1. Grab a Drink at a Rooftop Bar Overlooking the Forbidden City

A full exploration of the Imperial Palace and Forbidden City, a complex sprawled over nearly eight million square feet, takes the better part of a day. When you’re done, order a cocktail and rest your legs at Yin, the rooftop bar at the Emperor Hotel.

You’ll find the building near the east gate, and Yin is reached via an ascending series of terraces from the boutique hotel. Views take in a panorama of the royal grounds, and the menu is stocked with innovative concoctions — many made with the evil Chinese liquor baijiu, so it’s drinker beware.
Tandem bike in Beijing

2. Ride a Tandem Bike around Houhai Lake

Houhai Lake is one of the hippest spots in Beijing. It’s also known as the “back lake” and is surrounded by restaurants, bars, coffee houses, and boutiques set along cobblestone lanes.

To save on rickshaw fees, hit up one of the bicycle rental stands, which rent by the hour and day, and pedal yourself around the lake district. You can even pick up a three-person tandem. I’m happy to say it’s a whole lot of fun to wobble down the narrow streets with the locals cheering you on.

A word of warning: our bike seemed to date from Chairman Mao’s day. We quickly discovered the tires were half-flat and the brakes were shot, resulting in Fred Flinstone braking moves by three pairs of feet.
3. Cook Dumplings in a Local’s Kitchen

Tour operator East Tours runs a gig where you can take dumpling making lessons at the home of a local. She’ll show you how to put together the filling and roll out the dough — harder than it sounds, believe me.

Stuffing the dumplings requires even more practice; don’t lose heart if your first half dozen look pathetically deformed.

The beauty of this tour is not only in getting a look at traditional Chinese cuisine but also at the homes and lives of everyday citizens in a real neighborhood — probably not an opportunity you’d have otherwise.

And of course, you get to eat what you cook.
4. Go Karaoke

Karaoke is a staple of the social fabric in China, just like in other East Asian nations. Don’t miss out. Venues can be found in most hotels and seemingly along every major street. They’re sometimes called KTV, so watch for that on signs.

Protocol: Check in and pay for a specified amount of time at the front desk, after which you’ll be escorted to a private room with audio-visual equipment, microphones, a TV, and couches. You can order drinks and sometimes food.

When my three travel companions and I went, the five-pound song library featured plenty of familiar tunes, but the same video of a bunch of Chinese teens running around in the snow played during every song.
5. Crunch into a Scorpion or Seahorse on a Stick

The Donghuamen Night Market, near the Forbidden City, is the place for street food.
…a vendor screamed “sheep penis!” right in my ear, laughing at my double-take as he dangled the organ in front of me.

You can find more sedate offerings such as dim sum, soup, and fresh veggies, but don’t bypass the bamboo skewers of silkworms, scorpions, seahorse, snake, and starfish. I also discovered a caramelized lotus root I couldn’t get enough of.

You don’t have to eat to enjoy yourself — half the fun is in gawking at the food and talking with vendors and other patrons. Our group of Americans and Canadians made friends with some Greek tourists; as I walked behind the others, a vendor screamed “sheep penis!” right in my ear, laughing at my double-take as he dangled the organ in front of me.
Smoking on the Great Wall

6. Walk an Unrestored Section of the Great Wall

The Great Wall is long. Busloads of tourists get dropped off at the famous sections near Beijing every morning, but at other places unmarked by restoration or tourism, there are surprisingly few people. The experience of discovering the “wild wall” is powerful.

The Simatai-Jinshanling section allows you to do this. At the Xiangshui Lake scenic area there are another two, as well as a restored section. To get there, instead of walking ahead to the main gate, turn right or left; both directions lead farther into the village and towards original stretches of wall.

For more, consider a horseback tour along the wild wall, or a stay at one of the two hotels that have private access. Red Capital Ranch, Beijing’s first eco-tourism resort, owns ten restored villas set on 50 acres, while Commune by the Great Wall is another recommended resort, with villas surrounding a path that leads to part of the wall available only to guests.

