Just returned from Beijing

We retuned a few days ago from a short trip (6 days) to Beijing.
We had booked into the Park Plaza hotel after being picked up at the airport. We were informed that they were overbooked and they had booked us into the Regent, next door, a 5* hotel. The Regent was great, the room was very good sized and the beds were very comfortable. The staff was extremely helpful and polite. We had breakfast there only once as we found the Starbucks on the corner.

Peking is a modern city, very polluted however. We walked around a good part of the time, finding the hutongs and very good restaurants. Our biggest splurge was Peking Duck at the 1949 House. Delicious and the staff pampers the guests.

We took a tour with Grayline tours booked with the hotel. We did stop at a Jade factory going to the Great Wall, stopped for a meal and a visit to Dr. tea on return. The tour was about 9 hrs. and Alice our tour guide was great. We stopped at Beijing Olympic Parks for a brief picture taking opportunity.

We went to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and it was fantastic. The views and the Wall itself have to be seen. We took the cable car up to the Wall and walked past the many sellers there with t-shirts, hats etc. We had enough time to walk around the area and take many pictures. On the way back we had a group meal at a restaurant, which was excellent. We then stopped at Dr. Tea for an explanation of different teas and sampled some. We bought our daughters tea pots there.

From there we were dropped off at the hotel.

We also attended an acrobatic show, arranged through the concierge, which was very good. We arecived a reommendation for a dumpling house from one of the concierge staff which was one of her favorites, it was great.

We went to one of the malls and walked around Wangfujing, which was a great experience. We found several good resturants around the hotel area and had a great time. There is much to see and we only covered a small part of the area in 6 days.