Travel to Beijing Capital Airport, PEK, is locate about 20 miles northeast of the city and serves as the main hub for Air China, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. Air China is the prime airline in the airport serving more than 120 destinations. Terminal 3 is the newest and largest — inaugurate in 2008 for the Olympic Games and bill as the second largest airport terminal in the world after Dubai International Airport. It currently serves Air China and 40 other international carriers.
The Beijing Subway has an Express line that connects Terminal 2 and 3 from the airport to city center (with stops at Sanyuanqiao and Dongzhimen). The trip takes approximately 16-20 minutes and costs around $3.60.
Beijing Capital Airport Amenities: Passengers in T3 can check out the “global kitchen,” where 72 stores provide food ranging from formal dishes to fast food, from Chinese to western, and from bakery goods to ice cream. There is also plenty of shopping to consider, although not of the designer brand kind available at other international airports. Products purchase at the airport are often at the same price point found in better stores in central Beijing.
Beijing Travel Guide: Travel to Beijing
Beijing is not only the political center of China, it also plays a crucial role in China’s cultural, scientific, economic, and academic life. There are numerous sightseeing opportunities and things to do in Beijing – from shopping for great designer fakes, having new culinary experiences and visiting world-class museums to steeping in history that is as much about palace intrigue as it is about political might.
Some of the top things to do in Beijing are list below.
Getting around Beijing
While there are excellent local bus and subway systems to take but it can be quite daunting to negotiate where you are going if you are don’t speak Chinese. Taxis are cheap, though, so carry along the name of your destination (and your hotel) in Mandarin as very few drivers speak English. You can also opt for bike hire as the roads are flat.
Best time to visit Beijing
The best time to visit Beijing is between March to May and from September to October as it provides the desire climate with stunning scenery. Summers in Beijing can quite hot and winters are frigid and snowy… similar to weather one might find in Boston. Visitors should also avoid coming traveling to Beijing during the national public holidays, as millions of domestic tourists flood the city and sacre sites.
Top things to do in Beijing
The Imperial Palace: Travel to Beijing
This is also known as the Forbidden City and it is the most significant attraction in Beijing. The complex covers 720,000 square meters and it is surround by a 30-foot high wall with towers in the four corners. Highlights of the palace include the Meridian Gate, Golden River Bridges, Hall of Preserving Harmony, the Hall of Military Courage and others. One can also visit the nearby Imperial College found by Kublai Khan in 1287 before It was close in 1900.
The Great Wall of China
Beijing is close to one of the most famous historic structures in all of China, if not the world: Great Wall of China. Because this attraction is tourist hotspot one should plan to arrive here early in the morning or signup for a tour. A visit to the Great Wall from Beijing usually means heading for the gate at Badaling – extremely crowd most of the time – so much so you have to watch where you put your feet to avoid stepping on someone. It is worth it though, if only for the great views to found at Mutianyu.
Beijing Capital Museum: Travel to Beijing
For those who love arts and culture, the best place to go is the Beijing Capital Museum. It open in 1981 and fills with thousands of fine artefacts, such as ancient puts porcelain and sculptures in bronze, traditional calligraphy, glasswork and textiles and numerous items from remote tribes of China and surrounding cultures. But it houses more than 200,000 important cultural objects from in and around Beijing alone. You can also visit the National Center for the Performing Arts, known locally as the Giant Egg. This was open in 2001 and it hosts many of the world’s leading opera performers.
Beijing Ancient Observatory
This can found in the east of the city close to the station quarter. This attraction is widely known to be among the oldest of such observatories in the world, featuring old pre-telescopic instruments and numerous large bronze instruments that were design by the Flemish Jesuit missionary Ferdinand Verbiest, an accomplish mathematician and astronomer in the court of the Kangxi Emperor. He corrects the Chinese calendar and was later ask to rebuild and re-equip the Beijing Ancient Observatory as director of the observatory.
The Temple of Heaven
This dates back to 1420 and it homes Beijing’s most sacre buildings. The temple is surround by lush vegetation with the old temples and shrines that are divided into two sections with one rectangular and the other semi-circular. As such, they depict heaven and earth. The temple is cover with blue glaze tiles. Pay attention to the Hall of the Vault of Heaven, built in 1530 and it boasting of a blue-tile conical roof. You can whisper on one side of it and heard on the other due to the sophisticate geometry used in the construction.
Beihai Park: Travel to Beijing
Beihai Park surrounds a lake and is a comely greenspace in the middle of Beijing. Locals can see ambling hand in hand, taking a paddle boat, dining lakeside amid sparkle lights and water reflections. Visitors can join a sampan or junk for a float around the lake, often complement by a musician singing classical songs and plucking an erhu.
Beijing Travel Tips
- Although many businesses now accept Visa and MasterCard, most businesses do not. You will need plenty of cash to pay for drivers, foods and goods.
- The official currency of China is Yuan, which is worth around 15 cents. Most goods come at a bargain – 30 percent to 50 percent off prices one usually pays in the U.S.
- Visitors should inform their credit companies of their travel plans to China. There is a lot of cyber theft in China and credit cards may be cut if a bank is not informed.
- Tipping and gratuities in China are not expect. However, that is not the case when employing a local guide.
- Keep haggling skills sharpened. Everything is negotiable in China, especially in the street markets and bazaars.
- Keep toilet paper and handywipes with you. Public restrooms, while clean enough, will rarely have toilet paper or soap. Most women’s toilets require squatting.
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