Beijing Travel Forum

Hello,
we are travelling to Beijing the 30th May and staying for 10 days, planning 6 days in Beijing and maybe 2-3 days at the Shaolin Temple or to the countryside.

There are bunches of questions open that my own travel agency cannot answer to. So I do try with the forum and hope that there is someone that can help us.

1: 1st June is Children day, what special will happen in Beijing, what should I definitively not miss?

2. I am a photographer and I want to photograph as much as I can but at the right time and place. Any photographer out there that has some tips and maybe wanna meet to share a photosafari in Beijing?

3. An english speaking guide / translator that can help us. I would love to take pictures of a chinese wedding and visit the countryside. Which means, I will do need someone that can chinese.

4. What is most recomandable to visit outside of Beijing? There is so much, that I have to start cutting down to one or two trips outside of town. Less is better.

5. Last but not least...any virtual tourist member that wanna meet for a cup of tea?

Thank you in advance for any information you might give me.

Cornelia from Sweden

I can only answer some of your questions and hope they're helpful...:-)

1. Children's Day (June 1st) is a holiday for children and parents. You will see celebrating activities both in kinder gardens, schools and even in parks.

2. If you need an English speaking guide, you may consider to hire a college student locally. It's affordable.

3. Not sure if you consider Great Wall as a place outside of Beijing. To me,it's as the nearest site takes 1 and 1/2 hour drive. Also, you may consider of visiting Chengde if you have time which is about 6 hour drive. It's a royal palace city built in the last dynasty.

Have a good trip.

Thank you so much.
I will definitively go and see the Great Wall very early in the morning. But I wanted to visit a village and see the chinese village life. Any suggestion on that?

I will have a look at the school and gardens especially for the childrens day.

Cornelia

Do you speak Chinese? If not, I'd suggest you join a small group tour with English speaking guide. There are such kind of tours organized for foreign visitors to visit hutong, village in rural area, etc. You can get more info from travel desk in your hotel when you get here.

Have a good trip.

We booked a day to Cuandixia, which is about 3 hours from Beijing. It's a small village consisting of about 200 families. You can go there and see how they live and have lunch there. It's very neat. I think you can definitely take some great pictures there. We also stopped at the Tenzhe (spelling) temple, which is one of the biggest and oldest temple in Beijing. It's huge and you can definitely spend a few hours there taking lots of pictures. We were also supposed to stop at another temple, but it was getting late and the temple closed at 4pm. Make sure you start out early so you can get a chance to see everything.

Hello,

no I don't speak chinese but i don't want to have a guided tour in a group, I just hate that. I am a lonely traveller and I am curious. I will take a guide for my own, I believe it's the best way to be able to stay and take pictures without the pressure of a group and interview people.

Thank you for your advice.
Cornelia

Cuandixia sounds great. I will tell my guide to get us there.

Thank you for the tip and no problem to get ut at 5.00 in the morning for a great shot.

Hi, below is answers to some of your questions:

1. Children will get a day off on June 1 from kindergartens or schools, I believe most of them will spend the day in the amusement parks if the weather is good.

3. If you haven't got an English speaking guide/translator, contact me via VTemail I will recommend someone good to you.

4. There are so much to see in suburban area of Beijing. If you want to see village life, you can go and visit villages nearby Simatai Great Wall. You can actually have lunch at local villager's home. Chuandixia is also a good choice if you are particularly interested in architecture. Residential houses there are well preserved of traditional style. However, Chuandixia is becoming a tourist site than a ordinary village, you need to buy a entry ticket for it. There are several villages in the same region, which are more original. If you are looking for religion architecture, Tanzhe Temple, Jietai temple and Dajue Temple are all good to check. Ling Mountain (2303m) and Baihua Mountain(2218m) are nice places for hiking.

Hope it can be of help.

Firstly----welcome to china and welcome to ShaoLin.

I like photography,too.And i like bicycle travel,i had rode my bicycle to Beijing,Hainan Island ,Kaifeng... . Consequenctly,i know what you want.

My girlfriend's hometown is a village belong in DengFeng where Shaolin Temple locate in.So if u want,i can help u walk into the local village and streets and chat with the local persons and enter the local life and understand the local culture.If u r lucky enough ,i can help u find the place where a wedding is celebrating or a funeral is going.

Zhengzhou city is the city which you must to pass by to Shaolin Temple and i am living in !If u reach Zhengzhou ,u can call me .

If you want more advices about your travel,email to me:okimrong@139.com!

Thank you so much. I will check out this places with my guide. Seem strange to me to pay an entrance to see a village. So I will rather choose another village that has a "normal" untouristic life.

Thank you one more time.

Cornelia