Mon, 10 Nov 2008
/xLife/China/Beijing:
What To See If You Are Visiting Beijing
I am a Canadian who has lived in Beijing for four years now, and I
walk a lot. Some locals tell me that I know Beijing better then they do.
So perhaps my opinion of Beijing's various tourist traps(!), er, sights,
might be of interest to others.
Let me dispose of shopping first. I am not a shopper, so I do not
intend to say much, except buyer beware! Counterfeit goods are plentiful
and often difficult to distinquish from originals. If the price is
unbelievably low, then you have a fake in your hands. The cheapest goods
are often of very low quality, and might break the first day you use
them. Foreigners are charged very high prices. Starting prices for
foreigners wandering around in markets are generally *at least* double
or triple what a local would pay, so bargain hard, or take along a local
who knows the terrain. That said, if you walk into a big shiny new mall,
goods are legitimate, and prices will be not much different then
wherever you just came from (maybe more, because of luxury taxes....)
High-Priority Sites:
Beijing's parks: Tiantan 天坛, Ditan 地坛, Ritan 日坛, Yuetan 月坛
parks (Heaven, Earth, Sun, Moon) found at the four cardinal points just
outside the 2nd Ring Road. The Old Summer Palace 圆明园 in the
Northwest just north of Beijing University. The Summer Palace
颐和园 further to the Northwest, just at the edge of the city. Xiangshan
Park 香山公园 and the Beijing Botanical Garden 北京植物园 at the extreme
Northwest edge of the city. Beijing's parks are beautiful, peaceful, and
sprinkled with old temples and architecture that in some cases goes back
millennia. Special mentions are the massive temple complex in Tiantan,
the Buddhist Temple Wofosi 卧佛寺 in the Botanical Garden, and the
thousands of martial artists training every morning in Tiantan.
The Hutongs 胡同: Beijing's traditional courtyard / narrow lane
neighborhoods. These are shrinking rapidly because of development, or in
some cases being renovated into something that does not much resemble
the original. Old neighborhoods still exist in many places. From Ditan
Park, head south across the 2nd Ring Road and then hang a left just
after you pass Yonghegong Temple. Or head straight south from Tiananmen
Square and you will find more. Walk around Houhai Lake just inside the
Northwest 2nd Ring Road and there are many examples of old, and highly
renovated, courtyards, as well as shops and restaurants.
Tiananmen 天安门 Square: its big, free, and surrounded by a lot of
imposing architecture.
Simatai Great Wall: The Great Wall passes very close to Beijing,
there are many areas that are highly accessible from Beijing, and they
are therefore absolutely over-run by tourists. And in some cases
renovated so as to look like they were build just last year. Traffic is
horrible, crowds can be so dense as to render one as unable to move....
Simatai is far enough out (three hours drive) that very few people go
there. I have been there twice (three times?) and seen just a handful of
people each time. Renovations are minimal. It is possible to spend the
night in local guest houses.
Eat a lot. Do not be afraid of street food, hygiene levels are quite
reasonably high. You can eat very well and very cheaply, or very well
and very expensively (though the former is more difficult without
Chinese skills).
Medium Priority:
Any part of the Great Wall except Simatai, unless it is the dead of
winter, which has a way of reducing the crowds.
The Forbidden City. It is definitely worth seeing once, but it was
completely stripped of anything that could be carried away during the
Revolution, so it seems, at least to me, to be kind of.... empty. There
is a garden in the north end with very old trees, and another one just
outside the complex on the East side, which I thought still retained
some feeling.
The campuses of Beijing University and Tsinghua University (adjacent
to one another at the Northwest 4th Ring Road) are big and beautiful.
Low Priority:
Shopping, for reasons enumerated at the top. Unless you want
something very specific, like jade or Chinese artwork. Then be prepared
to bargain.
Most Temples. Most of them feel like tourist traps manned by fake
monks. There are some exceptions, but I generally feel regret after
paying the door charge at these government-run institutions.
posted at: 05:50 | path: /xLife/China/Beijing | permanent link to this entry
