Travel: China - Beijing

[galgal]

I'm going to beijing in Mid Dec, thinking to go to ski resort for 2 nights stay. Anyone been to ski resort? Which ski resort is nice to stay for 2 nights, we do not know how to ski at all.

[starlight1968sg]

For info:

The public bus 919 to Badaling Great Wall is gradually being replaced by bus 877 which is also a public bus and bus fare is 12 yuan but with Yi Ka Dong (similar to our ezlink card), the fare is only 4.80 yuan.
The journey is about an hour plus and there are hardly any stops during the journey to Badaling.
We alighted at Xiong Le Gu (where we saw sunbears). The ticket inclusive of sliding car ride is 60 yuan. We didnt take the sliding car. But we walked for a short distance (about 15min) and reached another entrance where we paid 45 yuan to enter. We missed the museum and climbed from the base to the highest point ("level" 10 ?). The sliding car brought tourists to "level" 4 and we saw cable cars too.
We started climbing at 10.30am and left around 2.30pm, inclusive of a few breaks for our legs, take pic plus take a sip of water plus eat buns.

[Dnls_mum]

verykiasu2010:

starlight1968sg:

[quote=\"megatron\"] I joined a local day tour when I was there. The tour guide was good and she was able to tell us the history and stories of the places we visited (Great wall at Ba da ling). But as usual they bring you to all types of shops (selling jade, sweets, chinese medicine etc).

The lunch was really bad.
We were brought to this room with people from all different tour groups to have our lunch.
You have to join a table (about 10 pax), then then they start to serve the food (with no server spoon!)
The food was terrible, fried vegetables, steam fish (a small one to be shared by 10 pax), some man tou.

Thanks for sharing.
After reading many interesting stories, we have decided to go to The Great Wall on our own. Hope we will not encounter much problems. The only issue is we are unlikely to cover the Ming's Tombs.

rest assured that you will not encounter problems going to The Great Wall on your own.

sure problems : hunger, nature's call, souvenirs - buy or not .......but they have fast food KFC, reasonably well kept toilets, etc so no worry[/quote]Very easy to go to Great Wall on your own. Just arrange for a cab driver to take you there and wait for you to bring you back. Negotiate a price first and don't pay the guy until you are back. In fact, I recommend going to Mutianyu rather than Badaling. More authentic. Less people and group tours. Mainly FIT. Take a cable car up and walk down. Very easy.
Have fun!

[hippopo]

Hi,


We booked a taxi to Mu Tian Yu with my 3yrs and 5 yrs kids. Set off before morning peak and we reached there at 8.30am. As it is winter, there isn’t any crowd. We took cable ride up and walked for 2 hours. It was a slow stroll, up and down. Then we descend via the slide. The kids enjoyed themselves tremedously. Just make sure you layer the clothes and bring thermo flask.

The driver took us to PlayHouse by the Park after Mu Tian Yu. It was owned by Singaporeans. They sell Italian food, have clean toilets and heater.

As the package is until 5pm, he brought us to Bird’s Nest and Shui Li Fang.

[hippopo]

oh yes,


Bring your kids to Baby Boss! Where the kids can try out different occupations, Baby Boss has a similar branch in Taiwan too. It will last a day!

[hypergatak]

Hi


Anyone been BeYou Beijing? May I know if the activities are conducted in English or Chinese? Thanks.

[cookieandmonster]

Hi hypergatak, i am going to BeYou Beijing too!!! Are you with tour group? Maybe we in same tour package : )

[hypergatak]

Hi hi, we are on our own. Do you know whether the activities are carried in chinese or english? I am thinking of bringing my boys (10 & 6 yo) there, but not sure if they are able to move around on their own unsupervised, given the language barrier (sad to say they are not able to converse in mandarin comfortably).

[dadofthree]

Just came back from Beijing last week. Kids will love the snow but you’ll have to prepare heat packs for them. Protect their hands and feet with heat packs. Body wise, generally fleece jacket will help alot with long johns and thermals.


Try to bring the kids to tiananmen square every morning before the sun rises. They have a flag raising ceremony every
Morning. Hahahaha. Kids would like to see them march out. Haha.

[bobonana]

galgal:

I'm going to beijing in Mid Dec, thinking to go to ski resort for 2 nights stay. Anyone been to ski resort? Which ski resort is nice to stay for 2 nights, we do not know how to ski at all.

Hi Galgal, hope i am not too late. I have been living in Beijing for the past 2 years. I have tried before two different Ski Resorts, Nanshan resort and Yunfoshan resort, imo Nanshan is much better.

However if you dont mind traveling you can consider going to Wanlong Ski Resort, which is out of Beijing in Zhangjiakou. Considered the 2nd best ski resort in China with many different tracks. The best is of cos Yabuli at Harbin.