I'm pretty excited - my old friend is coming to visit me in Beijing. We know each other from somewhere else where we spent a long time living and initially we're going to meet up there for a reunion. Leter, he suggested coming to China, as he's never been here before, to which I said "absolutely". He's quite well travelled, including in Asia, but never been to China So, he kind of said he has 9 days and he'll do whatever I think is interesting/fun. I'm a fairly old China hand. He arrives later today and I'm going to propose to him 3 choices and we'll decide over beers tonight.

Plan A: Just stay in Beijing, see everything, take a day trip to Tianjin maybe. Pros: Zero rushing, no getting up early, really get to see everything in the capitol. Cons: Won't get to see much countryside/smaller towns, other than a trip to wild section of Great Wall. Less exciting than going to another place.

Plan B: 4 days in BJ, 3 days in Xi'an and a day at Huashan. Pros: I like Xi'an a lot, I've never seen the T Warriors, Very straightforward in terms of trains/taxis etc, lots of food and pretty stimulating trip all around. Cons: More expensive, a bit of rushing around, it's another city. Huashan although looks cool, it's a lot of stair climbing and I think we'd both prefer a more natural hike.

Plan C: 4 days in BJ, 2 days at Wutaishan, 2 days open(could go to Datong or somewhere else). I have a Chinese driver's license and a car, so this would be a little road trip. Pros: He'll get to see some countryside, smaller cities, the infrastructure outside of BJ, some nicer hiking, the Bhuddist feel of WTS, I've never been there either, so more of an adventure for sure. Cons: I don't know what WTS is like, responsibilty of driving, wish we had more days to spend in Shanxi.

I have made arrangements for all 3 possibilities and can cancel for free based on what we decide. I personally hope he goes for Plan C, and I think he will. Anyway, I'll know tonight and I'll do a trip report about it.

Even in 2010, there were a lot of tourists, mostly Chinese, at the main temples there. And isn't it a bit early in the year to go there? When I was there -- late May -- signs of spring were just beginning to appear. I would think it would be wise to consult the weather forecast before deciding.

You're presenting your friend with some interesting options! Have fun!

From what I understand, there are many hiking trails and we where there aren't many people. So the plan is not really to stay in Taihuai town, but rather do some hiking around it. From what I understand you can spend 2 days hiking in a loop and cover all five peaks. I'm not sure if we're up for that, so it seems that you can also do shorter day hikes. For example, we should be able to start directly from our guesthouse, and make a loop covering 1 peak and some smaller temples and then looping back around to the guesthouse. Hopefully the boss at the guesthouse can help us with some route suggestions. A friend of a friend just the circle route and I added her on WeChat. She had come up from Guangdong to do it with a group of friends. She told me it wasn't crowded, but that you will meet other hikers. As far as the weather, she told me it fluctuated. lot - cold in the morning and warm in the day. She spent 2.5 days, really liked it and had some nice photos. We'll play it by ear and if WTS is not suitable for what ever reason, we can just spend a day there and then drive up to Datong/Yungang. My friend has really been enjoying Beijing so far and he's not too worried about ticking off sites, he's interested in seeing what life is like here, what people are like, trying food etc.

I was the same when visiting my friend in Beijing. I did not have a laundry list of famous sites to see. My friend took me to get a set of chops made, and it was fascinating to see and make all the choices. He also sent me to his favorite potter to buy a teapot. It was an amazing experience, and he spent about 2.5 hours with us showing off his different teapots and the different teas they are used for. He didn't speak a word of English and it didn't seem to matter. I also loved visiting the red sandalwood museum, though ti turns out my friend dislikes Qing Dynasty design. I was thrilled.

Anyway, it sounds like you have everything under control!