Explore Beijing, and Greater China in a unique, and exhilarating way; from the seat of a bike! With Bicycle Kingdom tours, you can get up close and personal with an ancient civilization and progressing society all at once. Traveling by bike offers a healthy, environmentally friendly, convenient, economical,  safe and fun means of travel, transportation and recreation. Whether it be through Beijing’s famous hutongs, or through the majestic karst mountiains of Guangxi, Bicycle Kingdom offers a fun, safe, and quality bike touring experience. Furthermore, the bike is an independent way of transport. You can travel at your own pace. Bicycle Kingdom tours guarantees satisfaction, and an unforgettable experience. Sign up for your Beijing bike tour today!

China Science and Technology Museum:

This is number 1, Beisanhuan Zhonglu on the northern part of the third ring road of Beijing. How Nachi-level Science and Technology Museum, this important national science education in China. Its purpose is to transfer knowledge on science and technology in public places, and contribute to the scientific and cultural literacy of all citizens. The museum occupies an area of 40.000 square meters of which 16.000 square meters of exhibition halls. There are 3 main halls. Showroom: artifacts from the ancient Chinese art Itell us astronomy, the compass, gunpowder, bronze smelting and casting, paper and printing. Exhibition Hall B has more than 300 collections from aerospace, energy, communications, materials science and mechanics, information technology, life sciences and environmental sciences. Exhibition Hall C is one of the main attractions of the museum, as well as one of the greatest Astro-Vision festival in the world. Address Address: № 1, Beisanhuan Zhonglu, Beijing.

Beijing Happy Valley:

Disney “in Beijing,” China’s amusement park, one of the “Happy Valley” chain. The first “Happy Valley” has been successfully in operation for many years in Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province. At the same time, the group will be based on two other “Happy Valley” in Shanghai and Chengdu.

Beijing Airport Shuttle Bus
Taking the Beijing airport bus is the cheapest way to get to the downtown Beijing from Beijing Capital Airport or to Beijing Capital Airport from the city center of Beijing. But it is convenient only if you do not have much luggage or already know where the buses are going to drop you off.
So if you are going to use the airport bus for your airport transfer, you are kindly advised to know Beijing airport bus routes and fares before you decide to take it.

Beijing Railway Stations
Taking the train in China is an experience not to be missed. You can meet people from all over the country, and the views out of the traim windows are unavailable in any other forms of travel. The city has four railway stations, with lines running to almost all provincial capitals, and to all China’s major cities. There are four kinds of seats available-soft berths, hard berths, soft seats and hard seats.

Beijing Railway Station ( Beijing )
Add: Beijing Zhan Jie, Dongcheng District ( an central location, just south of Beijing International Hotel) Tel: 51019999 The trains departing from Beijing Railway Station: Harbin, Shenyang, Dalian, Qingdao, Jinan, Shanghai, Nanjing Hangzhou and other cities as well as for Inner and Outer Mongolia departing from this station. The remainder depart from Beijing West Station and Beijing South Station. Some international lines ( namely the railway line linking Beijing to Pyongyang, North Korea (DPRK), amongst others), also depart from this station.

Tourism special train

Tourism special trains are launched for tourist attractions in the outskirt areas. You can buy travel ticket from any of these railway stations as well as some international Travel Agency.

There are green tunnels in each stop; you can buy the train tickets even after you have taken on the train.
For group tourists with more than 10 people, they can book group railway tickets by dialing the telephone number 010-65636733 three to ten days before the trip starts. You can even buy the tickets for tourist attractions from the designed railway stations. With these tourist attraction tickets, you can take the tourist special train launched for the corresponding tourist attraction free of charge.

That said, there are plenty of culinary adventures available at the breakfast table, and if you’re staying in three star hotel or better, the buffet breakfast will be a fantastic spread with all the typical Beijing breakfast staples which could keep you going until the evening.

