Beijing Travel Forum

Hi all,

My family is planning to go beijing for 1 week holiday in coming october but my father is disable and he needs to be in his wheelchair all time.Can anyone suggest where we can go; especially the shopping malls and tourist places with access for the disabled.

Generally, (by western standards), we found Asia limited for the disabled.
It was more difficult in places such as Thailand and Cambodia than China but, still very difficult.

Thankfully, most of the main tourist areas, such as Forbidden City and Summer palace, to name a couple, have wheelchair accessability.
Note that ONLY the central paths of the Forbidden City has wheelchair ramps:

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/beijing/0201022181.html

Conditions of roads, sidewalks, etc., made it more difficult.
Also, Frommers suggests that, due to size of rooms/bathrooms, any tourist requiring special assistance contact the hotel prior to arriving in order to set up special requests.

The Great Wall is still inacessible to disabled travelers due to the steep climb and, once at the wall itself, the way the wall is laid out:

"At Badaling there is a relatively flat surface to reach the cable car. It would need to be stopped briefly to give time to enter and although it is quite small there is room for a wheelchair to be collapsed down and placed inside. The language abilities of the staff here are limited, so a local guide is extremely helpful. At the top of the cable car journey there are steps up on to the wall, making it only really feasible if you can walk slightly or don't mind being carried. From this point, however, it is still possible to enjoy a picnic lunch amidst spectacular scenery.

At Mutianyu, there is a cobbled street with a very steep incline between the car park and the cable car. Once at the cable car (if you are carried there) it is possible to do as at Badaling, but again, at the top there are steps to navigate and then an uneven resting area for photos. It is not possible to get right on to the wall here."

Just as an addition to Homanded's response, please make sure you book you hotel in advance, as many hotels are known to have only one wheelchair access room in the whole hotel..which I think is crazy!

Ref tourist sites, many are ok to visit..Forbidden City can only go along the east or west routes as the main central route is all up and down stairs...Summer Palace is relatively flat and can entered, but you can only go around the base of it and obviously not get to the top of the hill which is a famous symbol of the Summer Palace. Homanded...are you sure Badaling has a cable car? I dont think so...that's Mutianyu. Badaling has a slide down which is obviously not helpful for you whatsoever.

Shopping malls generally have lifts so that wont be a problem.

I hope you have a successful trip.

Sugarpuff

Victoria! Good to see you on here!
You're looking smashing as ever. GREAT picture.

The information I listed on the Great wall, both Badaling and Mutianyu were direct quotes from the Frommer's.
I simply cut and pasted, hence the quotation marks.
We ourselves went to Mutianyu so, am not familiar with Badaling.
I'm sure if anyone has more updated information it would be you.

I'm glad to see you on here, haven't seen you in a while. Hope all is going well.

Homer