Perhaps too late by now. But on your way back from Datong you could consider a stop at Cuandixia (爨地下, also modernised as Chuandixia, 川地下), which as a Beijing resident you probably know. The village may by now have become a full-on tourist destination, but when I last saw it it had been careful to preserve its charm—seriously rustic with even Cultural Revolution slogans still visible on some walls. But some excellent meals available in private houses. And if you venture beyond the village, on a poor but manageable road (when last seen), to 柏峪村 Baiyucun, there's a reputedly good walk from there up to a little visited section of crumbling Great Wall. Local people will point you in the right direction. (I've been to the starting point, but didn't do the walk for lack of time.) A little further on back towards Beijing, a left turn to Lingshui 灵水 is worth taking. It's a village long proud of the number of its residents who passed various levels of the imperial examinations, and when I last saw it was just starting to puzzle how it might attract some of the visitors going to Cuandixia. Not as pretty as the latter, but with crumbling alleys and some ancient buildings to see, and a look at the reality of rural life.

So my friend came and as is usual, tge trip didn't go exactly as ple, but it was excellent, we had a great time.

Day 1:
He flew in from the UK, arrived at 3pm. He said the immigration officer was surprised he was arriving completely on his own, ie without any travel group, we both that that weird, but no problem.

We jumped on the airport express and he was delighted that his Alipay worked from the very first attempt. I don't know if he was excited or what, but when we got off at Sanyuanqiao to change subway lines, as we walked up the escalator he said "omg, I've left all my luggage on the airport express!! *.

I went to the station attendant and explained to her what happened, she said she'd make some calls and let us know. 15 min later she instructed us to go to beixinqiao station and collect the luggage. I did this in Chinese, but I'm sure using an app or whatever would have tge same result.

We collected the bags and I knew a brewpub right next to beixinqiao subway exit, so we grabbed a couple of pints. My friend was so relieved to have his luggage and really enjoyed just looking out at tge intersection of Ghost street and Yonghegong street, just watching the rush hour crowd go by, sipping cold beer and letting it sink in that he's in China.

I then presented him with our 3 trip plan options.

All his luggage? You need to keep a close eye on your friend.

He had a small daybag with his passport in it, so it wouldn't have been a complete calamity if the rest of his stuff was not found. He put his main bag in the luggage area and we jumped off quickly and just didn't think of it until off the train. Anyway, thankfully the Beijing subway staff were very helpful.

Day 1 evening:

We took a Didi to the hotel (Orange hotel, Sanlitun). Hotel was decent - not fancy, but modern, clean, big enough(we got a room with two beds). Location is excellent, right inside of Sanlitun Soho, restaurants everywhere and Line 10 very nearby. Why dropped our bags and we were both hungry, so I took him to a place I really like for Chuanr. The place is called Henjiuyiqian and is a chain in Beijing. They specialize in lamb from Inner0-Mongolia and meat is always really good there, we went to the Andingmen branch. After a good meal, I should him around the Hutongs near the Drum tower. We just kind of meandered around, stopped for some drinks and meandered more. The weather was ideal and clear skies. We were ready to head back to the hotel when at some point we ran into a Polish expat who recommended a bar I had never heard of and we decided to follow him there, really nice place, but I honestly cannot remember the name. We stayed there till closing and then went to a late night Sichuan place for a bowl of very spicy Dandan mian. We didn't end up back at the hotel until 3am! Hard to believe he was able to do that after a 9.5 flight, but it was a really good night.

Day 2:

We obviously got up late, had a quick breakfast at the hotel. We booked a room without breakfast, but when checking in, the hotel offered us a ridiculously cheap breakfast, it was around 12rmb each/day if we took it for the 4 days we were there, so we did. The breakfast was nothing special, but it got us moving and there was coffee. We took the subway to Tianmen Square, met up with my wife and the 3 of us went to the Forbidden City. I had booked tickets for us the week before and it simple getting in, semi-crowded, but no lines. This was Friday at around noon. We spent 3 hours or so there and then climbed Jingshan park Hill. It was a fairly smoggy day, so the view was not that great, but still worthwhile. My friend is 62, so he got into FB for half price and free into Jingshan(which is a 10rmb ticket for under 60).

Next we went to a place for Beijing duck called Shengfunian. I had never been there , bit it had great reviews on Dianping and it was walking distance from Jingshan(about 30 min). The duck was good and the atmosphere was pretty good - inside the hutongs,can see the oven roasting ducks, crickets in cages, friendly staff. We also had Zhazhang mian and a few other dishes - all were good, price was not expensive.

