Beijing Stopover in July 2011
 

We are 4 kiwis in our early 60's having a stop over in Beijing on the way home from Europe late July. We know its going to be hot. Arriving Monday noon, leaving Thursday 11.00am. Looking at staying Park Plaza Beijing Wangfujing on Jinbao St, also wanting to do Great Wall at Mutianyu on the Tuesday by private car, then do some more exploring Wednesday .
Is this practical, any feed back on hotel, location, district and shopping etc. Any good contacts for local driver for tour to the wall. Is Mutianyu best place to see wall?
All feed back welcome as we have not traved to Beijing before.
KiwiPete

The most important point about the hotel (which is fine) is that it is situated right above a metro station, and it's the metro system that will enable you to get around quickly to see as much of Beijing as you can (or want to) in the time available.

You really don't want a car and driver since those recommended here will usually be foreigner-targeting and unnecessarily expensive. Have someone (hotel reception) write down for you the characters for Mutianyu, and the time and location you want picking up, and the time you want to be back and drop-off point, and the price ¥350. Show it to a few taxi drivers not hanging around the hotel, but passing by, or who you ride with on the Monday afternoon and take a liking to. Someone will take that price, or you might pay a little more if you're in a hurry. If you cast around the site you'll find travel reports from other first-timers who have done this quite successfully.

On Weds you can easily pick off some of Beijing's main sights, beginning with the Forbidden City, and following up with whatever you feel you have the time and energy for once you've finished. Note that if your flight only arrives noon on Monday you won't have time for the FC once you've got to your hotel (which you can do by metro, by the way) and checked-in--you won't have that long before it closes.

Peter N-H

Thanks Peter N-H
Will we be able to get 4 people plus 4 suitcases into a taxi from the Airport. Alternatively although I don't think the others will like it, can we get the Metro from the Airport to hotel
KiwiPete

The four cases might be a squeeze.

That's the point I was trying to make about the metro: take it and you pop up right in the hotel building, merely metres from its entrance, although you do need to change twice en route. There are stations for the Airport Express at Terminals 2 and 3. This costs ¥25.

Change to line 10 southbound towards Jinsong at San Yuan Qiao. At this point you pay a further ¥2--the flat-rate metro fare regardless of line changes. At Guomao you change to line 1 and go three stops west (direction Pingguoyuan) to Dong Dan.

Map here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ing-Subway.png

Announcements and signage are in English. Assuming you haven't loaded yourselves with more baggage than you can reasonably manage, this is straightforward. Total cost ¥108 and you'll beat the taxi at any time of day except late at night. But if the four of you can squeeze into a single taxi perhaps not economical.

One taxi will be a little under ¥100 including ¥10 expressway toll (paid in addition to what's on the meter, plus ¥1 fuel surcharge). Two taxis twice as much.

Peter N-H

Kiwipete, just to let you know, this July just past, we two older-than-you Aussies took the Metro from the airport to our Beijing and later Shanghai hotels, and back, with no trouble. It is as Peter says. We were also on our way to Europe, (Beijing) and from Europe (Shanghai), end of June, then late July, and it certainly WAS hot. But so was Germany - around 40degreesC for days and nights on end!

We took the Sunday bus to Mutianyu, walked up the hill to the cable car, and turned right at the top. Most people go left, and go down the chair lift or toboggan. We climbed up four towers. had our picnic, and came back to the cable car. With four, and taking a cab, you can be more flexible though. Read Peter Hessler's "Country Driving", for a description of a tiny town near the Wall near Mutianyu.

The posting from bear88lynn appears to be spam, but since it hasn't been removed, it's necessary to point out that the hotels 'near Wangfujing Street and the subway station' are far from all 'terrific', and that the best prices for foreign-managed properties such as the Park Plaza (a Carlsson property) will be found through the hotel's own booking system.

In passing, also have a look at the prices for the Regent, to which the Park Plaza is connected, and if there's not too much of a gap, consider that (same management, some shared facilities, but larger, more luxurious rooms and nominally five stars instead of nominally four).

For a real laugh, consider the Legendale, directly opposite, which is Macau run and quite the most vast and elaborate piece of kitsch in a city not short of such. Looking as though it has been airlifted in from somewhere in the neighbourhood of Paris's Opera Garnier, it's actually brand new, and its interior contains a vast atrium. When last checked its real room prices were actually only about 40% of its asking prices (if you walk in), and much lower than the Park Plaza and Regent. And for this you get crystal chandeliers and gold-plated bath taps in all but the very cheapest rooms. No joke. At the very least pop across the road for a look.

Peter N-H

Peter N-H

Is the 40% off walk in rate lower than what their web site calls "Best rate guaranteed" or if you scroll down what they call "standard published rate" which is double the best rate guaranteed? It really looks like a lovely hotel, but I got a cheaper rate online at the Park Plaza then the Legendale's best rate guaranteed . Sorry for rambling on...

