Ash123

I will be in Beijing next week and have some questions:

(1) Air-con bus 919 from Deshengmen to Badaling Great Wall: Can someone advice where exactly is the pickup point in Deshengmen? Is it a station or a stop along the district? Any idea about the frequency of this bus in the mornings versus at noon?

(2) Can we the Beiing Zoo via Beijing Aquarium?

(3) Is the "Musuem of the Revolution" currently open?

(4) Anyone been to Fragrant Hills Park? Is it worth the trip of out of city centre?

Any advise will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Ash

PeterN_H

(1) The Desheng Men is one of the few surviving old city gate towers, sitting on the north side of the North Second Ring Road. It's about a ten minute walk east of metro Jishuitan. The 919 departure point is on the northeast side of the tower (as is the stop for the regular 919--but the difference between the buses is obvious). Departures are every few minutes right through the day.

(2) The ticket offices are adjacent, and the Aquarium is inside the Zoo if I remember correctly. I'd recommend avoiding the Zoo, unless you want to be upset by what you see.

(3) This was slow to reopen after SARS, and there's talk of merging this with the History Museum into a new National Museum, but I haven't heard that it was closed. Unless you're a propaganda buff, I wouldn't be too distressed if you miss this, although it does have a few good things.

(4) No, it's not worth the trip if your time in Beijing is relatively limited. If you want to get out somewhere leafy, take the metro Line 1 to its far western end, and then a bus to the temples of Tanzhe Si and Jietai Si, both on green hillside locations, with splenid halls, active monks, twisted ancient trees, and so on. Much more worthwhile than the rather battered Fragrant Hills Park, and free of its more tawdry entertainments.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Dorothy01

Go to the zoo to see the Giant Pandas! They were one of the highlights of our trip. In April 2002, we saw seven - five adults and two babies.

Peep

I thought the zoo was pretty sad! Boo hoo... Most of the critters looked desperate, underfed and bored. People threw stuff at them or stuck their fingers in the cages.

Ash123

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the advice for my trip! One more question. What do you think about visiting the Ming Tombs? I have read mix reviews about it and am still undecided on whether to make a trip there.

Ash

PeterN_H

There's recently been some sprucing up of things there, but if you've already seen the Forbidden City and Tian Tan you'll probably have had your fill of Ming architecture. Most visitors find it a bit dull. The way to make a visit more interesting is to take a picnic, avoid the three officially open tombs, and strike off towards the unopen ones.

If tombs interest you, the Eastern Qing tombs are far more atmospheric, more elaborate and more varied, with more to see. The Western Qing tombs are better still, on a lovely rural site. But all are being tarted up for tourism.

The Qing Tombs obtained World Heritage listing a couple of years ago (the Ming ones this year), which is always the kiss of death for authenticity in China, and guarantees the most harmful forms of "conservation" (rebuilding with modern materials). But when I was last at the Western Qing while new roads had been built around the site, the numbers of visitors was still very few indeed (I saw no others on either of my visits in fact) and at least it was possible to enter a few more tombs than before. But I'm digressing, since these tomb sites are each more than 100km outside Beijing.

The short answer (why didn't the wind-bag get to this before): Don't worry about missing the Ming Tombs. If you only have a few days there are far more interesting things to see.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Ash123

Thanks for the advice Peter!

Ash