Cornflakes and milk have made inroads, but are still mostly confined to the breakfast tables of the rich and trendy. A very common breakfast for most Chinese is the leftovers from the previous day’s evening meal.

Start your morning off right, with a short walk to Jingshan Peak and make your way through the morning activities and song of your local neighbors.  Take in the unmatched view of the forbidden city, central business district, lake district, and more.  Its beyond words.  Descend back into the midst of morning activities along the streets as we’ll drop in at a local Beijing breakfast eatery with crispy snacks, savory sesame buns, and fresh, traditional soy milk with a delicious smoky aroma.

Instead, you can head to places such as Huguosi Xiaochi, Jiumen Xiaochi (九门小吃) and Longfusi Xiaochi, canteen-like eateries that sell snacks by the serving or the plate. At Jiumen Xiaochi, a well-known tourist spot because of its quaint (or annoying) location in an obscure hutong north of Houhai, around ten of Beijing’s time-honored brands have set up shop in individual booths to sell their specialties, whether it’s Beijing yoghurt, wandouhuang (cake made from garden pea paste), or quick-fried tripe. The décor is a bit classier here, with a courtyard at the entrance and a decorating scheme that tries to evoke the hawkers’ markets of imperial times past. The taste? Not bad, since it’s hard to go wrong with simple fare like xiaochi.

Cuandixia Village was first built in the Ming Dynasty, when many families moved from Shanxi Province to this village, where the Han’s Family has inhabited. The village first boomed in the late Qing Dynasty for producing rice, fur and coal. The products made local people rather rich, so they built big and exquisite houses.

Arriving at the village still gives some sense of the same kind of relief that might have flooded the ancient traveller, as a mountain spur is drawn back suddenly by a sweep of road and the village appears, wedged securely against one side of the valley, an island of civilisation in the cold high barrens. It appears so idyllic, that learning this was once also a provisioning town for the Forbidden City comes as no surprise. What emperor wouldn’t want their goats supplied from a “goat heaven” such as this? The unique and complex character for the village’s name 爨 Cuàn — was emblazoned on the side of the carts that travelled directly from here to the imperial storerooms.

Cuandixia can be reached by car on a weekday in approximately three to four hours, depending on the traffic. On weekends it can take considerably longer, and the best way to tackle a weekend visit is to book an overnight stay in one of the many courtyards that have rooms available for rent. Accommodations are basic but generally clean.

Two orchestras, playing string and percussion instruments, accompany the singing, which follows a fixed pattern but has a variety of melodies and rhythms. The “jinghu”, a small two-strings bowed instrument, is the backbone of the orchestras.

The operatic dialogues and monologues are recited in Beijing dialect, and some of the words are pronounced in a special fashion, unique to the opera.

Beijing Opera of China is a national treasure with a history of 200 years. In the 55th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1790) , the four big Huiban opera Troupes entered the capital and combined with Kunqu opera, Yiyang opera, Hanju opera and Luantan in Beijing’s theoretical circle of the time. Over a period of more than half a century of combination and integration of various kinds of opera there evolved the present Beijing Opera. Beijing Opera is the most significant of all operas in China, and it has a richness of repertoire, great number of artists and audiences, that give it a profound influence in China and plays a large role in Chinese culture.

In the ancient times, Beijing Opera was performed mostly on open-air stages in markets, streets, teahouses or temple courtyards. The band had to play loudly and the performers had to develop a piercing style of singing, in order to be heard over the crowds.

It is a harmonious combination of Grand Opera, Ballet and acrobatic display, consisting of dancing, dialogue, monologue, acrobatic combat and mime.

After the republican revolution in 1911, the youngest and last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, then still a child, abdicated the next year. But he, his family and their entire entourage were allowed to stay in the palaces. They were finally expelled by republican troops in 1924. It has been the Palace Museum to the public since 1950. The Forbidden City is one of the largest and best-preserved palace complexes in the world. There are over a million rare and valuable objects in the Museum.