"When last checked" means that at the time this was the case, and intended to point out rather obviously that the situation may now be different. Rates fluctuate all the time at better hotels--in fact as often as every 30 minutes with some computerised yield management systems. At the moment comparable rooms at the Regent are similarly priced, and those at the Park Plaza (although actually it doesn't really have similar rooms) are cheaper (and if you forget the comparison of room quality, there are certainly cheaper rooms still). Some of this may not be true at peak periods, or not even true tomorrow.

The original comments said "40% of" not "40% off". The rates were around 60% off the presumed rack rate, which probably no one ever actually pays.

As the hotel is foreign-run (more or less: Macau counts as foreign--the casino-hotels there clearly influencing its colossal bad taste, but its pricing policy appears to be somewhere half-way between normal foreign management and domestic management methods) its website may well give you a good idea of its current rates, although you may get a slight edge on those by going in person. The rate for the ¥4000 room down to ¥1780 (this is the lowest grade of room with gold-plated bath taps) is very close to the rate I was able to obtain at the counter earlier this year. The place was, and no doubt still is, empty.

I'd certainly query the description 'lovely hotel', as it's comically monstrous, from the dizzying trompe-l'oeil inlaid marble of the floor to the little bows on the balcony railings raising 17 storeys over your head, and no doubt lacking in the service levels across the road (although Carlson's well-trained staff do sometimes get poached en masse, as happened pre-Olympics). But it is, in its way, a very Chinese experience.

However, the OP should be quite happy at the Park Plaza. But a trip across the road should not be missed, starting with the vulgar nymph-covered fountain outside. The hotel has now also joined the very few in Beijing (four altogether, I think) able to offer a Rolls-Royce ride in from the airport, and its car is a nice deep blue. Just about the only tasteful thing about the whole place.

Peter N-H

My husband and I stayed at the Park Plaza Hotel in early march also on a stop over on the way home but from Vietnam to Canada.We found the hotel and location very good.We walked to the Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square.Unfortunately I was not feeling well here so didn't see much of Beijing.

Carabella, are you sure you didn't get your left and right reversed? I'm 99% sure that I did what most people do and after going up to the wall in the cable car, I went "down" and to the right to do the toboggan down. At least that was "turning right" as you face the wall going up.

By the way, I was advised by a local who often takes clients to the wall by private taxi, that if I could get a rate for the day of 600 that was good, but with super negotiating skills (which I don't have) I might get it as low as 500. He says that's the lowest he's ever been able to get it, so a 350 rate sounds amazing.

In any case, my "doorman" said he'd get a taxi for me (way cheaper of course than a private car and driver which the hotel itself arranges). The price was 700 for the full day starting at 7:30 AM (but I made it a half hour later than he was suggesting). Of course some here would call that "getting ripped off" and paying more than I "had" to. But what he promised me and what I got was a friendly driver who spoke excellent English so we could communicate and it was almost like a guide. Also he provided a cooler full of iced water in the trunk, and at each stop he handed me a cell phone and showed me the page button to push to ring him when I was ready to be picked up. We also did the Ming Tombs as I asked and he circled the reservoir where the Olympic triathlon events were held. He also offered to take me anywhere in the city coming back including the Olympic sites, but I asked just to go back -- I think arriving about 4.

So some may love the idea of the adventure of standing on the street trying to flag down taxi drivers and bargain a price and hope they understood exactly what you wanted and that they won't expect you to pay tolls, etc. and trying to communicate where and how (in the maze of sellers and stands at places like Mutianyu) you're going to meet and hope you don't lose them. And then you can spend the day unable to communicate with them. If that's worth saving $40 for the day -- then go for it. But in my book, a hotel doorman can be your best friend. Incidentally, on the two days I tried to get a taxi around 8 AM near my hotel, I spent nearly a half hour unsuccessful. Finding one who would also be willing to bargain the day away to go the Great Wall sounds like really good fortune, but I suppose it depends on how lucky you are, how good you are at bargaining, and of course where you happen to be at the time you're looking for a taxi driver who isn't mainly looking for a morning trip to the airport and back!

Hi from Down Under, Neopatrick! You are 100% right! We definitely went up the cable car, and climbed UP a further four towers, turned round and came back down the cable car. We didn't see the entrance to the chairlift or toboggan.
But I have just this minute dug out the map they gave us at the cable car, and I see that you are right!! In my head, the cable car was to the east of the Wall, but on the map it is clearly to the west. Sorry!

Although it's nearly a year until you travel, you might enjoy reading this trip report, and find some encouragement there on getting around Beijing and trips out of town to Mutianyu, etc:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...-beginners.cfm

Read the responses, too, as these elicit further detail of tackling Beijing in a relatively short time with no Mandarin or previous experience.

Peter N-H