Another bullet train whisked us the 800 miles from Hangzhou in just over 4 and a half hours, with a top speed of 346 KM/hour (216 mph in real money) and a cost of just £70 each. 2nd class was fine, quite good in fact, but would’ve been a bit more comfortable if we’d been on the side of the aisle with 2 seats rather than 3. Again we marvelled that railways in countries that invest in them are truly amazing.

When applying for our China visas we had to provide booking confirmation for every night of our stay, so Debbie had quickly booked IHG hotels (Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn rather than the posher brands in the group) on flexible rates so that we could easily cancel if we didn’t get the visas. But we did book them in the right locations i.e. the right side of each city for the train stations we’d be coming into and leaving from, and for the dates we intended to be in each place, so that we could stick with what we’d booked – and then had thought no more about it until we arrived in China. As we were anticipating China to be ‘difficult’ for us travelling independently, we’d decided to use IHG hotels wherever possible as (1) a Western hotel brand would give more security/familiarity and a reasonable standard of accommodation, and (2) Debbie would qualify for room upgrades and earn more IHG points along the way. But when it came to looking more closely at Beijing, she had a niggling doubt about the hotel she’d chosen – it was further from the city centre than she’d initially thought, wasn’t very close to the metro and looked like an older/dated place in a residential area with not much in the way of restaurants nearby. So somehow our cheap and cheerful stay at Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven morphed into into 4 nights at the 5* Regent Beijing using a combination of points & cash to stay almost within budget. Now this was a nice hotel in a very exclusive part of town, with an Aston Martin dealership in the lobby, Rolls Royce and Ferrari across the road, Waldorf Astoria & The Peninsula as near neighbours, and more Michelin star restaurants than you could shake a stick at in the vicinity. Absolutely perfect for a couple of scruff bags turning up in our trainers & combats with a rucksack! On check in we were told that we’d been upgraded to a high floor room with a free minibar and view of the Forbidden City, breakfast was complimentary, and we could have a welcome drink on the house at the beautiful lobby lounge bar – bingo – Debbie is certainly going to miss her IHG Rewards Platinum membership when it expires!

That complimentary breakfast – WOW – it was probably the best hotel buffet spread either of us had ever encountered in our many years of business travel and hundreds of hotel stays!

And the hotel leisure club wasn’t too shabby either, with a HUGE pool which we enjoyed after purchasing mandatory swimming caps. It’s bizarre what the Chinese insist on!

Beijing has an extensive metro system, with trains as modern as we’d seen in Shanghai but rather older station infrastructure. We failed to get the WeChat transport app technology to work here, but Debbie consulted Google and found that tap in/out with credit card (as we would in London) was possible – job done. Again, incredibly inexpensive, with a typical ride costing just £0.31, and taxis are ludicrously cheap too with our 30-45 minute journeys to/from the railway stations both costing under a fiver. The city really wasn’t what we expected – not at all austere, with huge straight roads, tree-lined boulevards, wide open spaces, luxury shopping, impressive 3D billboards, traditional areas and lots of bicycles. The traffic is hellish though!

We had 3 full days in Beijing, more than required according to some travel bloggers, and a short list of must-see places: The Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, plus whatever else we had time for and felt like doing. In the interests of simplicity and time-efficiency we booked tours for our must-sees – we don’t enjoy being herded like cats, following someone with a flag shouting “my party this way” and listening to commentary through an ear piece, but sometimes it’s the most sensible option.

The Great Wall of China

Our friends had experienced a scam when trying to get to The Great Wall by public bus, and it is 75KM North East of the city, so we thought it easier/safer to book seats on a tourist coach which conveniently left from our hotel parking lot. The very enthusiastic guide Lina gave a commentary during the journey to Mutianyu (less busy section apparently as the Chinese go to the Badaling section) and helped us to purchase tickets for our chosen way of getting up/down. Of course you COULD walk/climb, but there are the much easier options of cable car, chair lift and toboggan. We were to have 5 hours at The Great Wall and had been wondering what the hell we were going to do with all that time, so we bought tickets for both the Tower 14 cable car (for the stretch from tower 14 to 20) and the Tower 6 chairlift (for towers 6 to 1). Steve was going to need to take the chairlift down too as over 60s aren’t allowed on the toboggans – he was gutted 🙁

Top tip – avoid going on a Monday! Most of the Beijing sights are closed so every bloody tourist in Beijing tourist heads to The Great Wall instead, so it was packed and the queues were huge.

We opted to do the Tower 14 cable car first as we were told that this section had the best overall views, particularly if you completed the 455-steps ‘Hero Climb’ from Tower 19 to 20, but was otherwise leisurely and suitable for kids & old people. What greeted us was nothing short of spectacular and Debbie had the same feeling as at the Taj Mahal – not quite believing that she was there. The gentle undulation of the wall wasn’t actually that gentle, and when we got to tower 19 and looked up at the steps we both said ‘sod that’ and headed back to the cable car.

The crowds at the bottom appeared to have subsided, probably because they were all on the wall, so we only waited about 30 minutes for the chairlift back up onto the wall at Tower 6, passing over the 2KM toboggan track on the way. The wall was FAR steeper on this section, and the climb from Tower 6 to Tower 1 looked worse than we’d seen earlier. Luckily we didn’t have time anyway, as our bus was leaving in just over an hour, so we spent some more time marvelling at the view and then planned to go our seperate ways for the descent – Steve back down on the chairlift due to his advanced age, and Debbie having the thrill of the toboggan. But that wasn’t to be – the queue for the toboggan was HUGE, at least 2 hours, so Debbie sulkily went down on the chairlift. We repeat – DO NOT GO TO THE GREAT WALL ON A MONDAY! It’s bloody amazing though, even on a Monday.

Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City

Getting tickets (free for Tiananmen Square, free for our ‘senior’ for The Forbidden City too) seemed rather complicated to navigate via Chinese official websites, so we again took the easy option and booked a small group guided tour. On meeting our guide Vivian we were informed that there was extra tight security at Tiananmen Square entrances, something to do with a parade happening in September (it’s only June FFS) and the queue was at least 2 hours. As a group we decided to give it a miss, as it wasn’t worth taking up at least half of the 4 hour tour in a queue, so Vivian took us on a bus from which we could get a good view of the square anyway. From the bus she spotted that another security queue was very short, so ‘quick, everyone off the bus’ and we went through a number of cursory security screenings before passing into one of the biggest city centre public squares in the world. Those queuing for 2 or more hours at the South entrances would be very pissed off to know that they could’ve gained entry in less than 10 minutes at the North gates! Tiananmen Square wasn’t what Debbie was expecting (remember that phrase from India?!) – not at all austere or oppressive, but very very big.

And conveniently at the North end of the Square, under the huge painting of Chairman Mao, was the entry to the Forbidden City. The largest palace complex in the world, an area equivalent to 101 football pitches, and housing the residence of the former-Emperors, his wives, mother, and over 3,000 concubines. No wonder he hardly ever stepped outside the palace walls!

Vivian was very knowledgeable, and imparted a huge amount of fascinating information, but most of the group were struggling to take it in as she talked very fast (in perfect English) and walked even faster. In 34 degree heat, and 90% humidity, it was impossible to keep up with her pace (both her words and her feet!), so we stopped for an ice cream in the shape of the Forbidden City. Another top tip – don’t go to The Forbidden City on a Tuesday! As it’s closed on Mondays, and all the tourists descend on The Great Wall, Tueday is doubly busy – but visitor numbers are restricted to 40,000/day.

Temple of Heaven

For our final day in Beijing, and another stinking hot one, we needed to choose between the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. All the guides and Chat GPT suggest doing both, and it might have been possible but we didn’t want to knacker ourselves, get up early, or miss the delicious hotel breakfast, so the Temple of Heaven won as it was only 4 stops on the metro from our hotel rather than 1 hour on 2 lines to the Summer Palace. Again our ‘senior’ got free entry and we had a lovely wander around another surprisingly expansive city centre area, one of China’s most iconic and spiritually significant landmarks, a masterpiece of Ming dynasty architecture where emperors performed Heaven Worship Ceremonies. There were obviously Temple of Heaven ice creams and some interesting examples of young ladies in their traditional finery too!

The Hutongs

Narrow alleys formed by rows of traditional courtyard homes, dating back to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, these architectural relics are still home to many Beijing residents, although some were bulldozed to make way for the 2008 Olympic village. We took the metro 2 stops from our hotel to the Nanluoguxiang Hutong, just North of the Forbidden City, and explored the traditional but touristy street lined with shops, street food stalls and a coffee machine that entertained Steve. We thought this area was Beijing’s version of Camden and it was quite lovely so we returned for dinner.

Food

Obviously Peking duck is the signature dish of Beijing, and the choice of establishments offering it is overwhelming. We’d discovered that Tripadvisor is not a huge amount of use in China, so Debbie scoured various travel blogs, discounted the Michelin-starred places and found a restaurant chain which our guide Vivian had also confirmed as a recommendation. No reservations were possible, so we turned up expecting to queue but hoping that it wouldn’t be too long on a Tuesday evening at 18.30. There were a lot of people waiting, and the snotty girl on reception advised us that it’d be 22.30 (earliest) before we’d get a table. Sod that, we went next door and were seated immediately, ordered a delicious whole roast duck with the trimmings, and Steve considered an additional statin that night!

Another Beijing speciality is hotpot, which we stumbled upon on our first night when desperate for something to eat and with restaurant closing time approaching. A fabulous experience, although Steve had to be very careful not to ruin his new t-shirt (we later saw that they had plastic aprons available). Basically hotpot is a huge 2 section wok-style metal bowl filled with cooking liquor and placed in the centre of your table over a burner – 1 side spicy, the other not – and you order meat, veggies and other (more to Chinese taste) ingredients to flash cook in the pot. It’s a great experience, with large parties sharing a single pot, and good value.

Clay pot was our final culinary adventure in Beijing, at a restaurant in the Hutong area. Nice enough food, we over-ordered as usual, but the bloke at the next table spitting onto the floor was a bit off-putting! Side note – we’d been warned about the spitting in China, but it’s now very rare after Covid with just a few older folk still partaking in the disgustingness.

Overall, Beijing was a very pleasant surprise and we really enjoyed it – the luxury hotel stay may have helped though! It’s a great blend of the traditional and modern and feels much smaller than the 20 million resident metropolis it is. Steve preferred Shanghai whereas Debbie is marginally coming down on the Beijing side of the fence.

We could’ve very easily spent another couple of days in Beijing, the travel bloggers were very wrong in saying 3 days was more than enough, but again we had trains booked so reluctantly set off across the city to Beijing Xi (East) station. Next stop Xi’an……