Beijing Intinerary- suggestion pls!

I will be visiting China for 16days in mid Sept 2008. I m still deciding if I shud hv 5D4N for Beijing visit or only 4D3N and allow that 1 day for stayover in Luoyang.

My tentative itinerary is as follows:

Day 1 FRI

ETA Beijing airport at 6.30am from Kuala Lumpur, MY

Check in to hostel

Summer palace %26amp; imperial garden

Temple of Heaven %26amp; Imperial Sacrificial Altar

Yonghegong Lamasery (Lama Temple)

Bell tower, Drum tower and houhai area

Underground city

Pearl market

Chinese acrobat performance

Day 2 SAT

Tiananmen square %26amp; flag raising ceremony @ 6.30am?

Chairman Mao%26#39;s Mausoleum

Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace)

Forbidden city (min 3-4hrs)

Beihai park %26amp; Coal hill

Old beijing-hutong

Silk Street/ Xiu Shui market

Old style tea house %26amp; Maliandao

Wangfujing night food market

Day 3 SUN

Panjiayuan market (what time does it start?)

Great wall: Jinshanling- Simatai (need to be at the hostel at 7am)

DAY 4 MON

Imperial palaces of Ming %26amp; Qing dynasties?

Imperial tombs of Ming %26amp; Qing dynasties (Dingling)%26amp; sacred way

Olympics park- stadium like bird nest

Late night- leaving for Datong via train

Questions:

1. Day 1- shud I start my day with Summer palace OR temple of heaven? How best shud I plan the route? Is it sufficient or can I add more inot the plan?

2. Day 2- Is it too much in a day? Shud I reschedule the hutong visit to Day 4?

3. Day 3- Is it possible to visit Pangjiayuan in the morning before the tour? If not, how do you suggest I fit it into my schedule? Anything that I can include in the evening plan if I am not too tired?

4. day 4- what is the best plan/ route for the following attractions? I don%26#39;t seem to be able to figure it out.

5. Which day shud I visit Hongqiao Market? Which attraction is it near to?

6. Is it worth visiting Yuan Ming Yuan- old summer palace and Zhongshan Park? How do I fit it into my schedule?

7. Is there any must-see attractions that I have not included? I may fit some into Day 4, which currently is planned for some shopping and wandering around in Beijing.

8. What is ';Imperial palaces of Ming %26amp; Qing dynasties';? Pls furnish more details.

9. What are the interesting stadiums/ sites related to the Olympics? All located at the Olympic Park?

10.Based on the above itinerary, which is the best location for accommodation? I am looking for hostel/ dorm bed with close proximity to subway/ bus station.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR COMMENTS!

Beijing Intinerary- suggestion pls!

1. I would not considering adding anything to Day 1; I would highly recommend subtracting. You can easily spend half a day at the Summer Palace and it is quite distant from the city centre, so you will need to factor in travel time, which in heavy traffic could be half an hour or more each way.

2. Day 2 is also quite busy, but I would consider re-scheduling the shopping for another day, rather than the hutongs, as the parks you%26#39;ll be visiting are near some interesting hutongs. You can easily stroll through the hutongs after seeing the parks.

3. Even if you could visit the Panjiayuan Market before the Great Wall trek, I would think you%26#39;d need to rise so early that you%26#39;d be exhausted before you started hiking. What time is your train on Day 4? Could you take the Great Wall trek on Day 4 and allow plenty of time for making your train? That could give you Day 3 for the Panjiayuan market and some of the other sites you%26#39;ve shaved off days 1 and 2. The Temple of Heaven is in the same general area as Panjiayuan, so it would be logical to schedule these on the same day.

I don%26#39;t want to discourage you. You seem like a very energetic traveler, but many of these sites require several hours to truly appreciate. Hopefully some of the local experts can come up with a more manageable itinerary.

Have a great trip!

Beijing Intinerary- suggestion pls!

Hi So many questions.We went to Beijing in feb08 it was great.

We hope you are young and fit to fit all that in,do you realise how far all the places are apart! and how big Beijing is.

We did most of the things you are planing over 3days all the main attraction we did with a firm called Ha Ha travel which we found online we did a 2 day tour they started at 7.30-8am and finished around 5pm good value for money.

we didnt use any public transport in Beijing nothing is written in English so good luck.we stayed in the Hotong area which is very central.

In feb the Olympic park was still being built the coach driver stopped outside the nest/swimming pool for us to take pictures.didnt see anything for us to visit it.

Our best advice is book trips,good walking shoes,and dont forget u are going in summer and its going to be very hot and busy,get up early.

We hope this answers some of your many questions.

Have a great time.

1. I would start with the summer palace, but you will most likely run out of time. Do the Temple of Heaven another day. Houhai, bell %26amp; drum towers and the hutongs are the same area.

