Hi fellow fodorites,

I've been reading up on Beijing and would love your help in planning our days. We'll arrive on a Friday afternoon and will have the remainder of that day plus 5 full days.

We want to see the main sights and maybe some places that are not so well known with tourists, as well as the weekend market that people talk about and any other shopping opportunities.

Would love your recommendations for our 5 days so that we aren't zig-zagging all over the city.

Of course one day will be to the great wall. Not interested in the Ming tombs, but would like a suggestion for the afternoon.

I figure one day for the Forbidden City and T. Square, but not sure how to plan out the other days.

Thanks!

Monica

I'd like to suggest an approach, rather than a detailed itinerary:

First, read widely to get an idea of what your options are and pick the kinds of thing you like. Even with your general remarks it's difficult to make recommendations that would suit your taste, remembering that 'not so well known with tourists' includes leafy countryside temples, state-of-the-art cinema museum, tiny crumbling guildhalls in malodorous back alleys, an excellent railway museum, artists districts beyond the well-known 798, glitzy shopping malls too new to make the lists, peripheral markets, etc.

Having drawn up a list of what you like the look of, but it first into priority order. Starting at the top, look for other sites on your list that are clustered around your top choice, and plan to do all those together. The main problem with doing Beijing in a hurry is the time taken to get around, so in general it makes sense to make for one area (preferably by subway) and then use your feet or short subway or taxi rides.

Obviously the Forbidden City and Tian'an Men Square and neighbouring sights are a good example, as you've suggested. You might begin at Jingshan Park in the north, by the way, looking down over the palace, and then enter from the north to avoid the morning crowds completely. With an early start you'll scarcely meet anyone before you're halfway through, particularly if you take the eastern route past the Zhenfei Well through the treasure halls, etc, down to the Nine Dragon Screen. When you eventually emerge you can pass through the Tai Miao or Zhongshan Park to Tian'an Men Square but that will still leave you choices to make on the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Mausoleum, the Great Hall of the People, the new National Theatre just behind it, the Zhengyang Men, and so on. The National Museum is closed at the moment.

If you sort your list out this way you'll get the most done for the least effort, and most quarters offer both ancient and modern as well as the opportunity for some hutong walking if this appeals.

You might, for instance proceed west along Line 1, visiting the Capital Museum, the Military Museum, and the World Art Museum; or further north, also going west, tackle the Temple of Ancient Monarchs, the White Dagoba Temple, and the Lu Xun Museum. In the northeast you can combine the Cinema Museum, the Railway Museum, and the 798 artists district. The Temple of Heaven makes a good combination with the much less well known Altar of Agriculture, a short walk to the west.

Very likely your guide book won't have the newly-opened subway Line 5, and if it doesn't bear in mind that you have easy transport on an almost directly north-south line that connects the east gate of the Temple of Heaven, Dong Dan and Deng Shi Kou one block east of Wangfujing, the tiny Dong Si mosque, the Lama Temple and Altar of Earth, and makes travelling between all these straightforward.

The 'weekend market that people talk about' is probably Pan Jia Yuan, and it's long been open every day with the same things on sale. Its days as a principally minority people market selling genuine treasures hauled in from the countryside are long gone. It merely opens earlier at weekends, but you can go any day.

I hope that helps.

Peter N-H

Thanks, Peter, good idea! I have my fodors map and will pull it out and group by areas.

Thanks for the tip of the weekend market. That will help me to keep my days flexible.

Monica

PS Peter, I just re-read your message and your comments about starting at Jinghsan park and working my way south is just what I want to do for that particular day. I had recently read about the park and the views one gets from there. It will be awesome to see the FC from above, which will give me a good idea of the size of the place/area. A friend who came back from China last fall recommended I start from the north side of FC and work my way down to the south side.

Monica

Panjiayuan is open 7 days a week, but the shopping is best on the weekends. I have been there mid-week and found no outdoor vendors, only the shops that line the sides were open. If you like shopping, Panjiayuan is the best, most colorful market in Beijing -- but I would make every effort to visit on Sat or Sun.

How strange. I visited the market twice on weekdays last year and found every stall occupied, but less of a crush than at weekends, which made it rather more convenient and appealing, with more than enough to keep any souvenir shopper happy and less upwards pressure on prices. Vendors I spoke to told me that while the market was busier at weekends, they were there all week. Perhaps they've suddenly changed their minds.

The market is, however, yet another example in Beijing of something outliving its reputation. Originally it truly was worthwhile going very early in the morning on the weekend, mainly in search of real antiques and curios. But now the market sells just about anything, the ethnic minorities who used to make it so colourful are far fewer then they used to be, squeezed out by Han merchants, although there are often a few Tibetans to be seen.

It's convenient for doing all your souvenir shopping at once, but of course all the antiques are fakes (one vendor recently told me 90% of everything in the market was fake), and since it's now completely rebuilt and a prime tourist destination prices have skyrocketed. What's for sale for the most part differs little from at other tourist markets.

Perhaps its most interesting function now is for the purchase or commissioning of paintings, both Chinese and Western. If you want an oil or acrylic copy of a Yue Minjun with his trademark image of himself laughing for instance, you can buy one off the shelf or commission one, having the image adjusted to suit your tastes, if you wish. The legality of this is another issue, of course, and if you're seriously interested in Chinese art then 798 (plenty of tat there, however, amidst the quality) or better Caochangdi or Song Zhunag are the places to go.

Last time I was a Panjiayuan I noted a man selling some rather good black-and-white photography of Beijing, ready-framed if you wished, but his prices were very touristy. He told me he was there every day.

A friend of mine has just published a history of the Cultural Revolution, and found the market a useful source of 'scar literature'--diaries or other hand-written accounts by individuals who suffered during during that period. Not likely to attract the average visitor, although it does also indicate that there's some authenticity to be found.

But the perhaps the 'best' market ('best' for what?) is Shi Li He, far bigger than Pan Jia Yuan and far less ersatz, with a lot of traditional activities going on--birds, fish, flowers, insects--as well as souvenirs in the forms of all the paraphernalia connected with those hobbies, plus 'antiques', tea, and so on, and not a foreign face in sight nor anyone trying to drag you into their shops, nor fleece-the-foreigner initial prices. It's not as colourful insofar as it hasn't been prettified for tourists so its hue is typical Beijing grey, nor does it have as much jolly made-for-tourists material, but it's a labyrinth thronged with real Beijing people shopping for things with which to entertain themselves and worth a visit whether you buy anything or not. Like Pan Jia Yuan, it's busier at weekends (when Chinese have time for leisure shopping), but busy every day of the week.

I suppose it just depends on what kind of experience you're looking for (and, of course, you need to have seen both to decide which is 'best').

Peter N-H

Well, I can only speak from my experience of living in Beijing for 4+ years. I have been to Panjiayuan during the week and there have not been any vendors, except for the shops along the side. This was during the winter.

But since Peter N-H is obviously such a self-proclaimed expert on all things China -- so much so that he must denegrate everyone else's experiences -- I will bow to his superior knowledge.

Yes, petitepois, Peter N-H is THE expert on all things China. Whatever he says must be true. NOT!!! He is just another know-it all troll who thinks he is a China expert.