Sorry for lack of posts recently

Things became a bit hectic during my last couple of days in Beijing, and I had some problems with my internet access on top of that, so this is why I haven’t written anything recently.
I just got back to Germany a couple of hours ago, but I’ll be posting more soon about what I’ve been [...]

The Great Wall Part 2

My roommate and I talked about ways to get to the Great Wall the night before I went, and she told me about a bus that was going to Badaling. I still insisted on taking the tour bus that night since I didn’t want to miss out on the joys of taking a tour. After [...]

The Great Wall Part 1: My Not-Tour

My agenda for today sounded quite simple: take a tour to the Great Wall at Badaling. Badaling is the section of the Great Wall closest to Beijing and most overrun by tourists. I had only been to other sections of the Great Wall so far, but never to Badaling. I had, however, taken various tours [...]

Buying Tea in Beijing

After reading in the newspaper that this year’s tea had just newly arrived in the stores, I definitely had to go to Maliandao to buy some. Maliandao is in the southwest of Beijing, just south of Beijing West Railway Station. It’s basically a whole street just lined with tea stores, some bigger ones, but mostly [...]

The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is a huge park area in the Northwest of Beijng, three quarters of which are covered by Kunming Lake. It was build in 1750 and destroyed during the second Opium War. After it was rebuilt in 1886, it served as Empress Dowager Cixis Summer Getaway. The Summer Palace also had one of [...]

How to get to your hotel from the airport

Since I arrived much too late on my first night in Beijing I went back to the airport the other day to find out first hand what the best options for getting to your hotel are.

The first thing I noticed though, both when I first got to Beijing and when I went back to the [...]

Means of Transportation in Beijing

The Subway
The subway is the most convenient means of public transportation in Beijing for various reasons. First and foremost: you cannot get stuck in traffic. With some of Beijings roads almost constantly jammed, this is worth a lot. Also, it’s no problem to take the subway even if you don’t speak Chinese. Stations [...]

Poll results– favorite summer Olympic sport

There are so many different sports in the summer Olympics that there seems to be something for everyone and no clear consensus on a favorite. Frontrunners are gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and basketball. What do you think of the results?

What is your favorite Summer Olympic sport?
Swimming: 16% (25)
Diving: 1% (1)
Gymnastics: 34% (55)
Track [...]

Lakes and Laoshe Teahouse

Last Sunday was a really nice and sunny day, so I went for a stroll around Xihai, Houhai and Qianhai, all of which are lakes Northwest of the Forbidden City. I started out at Xihai Lake, very close to Jishuitan subway station. As opposed to the other two lakes, it’s allowed to fish there, so [...]

One day from the perspective of someone who does not speak Chinese

I’ve always admired people who come to China even though they don’t speak any Chinese, and I‘ve always wanted to know how they manage. That’s why I decided to pretend that I did not speak or understand a word of Chinese for a whole day. The experiment did not always go smoothly. I switched [...]

2008 Olympics Mascots

The “Friendlies”, the five Olympic mascots, have taken over Beijing. Well, not quite, but two years before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, merchandize is a big deal. Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini, which together form the sentence “Beijing Welcomes You”, come in all forms and shapes: as stuffed animals, on key chains, badges, t-shirts, baseball [...]

Trip to the 2008 Olympics Venues

First thing on Thursday, I went to see the “Bird’s Nest” the National Stadium right next to the North Fourth Ring Road, which is still under construction. The Bird’s Nest will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It’s a building made of overlapping steel bands and does [...]

Part 2: Wangfujing

Wangfujing, the main shopping street, is about a 15 minutes walk from Tian’anmen Square. If you don’t enjoy walking, you can also take the subway: it”s just one station away from Tiananmen East. At Wangfujing you can basically get anything you need. Everything is pretty expensive though, so I am usually perfectly happy just window [...]

Part 1: Tian’anmen Square

Tian’anmen Square, right in the center of the city and the largest square in the world, is always packed with tourists, Chinese and Western alike, and of course vendors selling tacky souvenirs, postcards, kites, water, etc. Here I also got to witness the rapid change Beijing is under. When I came on Monday, the Square [...]

The Center of the City

On Monday and Tuesday, I did some sightseeing in the central area of Beijing. I am going to post my tours in three or four different posts, sorted by area. If there’s one thing I have learned from the last two days, it’s to bring super-comfy shoes when walking around Beijing all day long. This [...]

Day 1: Arriving in Beijing

As Jill already announced, I’ll be in Beijing for the next four weeks to blog about the ongoing preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as about travelling in and around Beijing.

After a very long trip, including an unexpected and involuntary stay overnight in Dubai as my original flight was cancelled, I finally arrived [...]