Help with Beijing?
 

We will be in Beijing the end of Oct. We would like to leave our hotel- Swissotel or Macou Center(sp?)- for a trip to the Badaling wall about 7am on Sunday morning and then stop at the Summer Palace on the return to the city. Does any one know if there will be taxis that early willing to hire out for six-seven hours? This hotel doesn't seem to be one of the big tourist hotels. I know there are cheap buses to the wall leaving from central locations, but we want to do both stops in one trip and have the driver wait for us at each stop. Our time is very limited. Thanks for your help!

I have gotten taxis in the street to go see sunrise at Tiananmen around 6 am, so I would not imagine you would have any problem finding a taxi at 7 am. You could of course arrange it with a driver the day before (assuming his English or your Chinese is sufficient), or ask your hotel for help in arranging a taxi to collect you at 7 am.

Thanks, I looked up the subway stop for our hotel. We are staying at theHong Kong Macao Centre Swissotel. It is at the Dongsishitiao subway stop. Does anyone know anything about this area(with in walking distance of the hotel)-restuarants,interesting areas etc. According to the Lonely Plant Map there seem to be alot of streets just insde the 2nd Ring Road with hutong in the name near by. Are these the interesting old ally ways with homes and shops?

You should check with the hotel staff to have an idea of the price of hiring a taxi for full day. The staff may even help to arrange one for you. I think it's around RMB400-500.

Hi

I would like to recommend the Simatai section of the great wall. It takes longer to drive there but from pictures that I have seen and stories that I have heard it seems like there are less tourists at the Simatai section compared to Badaling. We went to Simatai last March and it was beautiful...there were not many people there and the view was just amazing. I have posted some pictures in my trip report posted on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com if you want to take a look. Have a great trip :-)

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

cwn, we were in Beijing last week, and I must say that attempting both the Wall and the Summer Palace in one day is ambitious. The Summer Palace covers a huge area - we spent four hours roaming around without seeing it all. I recollect someone saying that an all-day cab can be negotiated for as low as Y300 but didn't put this to the test. And I can't imagine any time of the day or night when you'd have appreciable trouble getting a cab.

There's certainly no need to have a taxi wait for you at the Palace - just walk out the gate and onto the public road and you'll have your pick of cabs. We paid only Y45 one way from our city hotel. On no account succumb to any tout who approaches you with an offer of a "metered cab" - this will end in grief and recriminations. We dealt with a lot of (real) Beijing cabbies and found them all efficient and honest. Just carry a Beijing tourist map with both Chinese characters and Pinyin (Roman) lettering to point to (we found none who spoke English) and you'll be fine. If the destination is obscure get your hotel to write it out in Chinese. Also carry around a Swissotel card for your return journeys.

I recall the Swissotel being across a wide ring-road from the Dong Si Shi Tiao metro station. Frommers' website at least has a useful rundown on using the metro, including maps. I think you have to change lines to get to Tian'an men Square, for instance. Other than that be aware that everything in Beijing seems a longer walk than the map would suggest. Walk around the more compact areas (hutong/back lakes etc) by all means, but get a cab for longer distances - your legs will thank you.

Back to cabs, try to get one that charges the higher rate of Y1.6/km rather than Y1.2 - usually a newer VW or Citroen, the rate is clearly displayed on the rear passenger window. It will make a difference to your comfort level.

Enjoy your time in Beijing - it, and its gregarious citizens, are great.

Forgot to mention - our hotel (the Ping An Fu) was also on Dong Si Shi Tiao. On the one occasion I had to verbalise it to a cabbie I discovered that it sounds a bit like "doong s' sh' t'yow". If that helps...

Thanks everyone! We now have the car and driver worked out with the hotel for a 7 am pick up. We also have an English speaking?? guide. The total cost is just a little more than cab alone. This, for us is worth it, as we will be sufferring jet lag and the fewer things left to chance, the better for us. We will do the Badaling section of the wall. Since walking is some times a big problem for me, I may just ride the cable car up and back--but I will have seen something I have heard about all my life! Same for the Summer Palace, we will walk around as much as I can. Later, if we are up to it, we will go to dinner in the Frobidden City area and explore a little. There have been some interesting resturants and sites mentioned on this board. Tuesday, we will get up early and go to the Temple of Heaven Park to watch the morning activities and on to the Forbidden City for a tour. What we can do after that depends on the time schedule for our tranfer to Tianjin. The cost of the car for that day is very cheap, but if we aren't happy with them, we will just use the taxis. Everyone has made me realize we can manage as well as we did in Paris! I do hope we will have time for a pure shopping stop, but, if not, we will just have to return to see all we don't have time for this time plus some shopping. We really are looking forward to this trip. Everyone has been such a great help, I feel it is the best planned trip we have ever made. Will let you know how things went when we get back.

cwn, another thought - unless we missed something, the "cable car" at Badaling isn't a gondola, it's a series of little one-person carts that get dragged up by a moving track - on the way down it's what I think is called a luge (sp?) arrangement where you sit in something like a kid's cart and barrel down a trackway, controlling the speed with a handle. My apologies for the awkward description, it's not as bad as I may have made it sound. I haven't had my second cup of coffee so far this morning and the grey cells aren't yet properly functioning.

cwn,

The Great Wall at Mutianyu does have a cable car. We used to go up only and went back by stairs, but 2-way ride is also possible.

Neil-oz, well I don't know about the "cable car" set up. I have seen some pictures on the interent that are labeled Badaling cable car. It appears to be a two passenager affair and seems far off the ground. In the pictures, it looks as though the village entrance is also all most at the wall in a low area. The cable car goes up at a different place. The map shows it going to a tower a ways above the village entrance. We have friends that have been to the Mutianyu wall. They said the path to the cable car is very steep and that the wall is also very steep. Since we want to go to the Summer Palace also that day, it seems that Badaling is the best bet. Hopefully since it is Nov and we will be there by 8:30, there won't be such large crowds. Guess we will see! Thanks for your help!