2. Most of this is in the same area, so may be doable. The tea house and tea street should be postponed.

3. I doubt you can get to Panjiayuan prior to a 7 AM departure for the Great Wall. You should schedule Panjiayuan for Saturday morning and shift Saturday%26#39;s plan to another day.

4. I would drop the Ming tombs and probably the Qing as well. You%26#39;ll need this time for other things you%26#39;ve planned. I%26#39;m not even sure what the Ming and Qing palaces are.

5. Hongshao is near the Temple of Heaven.

6. Yuanmingyuan and Zhongshan should be left out due to lack of time. You can visit Yuanmingyuan after the Summer Palace if you somehow had extra time, and Zhongshan with the Forbidden City.

7. No you%26#39;ve included the main attractions.

8. This is probably the Forbidden City.

10. There is no hostel that is close to everything, so just select a recommended hostel that is close to transportation.

1) Too much on that day, I wouldn%26#39;t dream of adding anything else.

2) Yes, sounds like too much as well.

3) No. Put Panjiayuan market on the same day as Temple of Heaven, and those two must be on a weekend morning.

4) I%26#39;ll offer a totally rearranged itinerary suggestion at the end of the reply. Your entire itinerary right now is quite messed up, no offence intended.

5) Put it together with Panjiayuan market and Temple of Heaven.

6) Drop Zhongshan Park. Only go to Yuanmingyuan if you%26#39;re really interested in history. Otherwise you%26#39;ll find it a bore.

7) No!

8) There%26#39;s essentially no such thing with that name, but the description refers to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City used to be the Ming dynasty palace, and then later used as the Qing dynasty palace starting from the 3rd Qing dynasty emperor Shunzhi.

10) Try Downtown Backpackers (http://backpackingchina.com/nr/ourhostel.html) or Far East IYH (http://www.fareastyh.com).

I think you should drop the Ming/Qing tombs, not enough time. Also, I%26#39;ve heard that the Underground City is now closed. I think you can safely drop Beihai Park and Jingshan if you don%26#39;t have enough time -- which IS the case!

Fri: Summer Palace, Olympics buildings, Maliandao tea market, Chinese acrobat performance

Sat: Panjiayuan market, Temple of Heaven, Hongqiao market,銆€Yonghegong Lamasery, Xiushui market

Sun: Jinshanling-Simatai Great Wall, Wangfujing night snacks market

Mon: Tiananmen Square flag-raising, Forbidden City, Beihai Park %26amp; Jingshan Park (doubt you%26#39;ll have time for these two)

';we didnt use any public transport in Beijing nothing is written in English';

You majorly missed the metro system, duh. I presume you didn%26#39;t even bother looking to see whether it had any English or not, you assumed?

BTW I%26#39;m not saying that I totally like the itinerary I gave you above. But it%26#39;s the best I could do given the amount of sights you wanted to see. I would heartily recommend cutting out a few, and probably less shopping!

Thank you all for your input!

I am a 30+ Malaysian Chinese who reads Mandarin, generally interested in history, architecture and experiencing 1st hand the local Chinese scene! I will be travelling solo in Beijing (not my 1st trip alone, but 1st trip to China) but will be joined by 2 person from Datong onwards.

Ellyse,

1. Not to worry about changing my schedule. As I am still in planning stage, any input would be valuable to make my itinerary the best possible.

2. Yes, less shopping is possible. Even when I include it in the itinerary, it is more to wander around, experience the local scene, rather than doing ';real major shopping';. If so, do suggest the above shopping spots which is not necessary.

3. I am just worried to include the Forbidden City in Day 4, my last day in Beijing, as I may miss FC all together if there was any unforeseen circumstances. What do you think?

Is it very hot in mid Sept, about 19-22 Sept? What is the temperature range based on previous years?

I will review your comments and enquire further soon.

2. Shopping - you can skip hongqiao market unless you want to buy pearls. It%26#39;s undergone reno recently and isn%26#39;t quite as vibrant as Xiushui. You do know that both are housed in multi-storey buildings. Nothing like a pasar malam :)

3. Elysee%26#39;s schedule covers pretty much the major sights. If you have 1 day less, I suggest givving up seeing the Summer Palace.and replace that with the Forbidden City. Both sights will take you half a day especially if you plan to visit every exhibit.

4. the heat- Last year I remember it being HOT in mid Sept. 26-30 deg thereabouts in the day.

Drop Hongqiao and Xiushui markets, then.

Look on wunderground.com/global/stations/54511.html and weather.msn.com/local.aspx鈥?/a> for historical weather data for Beijing.

I don%26#39;t think you%26#39;ll have a problem seeing Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City on your last day, especially if you skip Beihai and Jingshan parks.

If I were to do Mutianyu Great wall, instead of Jinshanling- Simatai, is there another location that I can fit into that day%26#39;s schedule?

Is it in the same direction as Ming Tomb, which I can just do a quick walk on the Sacred way?