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OUTDOORS
Stroll through a park: Beihai, Houhai, Ritan, Ditan...
Beijing has so many beautiful parks filled with the elderly ballroom dancing and playing chess, children running about and young couples holding hands.
Ride a bike
Brave the Beijing traffic and rent a bike for the day. My friends and I rode from our uni to the Summer Palace. Only ride on the streets if you're familiar with the roads and quite good on a bike - the taxis, buses, other bikes and pedestrians can be overwhelming, and the road rules... what road rules?
Frolic in the Botanic Gardens
Manicured gardens with a huge indoor tropical garden. Best time to go is the start of spring when the cherry blossoms and flowers start blooming.
Climb Xiang Shan
This is a gorgeous mountain filled with hiking trails. Or, for those averse to exercise there is a chairlift to the top (but it doesn't run on windly days). I thought the plants here were even better than the botanic gardens, and the scenery is beautiful.
CULTURE
Great Wall
Goes without saying. Stay away from the touristy Badaling and head to Mutianyu for a cable car and sled ride down. You can also walk up, but it's quite a hike!
Tiananmen
The physical heart of Beijing. You can visit Mao's Mauseleum nearby, if you have a thing for dead cultural icons.
Summer Palace
Breathtaking and HUGE. If you plan to spend the day, BYO food because the best on offer there is a cup of instant noodles. Paddle across the lake in search of Empress Cixi's Marble Boat. We paddled for ages to discover our target boat was actually a fancy vessel full of Chinese tourists.
Lama Temple
Peaceful, serene temple housing an 18m high Buddha that has been in the Guiness Book of Records since 1910. I went around 4 and stayed till closing (usually around 4:30 in the winter but can be streched till 5). Watching the sun set behind the temple is truly magical.
CCC (website)
The China Culture Centre organises classes and tours related to...you guessed it, Chinese Culture. Thanks to the CCC I can now wrap dumplings in the shape of goldfish, googly eyes and all.
OTHER AMUSEMENTS
Chaoyang
Upper class neighborhood. The China World Trade Center is full of expensive shops and an ice rink.
Sanlitun
Fashionable area. Lots of bars, shops and prettily dressed people.
Food/wet markets
I don't know any by name, but wander around long enough you're bound to find an old wet market. It's a genuine glimpse into local lives, and how food was before supermarkets took over the world.
Maliandao Tea Street
Ask your driver to drop you off at the north end (Bei men). About halfway down the street there is Beijing Maliandao Cha Ye Cheng (Tea City) which is an entire building full of tea shops. I bought a beautiful wooden tea table, a glass tea set and instruments there. The staff will be more than happy to teach you how to make the perfect cup, and you can taste the teas at no charge. You will leave feeling cleansed and refreshed.
Bookshops
I like browsing bookstores in any country, and Beijing has a few cosy bookstore/cafes. A good one stocking English books is the Bookworm in Chaoyang. A uni student hangout is the one below Lush in Wudaokou.
Massages
Massages in Beijing are inexpensive and plentiful. Just make sure you don't head into a faux massage parlour that offers...*ahem* extra services. A good foot reflexologist will tell you about areas of weakness in your body, so it's always interesting.
EAT
Hua Jia Yi Yuan (Chinese)
Dongchengqu Dongzhímén Nèi 235 Hào
AnDingMen
(86) 10 6405 1908
Set in an old Chinese courtyard, the ghost street (gwei jie) branch of Hua Jia has a lovely ambience. Make sure you get a table downstairs so you can be serenaded by the band in the courtyard garden. The signature spicy noodle dish is fab, the peking duck not so.
Fauchon
7 Jianguo Lu, North Eastern corner of Dawang Bridge, Chaoyang District
(86)10- 6533 1266 ext. 8228
The French luxury food giant has its largest branch in the world in Beijing. When I grow up, I want my house to look like this cafe. The set lunch is delish, and the service is delightful.
Saveurs de Corree (Korean)
29 Nanluogu Xiang, Beijing, Beijing China
(86) 10-64016083
Website
Affordable set lunches, yummy Korean pancakes set in an artsy hutong with goldfish ponds and a rooftop dining area. The tofu with glazed onions is delishhh.
Korean Street (Korean)
Near the Tsinghua Dongfang Building, Wudaokou
This little street is filled with Korean restaurants and bars. Many of them have menus in Korean only and the barbeque is yum yum. Usually filled with Korean and other international students.
Made in China (Chinese)
Grand Hyatt, Beijing
For address and bookings see website
My favourite place for peking duck. I don't usually enjoy Chinese cold appetisers, but the ones here are delicate, fresh and delightful. The deep-fried whole fish with sour sauce and the beggar's chicken are also delicious. The dumplings, although made onsite, were not really memorable. I like watching the chefs through the glass windows piercing the newly roasted ducks to let the juices run out before serving.
Maison Boulud (French)
Chi'anmen 23, Qian Men Dong Da Jie, Bejing, China
(Adjacent to Tiananmen Square)
(86) 10-65599200
Find French in the absolutely gorgeous & elegant setting of the pre-1949 US Ambassador's residence. The food and service is excellent. The price is expensive compared to the usual in Beijing, but it's a bargain for the quality of food you get. We had the degustation dinner. Particularly impressed with the home-made marshmallows (little pastel cubes of heaven) served after coffee.
