Beijing Travel Forum

Dear travel community,

I will be arriving on May 2nd at Beijing for our first time China travel and I still have some open issues:

1) We are staying at the Days Inn Forbidden City Hotel, which is between the east side of Tiananmen Square and Fanwuying Shopping street (close to Qianmen bus station). Does anybody know which airport shuttle bus would be OK for us?

2) Most of the things we want to see, we can do without a personal guide (e.g. Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Parks, Temple of Heaven, etc.). But we are also interested in the hutongs. Does anybody know a good guide /travel agency to show us around in the hutongs?

3) I read somewhere that there are minibuses directly from the Qianmen Busstation to Mutianyu part of the Great Wall. Anybody has experience with that? Anyone knows the timetable of these minibuses?

4) Lateron we will be flying to Xian. I had a look at ctrip, elong and yoee and for the moment the biggest discount is only 20%, rating 900 Yuan. Will the price go down even more closer to the due date? I noticed that ctrip and elong have now an english site and apparently accept VISA payment from outside mainland China. Anyone recently bought flight tickets with these agencies.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Regards,
NicBBB

4) You might like to think about the overnight train: takes around 12 hours, saves a hotel bill.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/

You might also like to consult a real human travel agent:
jacky@lotusholiday.com

HI! NicBB:

Please see link for airport bus routes: http://en.bcia.com.cn/traffic-manual/airport-bus.shtml

I think those going to Xidan could be the ones.

1) Wangfujing, not Fanwuying. Take airport shuttle no.3 to Beijing main train station and then a taxi. What time is your flight arriving and how much luggage do you have?
4) Take the overnight Z train soft sleepers instead, saves you travel time and money.

1). No.3 airport shuttle bus from Capital airport to Beijing Railway Station (Beijingzhan), then catch a taxi;
2). N
3). N
4). Both ctrip and elong do accept VISA payment from outside mainland China. The problem is that it's the May Day holiday and the price might go up due to the flooding tourists. We use ctrip and elong a lot in mainland China.

Check out http://ticket.9588.com

Ticket seems to be cheaper last minutes. I suggest your book your plane ticket while you're in China. I think your hotel can do that for you or your can go log onto the net (Free internet at the Day Inn) or called the number listed on the website.