I had a big surprise lined up for my friend who is a huge football fan(uk variety), I had booked tickets for the Beijing GuoAn vs. Qingdao. I was planning to surprise him, not telling him until we were at the stadium. Then the big dissappointment: The strongest wind to hit Beijing in 50 years was coming that evening and they canceled the game. I had made so much effort to figure out how to book us the tickets and the new Worker's stadium is supposed to be state of the art. We were both very let down, but nothing we could do.

The 3 of us ended up going to a nice little brewpub with an outdoor area in Wudaoying Hutong called Regain Element and then later over on to Beiping brewpub just off Fangjia Hutong, which has a nice atmosphere. I think we had a late night snack somewhere as well, but once again didn't make it back to the hotel until very late. Although the game didn't happen, we still had an excellent day and my friend realized why I said the best thing to bring to Beijing is comfortable walking shoes.

I had posted Chinese characters for the restaurant names, but it seems it's not allowed.

"I had posted Chinese characters for the restaurant names, but it seems it's not allowed." 唉

Glad your friend got to try chuanr.

Well that's interesting. It won't even let me post your quoted "Sha". Also won't let me post photos.

Just in case anyone else wants to look for this dish (sometimes known as 'clanging dish noodles'), it's zhajiang mian, 炸酱面 (zhájiàng miàn) which is wheat noodles simmered in a soybean sauce (炸 is usually 'deep fry', but here means more 'scald'; 醬 is soya sauce; 面 is wheat noodles), served in a metal dish surrounded by other smaller dishes containing for instance cucumber, radish, beans, spring onion, beansprouts, which are made to clang against the main dish as these ingredients are added. Restaurants specialising in such Beijing classics tend to be very 熱鬧 (rènao; lively and noisy). Well worth trying.

Incidentally, the 'Ghost Street' referred to earlier is Guǐ Jiē, with many restaurants of all types open 24 hours. But the guǐ is not 鬼 (ghost) but 簋 (a bronze cooking vessel), identical in sound and tone, a giant version of which stands at a junction at one end of the street. Of course, something that grew organically, and used to be appealingly battered has now been tidied up, broadened, and rebuilt to 'improve' Beijing's image. It was the same 'tidying' that produced the name change from 'ghost' to 'cooking vessel' in the 80s, some say, although there have been several campaigns, even beginning with the post-1911 republic, to change street names that were a little too coarse (or that were homophones for earthy terms) to those more officially appealing. But the whole street is still very rènao, and well worth a walk from end to end on both sides. It stretches west from Dongzhi Men metro station, and until recently was still on maps as Dongzhi Men Nei Dajie. But even Google has it as Gui Jie these days.

I think newcomers on this forum may be limited in what they can post for a short period of time.

Thanks for filling in all that useful info. Btw, when I first moved to Beijing in 2012, Ghost street was full of lanterns, glowing completely red. I'll never forget my first time eating Laziji under those red lanterns.

I forgot to mention that my friend(let's call him Alan) opted for the Wutaishan side trip, so that limited our time in Beijing a bit.

Day 3:

We both woke up pretty late, which is ok as Alan, like me is more about soaking in the atmosphere of a place rather than trying to cover every site. I took him to a favorite noodle spot of mine just a few minutes walk from the hotel. I never remember that actual name of this place, but it's in the 33 building(just past Taiguli village walking north) 5th floor turn right after the escalator and all the way to the end. They make excellent Chengdu style noodles, in a huge bowl. Fat and firm noodles topped with beef tenderloin, fried scrambled egg, red and green chili peppers. Delicious and guaranteed to be full for around 30rmb.

Alan wanted to do some shopping and kind of see what a Chinese shopping mall was like. Since we had already done two days in the Hutongs and older part of BJ, I took him next door to upscale Taiguli in Sanlitun. We walked around and there for a while, then Tok a quick subway ride to China World mall, did some more shopping and had a coffee. Afterwards we strolled though the CBD, past the CCTV building etc.. It was very windy, but a nice clear day otherwise.

