Hi everyone,

Have been in contact with a family that offers a home visit. In itself it sounds very appealing, they will be my guides as well as staying with the family. The daughter speaks English and they have a car.

My concern from everything I have read about Beijing is the time it takes to travel. They live outside the 5th circle which does not mean very much to me but I assume it is more on the outskirts.

As a rule I like to stay in centrally located places, perhaps there is no such thing in Beijing, or perhaps it doesn't matter.

Would really appreciate some thoughts on this

There's been a rapid increase in this sort of offer lately, encouraged by the government in the lead-up to the Olympics, but also with entirely ridiculous fees attached in line with the massive over-charging at hotels. It would be interesting to know what fee is being requested and exactly what that is to include.

At that distance from the centre expect probably a modern apartment tower and no sign of anything traditional. You might be about 10km or more from the centre, and yes, this can be a major disadvantage unless perhaps the accommodation is near either a Line 13 or Line 4 station. Both of these lines cross the Fifth Ring on the north side. If on that side of town you might consider relative closeness to Great Wall sites, to various artists colonies, the airport, and the summer palaces a benefit, but if not being chauffeured or relying on taxis you may find public transport a problem. Sights around or beyond the Fifth on the other sides of the city may not be major enough for someone on a first, relatively short visit (if that's the case). So you'll be left with a long circuit or a slow crawl into town.

There certainly are homestays, flatshares, and short-term apartment rentals in the centre of the city, not too hard to find with a little Googling.

Peter N-H

How long will you be in the city? How much are they charging and how did you find this family? Are you on a very strict budget?

They were recommended on Frommers.

This is the reply I received when i enquired about the home visit.

In a susequent e-mail I was told it involves a cooking lesson, calligraphy and Mandarin lessons. None of which I am particularly interested in, unless they can teach me how to make the Shanghai soup dumplings. Mine never seem to be soupy enough.

"Our apartment is just outside the 5th ring road. But don't worry about the distance as transport will be provided in our car. If you're planning to spend time alone in a specific place (a park, cafe or shopping area), we'll drop you off and pick you up.

For a 5-day homestay which includes all meals (restaurants and home), accommodation, transport (trips to tourist sites and airport pickup/dropoff), entrance tickets to tourist sites, cultural activities and tour guide, it is around US$550. Of course, if you'd like certain tourist sites to be removed from your itinerary, the cost would be lower. Or if you have a higher budget to work with, we can recommend more suburb trips which may include overnight stay too."

I am not on a budget hostel trip but neither do I have unlimited means. I will be gone 6-7 weeks in total and am probably thinking in terms of $100 - $150 a day.

Spent a month in India last year for much much less and had very good accomodations most of the time.
True there were two of us to share the expenses then. This time I am on my own.

I really would have no idea except to wonder about the soup dumpling making..that is a Shanghai dish, as you know. And since you live in NYC, you can get such great ones, as you also undoubtedly know..

I think you need more info. For example, who determines the restaurants you will eat in? What will your room be like? Taxis are so cheap in Beijing that the cost would be negligible. Will they include a trip to the Wall? Is the tour guide an English speaker? I would love to read the thread on Frommers if you can post it here, or give me a hint on how to find it!

The soup dumpling was tongue-in-cheek.

There is really no thread per se.
Someone said that she and her aunt had stayed with the family and enjoyed it, someone else chimed in and said the same.

Now when I am trying to find the posts am unable to do so. Apparently the board crashed and it is possible those posts disappered with the crash.
This is what she wrote when I asked what kind of activities and sights they offered.
"I'm listing down places/activities that my past guests have visited/had just so you have an idea of what the favorites are.



In the city:

Forbidden City

Tianamen Square

Jingshan Park (just behind the forbidden city where you get an excellent view of the courts/gardens in the forbidden city)

Temple of Heaven

Lama Temple (tibetan buddhist temple)

Hutong tour (visiting the old Beijing neighborhoods where you'll see old courtyard houses)

Ritan Park (where the locals gather for morning exercise, taichi, a game of chinese chess etc)

The silk market (shopping with good bargain)

Wangfujing Foodstreet (a taste of local delicacies)



Suburb:-

The Great Wall (Badaling/Mutianyu)

The Ming Tombs

Red Snail Temple

Longqing Gorge (supposedly the 3 gorges of Beijing)

Shidu Lake (water rafting)

Fragrance Hills (ideal place for hiking)

Tanzhe and Jie Tai Temple (largest Buddhist altar can be seen here)



Cultural activities:-

Calligraphy (my uncle is the calligrapher and he'll be giving you a chinese name if you haven't had one already; you'll learn how to use the chinese brush and write your name on your own and several other chinese characters)

Tea drinking culture (we'll show you how it's done and you do it afterwards)

Chinese cooking (making dumplings, kungpao chicken and a few other chinese dishes)

Mandarin language class (you'll get language lessons in the evening from my cousin. at least learn how to count 1-10 and the regular expressions used when bargaining)



The above are the all-time favorites of our previous guests. But if you have anything in particular that you'd like to do, just let me know. We've had a guest who put in a request of "I want to kiss a 90-year old grandmother in the hutong". And another, who wanted to hit the bars and see a Chinese girl do pole dancing. Haha! So, go ahead and tell us what your adventures are and we'll do our best to fulfill it

Two things to note:

The Frommer's board is full of spam. I don't know if that applies in this case, but it's something to be wary of there. Fodor's may be a bit lax, but it's still much better moderated than Frommer's.

The other is that one of the oddities of public discussion forums like this is that someone will post about a particular experience and say that it was the best possible without actually having tried other alternatives or often even without being aware that there are any. The next thing is that someone else follows that advice and posts to say the same thing. The next thing you know it's accepted wisdom that you have to pay ¥500 to have a taxi all day and that bell boys have to be tipped (when neither is true). But then that's probably why you asked for a second opinion.

The daily budget you mentioned is quite large for Beijing. There are very many modest but pleasant centrally-located choices of accommodation for around the equivalent of US$50 that will leave you closer to the main sights, with much shorter travelling times, and entirely free to come and go as you please, to try different regional cuisines, to hook up with other foreign travellers who might be going your way, and so on.

I think the homestay is well overpriced, but it's up to you whether you prefer the comforts of organisation, would like the company, or prefer to strike out on your own.

Peter N-H

Thank you Peter,

It sounds intriguing but I guess the reason I asked the opinion of others was it doesn't sit quite right with me. If this was such a wonderful experience the boards would be full of it. E.g. the guide everyone raves about, or the restaurant that everyone goes to.

Now my question is where to stay?
One of my few requirements is a hot shower. The choices seem limitless and also I don't have a clue as to locations. Do you have some suggestions?

Am also toying with the idea of staying in hutong, but not if I am the only guest, and again where and which one.

The organisation is not the appeal of a homestay, rather perhaps the socialisation. I will be going into a country where I don't speak or read the language, though that has never stopped me in the past.

Part of me is also recognizing that I don't have the stamina I had 40 years ago.

The more I think about it the less appealing the homestay sounds.
Well I guess I'll just have to hire guides and drivers for the outings that require it.

Thanks again

"I guess I'll just have to hire guides and drivers for the outings that require it." And for the downtown Beijing locations you don't need them. You can walk (depending on where you're staying), take the metro or take a taxi, along with a good guidebook - and the audioguide for the Forbidden City.