Little dumpling places (Chinese)
All over Beijing
Look out for tiny holes in the wall selling dumplings (jiaozi). They usually look extremely unsanitary and only have three or four teeny little tables, but the dumplings are worth the squoosh. Order bao zi (mini steamed bread dumplings filled with meat), jiaozi (look like gyoza) and sieu-mai. Great for a dirt-cheap dinner.
Muslim restaurant at BLCU (Muslim)
Beijing Language and Culture University
The Muslim bread here is FAB. Must try.
Let's Burger (Western)
D101a, Nali Patio, 81, North SanLiTun Street, Sanlitun (Between Sanlitun 3.3 and The Village)
(86) 10-5208-6036
Scrummilicious gourmet burgers, French bistrot style decor. I have a fondness for this place because a stray puppy I rescued now lives there. (Click here for the story).
Bridge Cafe (Western)
1, Bldg 12, Huaqingjiayuan, Chengfu Lu,
Wudaokou
West of Wudaokou subway station
This is the very first place in Beijing where I ate. It was a snowy winter night and we'd just been to trivia night at Lush nearby. The apple pie is fantastic and the pastas are pretty good too.
Duck de Chine
1949 The Hidden City, Courtyard 4, Gongti Bei Lu (behind Pacific Century Place), Chaoyang distric
(86) 10-6501 8881
Delicious duck. Understated, intimate, low-lit dining room. My only complaint was the waiter who kept coming with the Evian. We spent about $US70 on water alone. That said, the food is well-priced.
DRINK:
Face
26 Dongcaoyuan, Gongti
behind the Cervantes Institute
A little, cosy bar. I prefer the outdoor area because it reminded me of a South-East Asian beach resort. Very yummy cocktails, but a little pricey.
LAN Club Restaurant
4/F Twintowers B-12, Jianguomenwai Dajie, Chaoyang District
(86)10-5109 6012; 5109 6013
The food and drinks are nice, but a little over-priced. The decor is definitely the talking point of the place - designed by Starck, it is modern, luxurious and fashionable.
Ritan (Opposite Ritan Park)
Quiet block of shops in converted old offices. They sell pretty dresses, coats and the things here are generally well made. I bought a lot of pretty silk day dresses here, as well as some cocktail dresses and casual blazers and a trench. The only problem is the sizes are usually a little large (US4-8, whereas I am usually a US2).
Xidan
This place is always packed to the max with people and cars. There are market style stalls in buildings on one side of the street, and department stores on the other. Be prepared to haggle in the markets, but not as much as you would at the Silk Market. I love this place because it was the first place I went shopping in Beijing and it's full of happy memories.
Nali
Nali Mini Mall in Sanlitun is great for gorgeous dresses. The sizes here are smaller (US2-4 usually) which is great. The dresses here are a bit pricier than elsewhere but the styles are pretty unique.
Sanlitun 3.3
Good shoe stores on the upper levels, and also a tailoring shop.
The Village
This place reminded me of... Singapore. It's right next to Sanlitun 3.3 and the Sanlitun bar street. There is a huge cinema complex and lots of international high street stores like Zara. The restaurants here are not bad too - I like Hatsune for Japanese and Va Va Voom for South East Asian/Vietnamese.
Yaxiu
Market style complex across from the Village selling all sorts of imitation and other apparel, handbags and shoes. Must bargain like a stingy person on a mission.
Silk Street
So famous. Apparently is one of Beijing's top three tourist attractions. Much the same as Yaxiu, just bigger.
Wudaokou Korean Market
Cute, small indoor market selling lots of accessories and Korean-style clothing.
Wudaoukou street market
Around U-Center at night the vendors come and and sell all sorts of things - clothes, shoes, toys, stationery, books, even pet animals.
Wudaokou clothing market
There are two clothing markets in Wudaokou - I think the original is still better. Love shopping here for super-cheap tees, dresses, skirts and random stationery items.
Panjiayuan
Huge antiques market. Around lunch there are hawkers selling yummy lunchboxes! The most interesting thing I saw was a beautiful antique hair ornament, but it was ridiculously expensive. I bought an old dictionary of English phrases for my literary-inclined brother - starting price was around 200RMB, I got it for 30 - so you absolutely must bargain.
kao-ya
hutongs
bicycles bicyles bicycles
beijing
taxis buses cars vans traffic
tiananmen
culture
mao
silk street
I first visited Beijing in 1997, and returned to stay for five months in 2009. After twelve years I hardly recognised the place - the Wangfujing night market, once surrounded by dark alleys is now brightly lit and full of modern developments.
To me, Beijing means bicycles, shopping (I mean, bargaining bargaining bargaining), street food, masses of people and traffic, no road rules, the nouveau riche, pollution and chemically-induced rain, the elderly dancing in parks, foreign students living it up and disarming old-world beauty.
Buddha at the entrance to Face Bar, Beijing
Peaches printed with lucky characters from a local supermarket
Vegetarian Basket at Hua Jia
Peking Duck at Made in China, Grand Hyatt Beijing
Artwork on the street at District 798
Overly indulgent burger at Let's Burger, Sanlitun
The interior of the largest Fauchon in the world in the Guomao district of Beijing
Gorgeous sunset behind the Legation Quarter
The most perfectly round poached egg I have ever seen