Originally, I had booked Alan, me and my two closest expat friends in BJ to go on a Great Wall hike to Jinshanling(with Beijing Hikers). Unfortunately, because of the wind, the hike was canceled. Thus, we had this chill shopping day. I think the 11km hike would have been ambitious with his jet lag anyway. Fear not, we did make up for it later in the trip. My friends were still up for meeting later, so in the evening we all met up at JingA in Dongsi(my favorite beijing brewpub) for beers. It was great because they all hit it off like a house on fire. Lot's of banter and stories and pints of beer. At some point everyone was hungry and one of my friends was suggesting burgers at the bar. I was adamant that Alan did not come all the way to China for burgers at the bar. I insisted we go to my favorite BBQ place that's less than a 10 min walk away. Korean Bbq, so technically not Chinese, but most Korean bbq place in China have Chinese characteristics. The one we went to Doumanjiang includes Chinese sauerkraut or Suancai that goes on the grill, this is definitely more Dongbei than Korea. Anyway, we went and it was fantastic as always and great value.

We ended up back at JingA until who knows when. On the way back to the hotel Alan was hungry yet again , so we stopped at some random place for a Roujiama. That still wasn't enough for him, and I saw some random Malaxianguo (like a dry hotpot?) place in Sanlitun and we went there. So we spent the whole day without going to any particular "site", but it was certainly fun.

I guess this has turned into a trip report, but I don't know how to denote that.

Is this the place, 5th fl, 33 Sanlitun, where you took your friend for Chengdu Noodles? Looks impressive.:

先启半步颠小酒馆(三里屯店) Xianqi Half Step Bistro (Sanlitun)

http://tiny.cc/vvzh001

That is not the place, but it it is right across the hallway from the one you posted. Having walked past there several times, their food also looks really good, but maybe better for a full meal with several dishes. I will have to try it sometime. The place I took him too is smaller and mostly just noodles. Just before you reach the noodle place there is also a small hole in the wall Guangdong restaurant which I always thinks looks good, but have still never tried it.

Sorry, but just for those who may want to follow, it's roujiamo(ròujiāmó, 肉夹馍, 'meat' + 'between' + 'steamed bread'), meat inside a bun. Sometimes known as the Chinese burger, although the meat is pork and the dish's origin is not Beijing but Shǎnxi (Shaanxi) Province, and available everywhere in Xi'an, for instance. You also come across Muslim versions from Xinjiang-origin sellers, where it's beef inside a folded flatbread.

Yeah, sorry, it's the auto type, and I'm not allowed to post characters yet. I'd call it more of a Chinese pulled pork sandwich, rather than hamburger, but yeah I've heard that description. Any roujiamo are vert tasty and you can get two or three of them fir the price of one western burger.

Day 4:

Well, we continue on our low key Beijing tour. For one thing Alan does not like to hey up and we'll he is jetlagged. As we are planning to go hiking at Wutaishan, he had ordered some nice hiking shoes to take with him from the UK. Unfortunately, they were delivered to the wrong address in the UK. So the first order of business was to take a taxi to Decathlon to see if we could get some good quality/reasonably priced hiking shoes. With all due respect, I think China's delivery systems blow away the UKs. I've never had one occurrence of this here. He was also to fight with customer service thoughout the trip to get his money back on those shoes.

So we get a didi to decathlon, they have some excellent shoes, but Alan wears 46 and they only had 45. Pretty much anywhere in china will be like this. I couldn't help either, as I wear 44. Oh well, he's going to need to use the sneakers he's wearing. As we were shopping, nature suddenly called on him quite quickly. We searched the mall, found a bathroom, he came out and said they had only squat, which he could live with,but no TP, which he couldn't. I checked and found there was a sit down toilet, but the TP dispenser at the entrance was indeed empty. He suggested finding a supermarket. I suggested we just borrow some napkins from one of tge nearby restaurants. I asked a waiter and he handed me like 50 napkins! We went back, I showed him the sit down toilet and a janitor spotted us. He actually went in and swept out a cigarette butt and some stuff off the floor and gave the seat a wipe. Alan was impressed. I was impressed.

