BEIJING CHINA: A Visit to Imperial Beijing

BEIJING has always been in my list of places to visit, because of the Great Wall!  The Great Wall of China is one of the world's wonders and is the only man-made structure to be seen from outer space.  Setting foot on the Wall would be one of many cool things to do in my lifetime.  Visiting the Wall with my family would be even cooler!  And that's just what we did last September 18-22, 2010.  

The door to Beijing opened to us on the first week of September when Cebu Pacific Air launched its new international route with a seat promo.  For only US$110/pax, we were on our way to the imperial city ex Manila.  From Cebu, we also got seats to Manila on promo fare.  

We arrived in Beijing almost midnight on the 18th.  Our guide, fresh looking and wide awake, was already waiting for us.

Beijing is a fusion of the old and the new. The places we went to, like Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Tombs, were mostly reminiscent of Imperial Beijing, when emperors in a dynasty rule over thousands of years.  The modern ones, built for the Olympics in 2008 were the National Grand Theater and the Olympic stadiums - Birds' Nest and Water Cube.

TOUR

Our tour guide, Even, with Hans

We decided to get a tour guide because of the language barrier.  Even though my son was very excited to try out the little Mandarin he knows, we decided that would not be enough. *wink* 

I did our itinerary based on tour offerings of different Chinese tour agencies. Our guide (and now friend!), Liu Yin Zhu (American name Even) is smart and beautiful.  The tour was inclusive of service vehicle that provided airport transfers and took us to all the places in our itinerary. 


ACCOMMODATION

We stayed at the City Walls, a courtyard house, for the duration of our trip.  After surfing through the net for cheap hotels and other accommodation, we decided a courtyard house in a hutong neighborhood would be the closest to a real Chinese home as we can get.  We even found a Holiday Inn hotel that's about the same price but we still opted to stay in our "Chinese home".

When in China, live as the (old) Chinese do...

For only US$55/night, we got a double bed private ensuite (meaning with private bath and CR).  We were provided with key cards for the front door which was kept locked 24hours a day.  We were also provided lockers as safety boxes for important personal belongings such as our passports.  In the courtyard, you get to engage in casual talk with other guests who were from other parts of the world.

Courtyard, where guests talk about the day's activities

Outside and walking through alleyways, one can observe retired Chinese elders playing cards, chatting and going about their daily routine. Our "house" is near to Forbidden City, Jingshan, Houhai and Beihai Parks.

Our hosts, Rachel and Rick, were very accommodating and we felt right at home, a feeling one doesn't get when in a hotel.  They can also actually assist their guests for some tours if the guests have not made prior arrangements yet.

(Tip to mothers: I once thought bringing PSP would be the smartest thing to do if traveling with kids; it will keep them in one place and not bother us "adults". For this trip, we thought not to let Hans play with PSP and guess what? Our family bonding went great, it turned out to be one of the best family vacations we ever had and Hans learned a lot of new things because he did not have the PSP to engross him. After the trip, he got more interested in dynasties and other things China and he even read materials about them, without me egging him to do so. - 
**My son read this tip and he gave me 2-thumbs up.**)

Day 1 of our Beijing tour took us to Jingshan Park, Temple of Heaven, Quanjude, Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square and to a Kung Fu show.