The Glampacker's Guide

Beijing

你好(nihao)，谢谢(xiexie)，厕所在哪里?(cesuo zai nali?)，if you can read these – these will help you in China. China is an incredible and vast country and luckily I had the opportunity to live there for a year when I was 18. I stayed in a city called Tianjin and would often go through to Beijing at the weekend as it was only 80km away. If you have the chance to go to China, here is some advice. Beijing is a must, it is the heart of the country culturally (and it is really cheap). Other cities in China like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi’an are must-sees too.

In Beijing there are copious amounts of sights to see, you can even go to the Great Wall as there are many parts around the city. The Forbidden City and Tian’an’men square are right beside each other (and beside them, there are loads of spectacular shopping malls). In more traditional parts there is the famous Beijing ‘hutong’ literally translating as low rise alley ways that are beautiful in their own way, they have loads of amazing eateries (that will cost less than a £1). Markets are also great in Beijing, you can barter and get some rather interesting souvenirs/products that will most likely collect dust on your mantelpiece…oh well. There are some rather dodgy but funny fakes there too. Lists of other good tourist destinations are the Temple of Heaven, the Olympic park, etc.

Hotels/Hostels are both rather cheap relatively so it is up to you depending on your budget. I did have one issue of a hotel not accepting foreigners so do take note. As a backpacker, San’li’tun（三里屯） is a great area for accommodation and socialising. Nearby is the Worker’s Stadium, this has good bars and clubs (mixed and gay) to socialise. In terms of food, it is really cheap – especially if you want to try traditional Northern Chinese food, it is so good (but really oily). Your best friend for travelling in Beijing is the subway – it is ¥2/3/4/5 (20-50p) to travel. If not, Taxi’s compared to the UK/Europe are ridiculously cheap too.

N.B. when bartering in China, here is some useful vocabulary to get what you want at a cheaper price!

太贵了！（tai‘gui'le!) - that's too expensive!

便宜点儿 (pian'yi dian'r) - make it a bit cheaper

一 (yi) - 1 二 (er) - 2 三 (san) - 3 四 (si) - 4 五 (wu) - 5 六 (liu) - 6 七 (qi) - 7 八 (ba) - 8 九 (jiu) - 9十 (shi) - 10

块 - (kuai) - colloquial term for RMB