All that solved, we went to meet my wife and we all went to 798 and walked around various art galleries. Nice place to walk around and mostly free. We did go to one of the main galleries and he got half price since he's over 60. After a couple of hours we realized we had not eaten anything other than a very small hotel breakfast. My wife suggested Beijing lamb copper hotpot and I agreed, as I love that. She chose a place in Wangjing and I was pleasently surprised that it was a Nanmen shuan rou. Fantastic choice, always excellent.

After stuffing ourselves, we said goodbye to the wife and I took Alan to a 24hr hotsprings place(wenquan). It's one I've been to and like, men and women are separated, so you're in your birthday suit. There are scores of these places in beijing. This one has hot pools, cool pool, sauna and hanzheng (a Korean style sauna). We had a nice soak, a shave and some ice cream. He remarkef he had felt so clean in years lol. By this time it was already 10pm and tge hotsprings leaves you exhausted. So it was back to the hotel, a few more back and forths between Alan and customer service in the UK. Another low key day, but we both enjoyed it.

BTW, I mentioned day one was a bit smoggy. This day was clear, and nowadays 80% of days are clear. They've done a remarkable job of cleaning it up, but still around 2 days out of 10 might be substandard. A complete reversal from when I first arrived here.

I don't know if anyone is reading this anyway, but I got busy recently and finally have a chance to update today.

Day 5

We checked out of the hotel and took a Didi to where I live in BJ, near the airport. We picked up my car, put our bags in the trunk, got a couple Luckin coffees to go and set off. Driving from BJ to WTS is around 4.5 hours on the tollway. The first hour was really just getting out of BJ, after that we had some nice scenery, trees and green farm fields - the weather was beautiful, sunny blue skies, windows open weather. Very little traffic the whole trip. About an hour and and a half from BJ we stopped somewhere in Hebei province at a service area. We were both hungry and I pointed out a woman making Jianbing(still not allowed type Chinese characters, sigh...) - a popular Beijing/Tianjin breakfast dish, something like a savory crepe with fried egg, lettuce and a crispy cracker in the middle. He said "Yes, one of those please". It turned out to be one of his favorite thing he ate in China, and we took a photo of him complimenting the woman who prepared it. It is also fun to watch them make Jianbing, a bit of an art. I have always found the food at service areas in China to be surprisingly tasty. Afterwards, we had a laugh with the people outside selling fruit and Alan was very pleased with the tangerines he bought and some other orange like thing that I've never heard of and now forget the name.

As we continued on the drive, after about 3 hours outside of Beijing we were noticeably gaining altitude. My car, a very basic Volkswagen was actually kind of struggling to hit 120 km/hour. Some pretty cool dessert/mountain scenery and Alan was impressed with the greenification projects you could see on the mountainsides. We finally arrived at WTS national park and had to buy tickets at the gate, because the WeChat platform does not have a place to insert passport numbers, no problem since this is the off season it was easy to just walk in and buy tickets. Mine was 135rmb good for 3 days, while Alan's was free because he's over 60. We then had to register our passports, similarly to what you do when you stay at a hotel in China. Next, we had to get the car into the scenic area. There was some discussion, they wanted my to park in the outer lot and take a free bus in. I was adamant that I had made a car reservation and did a little sweet talking and in the end we somehow managed to get it in.

We drove to our guesthouse a few km up the road and checked in. Room was not bad, 2 beds, modern, clean, shower/toilet, window and quiet - 220rmb/night. The owner of the hotel was a character and I spoke Chinese with him for a while, he recommended some places to eat, a hiking route, etc. As we walked up the road outside the guesthouse, Alan remarked that he was finding it a bit hard to breathe. There was no pollution, so it wasn't that. I looked up online and it turns out the altitude was similar to Denver, so that makes sense. We went to a nearby restaurant and had dinner, which was nice, but ordered a wee bit too much. The dishes ALWAYS look small on the menu but are actually big. We had some baijiu with dinner, which Alan did not acquire a taste for, watched a little outdoor karaoke session and then called it an early night so we could hike in the morning.

I am very excited to hear about Wutaishan!