Associated structures to each side of the middle axis include Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yang Xin Dian), Six Western Palaces (Xi Liu Gong), Hall for Ancestral Worship (Feng Xian Dian), Six Eastern Palaces (Dong Liu Gong), Palace of Tranquil Longevity (Ning Shou Gong) and Hall of Joyful Longevity (Le Shou Tang). The Hall of Mental Cultivation is where emperors dealt with daily routines and royal religious sacrificial activities were held in its counterpart on the eastern side – Hall for Ancestral Worship.

The Forbidden City, extending 753 meters from east to west, and 961 meters from north to south, makes a rectangular shape and covers a total area of 720,000 square meters. It consists of several dozen compounds of varying sizes and some 9,900 bays of rooms, with a total floor area of 150,000 square meters. Most of the buildings were built with wood, roofed with yellow glazed tiles and built on blue-and-white stone foundations, looking solemn and brilliant. City walls were 10 meters high, and a 52 meter-wide moat surround the Forbidden City. Three-storied towers are placed at each corner of the wall.

The hike from the east Jinshanling Great Wall for the west Simatai Great Wall could be the most challenging component of our 5-day Great Wall hike trip. throughout the 12-km hike, we will pass more than 30 properties (towers) – east Jinshanling 15 tower and west Simatai 15 towers, and two on the 3 passes for the Jinshanling Great Wall. There is usually a cableway up for the Jinshanling Great Wall. in case you take a cable car up, you will skip more than five watch towers. I choose to climb up the mountain, so I can trek throughout 30 towers and two passes. I don’t suggest you employ the cable car since it is really slow and unnecessary. The fact is the fact that it is really quick to stroll up for the Great Wall.

Shalingkou Pass
I stroll up the mountain for the Shalingkou Pass, in which I begin my Jinshanling-Simatai hike eastward. The Shalingkou Pass was the mountain pass for that passage of men and women with horses and goods.

1. East Terrace
The first buidling I fulfill when I hike eastward from the Shalingkou Pass could be the East Terrace. It is usually a roofless constructing primary up for the up coming tower.

2. dark Tower
This watch tower is called”Black Tower”. Most on the towers for the Jinshanling Great Wall have two tiers and two doors – east front door and west door. however the dark Tower has 3 tiers – underground, middle and upper. The dark Tower also has two doors, but its west front door is definitely an underground door. The underground front door includes a narrow and covert stone passage primary for the middle and upper floors. inside a fight, when the underground is taken up by enemies, the soldiers for the middle and upper floors nonetheless have an advantageous location to wipe off the enemy cutting below. Why “Black Tower”? The legend has it the fact that Jinshanling Great wall was maintained and strengthened by Qijiguang (1528-1588),who was the common and commander along the Great Wall then. An old common from Ningxia also desired to are available here for constructing the Great Wall. His spouse experienced died years before. His only daughter, nicknamed”Black Girl”, was worried about her father’s health and insisted in coming with him. below her daugher’s continuous request, the old common experienced to concur with her. dark lady implemented his father, trekking in the several rivers and mountains. as a last point they arrived here. She also took component with the building on the Jinshanling Great Wall. One day, a newly built tower was established on fire through the lightening. Seeing the tower on fire, the dark lady charged in to the fire without any hesitation, wanting to fight the fire. Then the misfortune happened. She was burned to death. all of the soldiers were extremely sad and told the old common of his daughter’s death. Her father said her daughter experienced died for her country and she was worthy of her sacrifice. The soldiers rebuilt a manufacturer new tower dependent for the authentic burned tower. They named the tower”Black lady Tower” in memory of ‘Black Girl”. After era and generation, the identify on the dark Tower grew to become “Black Tower” rather than “Black lady Tower”.