell our guide we'd like to see an acrobatics show. He doesn't want to book it in advance because he says those tickets are not refundable. Do you think we need our guide for the night market?

 

I think we originally had tickets for the acrobatics show at 7:15 or 7:30 and our guide was able to exchange them for 5:15--we still had very good seats--VIP section about row 7, center. You can buy drinks, snacks and ice cream in the small shop at the acrobatic theater. They also have a gift shop--image that! My guess is the guide could probably call that day and book your tickets but you might want to check on your first day. We found our guide very accommodating. Our guide and driver dropped us off for the show and waited for us until the show ended and then returned us to the hotel. Great service! Could you do this on your own--of course you could--but it certainly was nice to have someone just take care of things! Our guide even walked us into the theater and found our seats for us--sure we could have found our seats on our own but as I said before, our guide went out of her way to be helpful.

 

You definitely don't need a guide for the night market. I'm not sure which Crowne Plaza you are staying at, but I think there is one on Wangfujing Street that is within walking distance of the night market. We started walking on Wangfujing Street and had no clue where the night market was other than it was off Wangfujing Street, so we just asked some people on the street. There are tons of people walking around on the pedestrian street and more than willing to tell you. There is no big neon sign lit up that says Night Market, This Way. It is very crowded (of course we were there during a holiday) but very interesting to see the scorpions, sea horses, etc. on a stick, as well as other miscellaneous parts of undetermined origin. There is also, of course, an entire row of touristy items for sale. If you need Americanized food, there is a McDonalds and a Hagan-Dasz on Wangfujing Street near a mall. Because there are so many people out and about in the evening, we always felt safe walking. Of course, you always take the normal precautions, but we walked after dark and never had any problems.

[bryanwal]

Thanks for the good ideas about the show. Since we've got a guide, i think we'll take advantage of it.

 

Our hotel is on Wangfujing St. so we'll have to check out the night market, but no scorpions or starfish for us!

[ccruisers]

Denverite, Fran. We too have booked a china highlights four post cruise. We somewhat customized our tour but of course there are lots of things to see and a lot of them are almost a must. My question is if there was anything you felt you should have seen and missed out on. We have one extra day we're going to use to poke about, but there may be something we are unaware of. We're doing about what you did except no silk factory, instead Cloisonne Factory. Don't want to be saying Oh if only we knew about it. This being something you had to experience, we've read the guide books.

Thank you Alisann

[Denverite]

Denverite, Fran. We too have booked a china highlights four post cruise. We somewhat customized our tour but of course there are lots of things to see and a lot of them are almost a must. My question is if there was anything you felt you should have seen and missed out on. We have one extra day we're going to use to poke about, but there may be something we are unaware of. We're doing about what you did except no silk factory, instead Cloisonne Factory. Don't want to be saying Oh if only we knew about it. This being something you had to experience, we've read the guide books.

Thank you Alisann

 

Alisann: I think the only thing we missed was going to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. I have read that you can take a morning flight and return the same day--probably a rushed experience but I wish we would have had time to do that. If we would have one extra night we might have gone to see the Peking Opera. We did the acrobatic show one night and really enjoyed it. I think the cloisonne factory is probably a good substitute for the silk factory. I'm also guessing that you have included a drive-by of the Olympic venues. The hutong area looked very interesting and probably could have spent more time walking around there. Otherwise, I felt like we had plenty of time to see the main "attractions" - Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. Definitely walk to the Night Market and on Wangfujing Street one night. Have a wonderful trip!

 

By the way, I just discovered some books by Lisa See if you need any books to read before or take on your trip. I just finished "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan". It is fiction but gives great insight about the foot binding of the women in the 1800's, as well as wedding traditions, etc. She also has a series of mystery books (The Red Princess Mysteries), as well as a new book in hardback that is on the best seller list that I haven't yet read--"Shanghai Girls"). If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me off line at FSusman at comcast.net.

[fairstars]

oops, wrong forum. Sorry....