Beijing Travel Forum

Dear all,

I am planning to go to Beijing in March first week and i have a few questions.

1. I wish to trek the Jinshanling to Simatai part of the wall and also want to stay overnite in Jinshanling. Where can i get information for the accomodations there, i am already speaking to the famous Mr. Sun but he cant seem to help a lot.

2. What would be the best and cheapest way to visit the Summer palace and the temple of heaven and how mush time should i spare for visiting both these locations.

I have been trying to research on this for a long time now and finally decided to put the question up here, any help from anyone of you will be very very useful (especially for the accomodation at the great wall)

Thanx in advance

2. summer palace is in the rural area west and you may take public transpo there; temple of heaven is south-east to tian an men square and you may take the bus from downtown to it's south entrance.
usually half day for summer palace and abt 2 hours pretty enough for temple of heaven.

Last April/May we wre at the Jinshaling section of the Wall. We were the only tourists there, and just about the only people there. While there are a few buildings in various states of construction, there was nothing complete or open, although I do vaguely remember some sort of sign about a proposed guest house.

I visited The Temple of Heaven Park and Summer Palace November 2006. I spent four hours in both places but The Summer Palace really requires a day if you wish to explore the buildings, the lake and the beautiful bridges. I took a cab to Temple of Heaven Park for a very reasonable price. And I took a bus to the Summer Palace.

While visiting the Temple of Heaven Park (hopefully you will visit in the morning), venture off the main path into the green spaces. You will hear some beautiful choirs, and bands which appear to be made up of locals.

2) Where are you starting from??? Summer Palace should be a full day, Temple of Heaven (start early morning) should be doable in about half a day.

Hi,
I can confirm that there is a guest house at Jinshanling (right at the base of the wall). I have no idea what it is called (so sorry!), but I got a lift out to Jinshanling and had no issues finding the place. I arrived at 11pm and they cooked me up a huge dinner. Wonderful. The place wasnt flash, but tidy enough so no worries there.