Beijing - Post Report Question and Answers
What have been the highlights of your time in this country? Best trips or experiences?
Within Beijing: hiking the “wild” parts of the Great Wall; eating amazing local food at hole-in-the-wall restaurants; people-watching at city parks on a fall morning. Outside Beijing: visiting the pandas in Sichuan; sailing down the Li River; experiencing the sheer diversity of greater China every time we traveled to a different dity/region/province. - Nov 2024
Unfortunately I haven't been able to do much due to COVID restrictions, but there's a lot I'd like to do if they are ever lifted. - Nov 2021
Absolutely everything can be delivered to your house. - Nov 2020
Pre-COVID, Beijing offered a lot of choices for foodies. Day trips to hike the Great Wall were always fun, as were exploring the city’s hutongs and side alleys. Post-COVID, living in Beijing is still a journey of discovery, finding out which businesses are still open, or which new, arbitrary rules will be selectively enforced. - Aug 2020
Traveling around this vast country and learning about its fascinating history. Hikes and overnight camping on the Great Wall. Amazing food. - Jul 2020
Camping in inner Mongolia, villages in Yunnan, pandas in Chengdu - there are amazing things to see and do! - May 2020
Trips to different parts of the Great Wall and this is pretty much it. Getting out of Beijing takes 2-3 hours, sometimes more, depending on traffic. Traveling around the country is expensive: the local people travel in groups and get group discounts, so the train and plain tickets for individual travelers are very expensive. The same with getting out of the country. Do not even attempt to travel during any national holiday: the prices are very high and the crowds are beyond imagination. - Nov 2019
The Great Wall and hiking opportunities and the food is amazing! - Oct 2017
A two-day hike along the unrestored Great Wall, eating fantastic meals for a fraction of the cost of a less-interesting meal in the U.S., travel throughout Asia. - Dec 2015
Getting through the cultural barriers, learning Chinese very quickly as a matter of necessity (didn't speak any before coming), seeing the Great Wall. - Apr 2015
Seeing the Great Wall. - Aug 2014
Hiking the Great Wall, biking through hutongs, exploring the countryside around Beijing. - Jul 2014
Awesome restaurants in Beijing - Jun 2013
Getting out of Beijing to see other parts of the country (and getting out of the country altogether). - Aug 2011
Riding my bike through Beijing hutongs - Apr 2011
Oh, too many to list! Dancing while the sun comes up on a beach in front of the Great Wall with over a thousand people enjoying some of the top DJs in Asia playing. Ringing in the New Year in a former Communist weapons factory packed with thousands of revelers and the most ridiculous sound system I've ever seen. Being instantly befriended by a bunch of college students in Tianjin and taken on a whirlwind tour of the city after riding there on a bullet train. Riding in a Beijing taxi at 2 in the morning listening to gangster rap, which the driver perfectly mimics (while understanding none of the lyrics). Having dinner with friends in a restaurant while a gang fight goes down in the room next door and pretending not to notice (eventually one of the gangsters came over and apologized--in perfect English--for the disturbance). Waking up every morning and looking out the window at the Confucius Temple, then walking through a narrow hutong alleyway that looks straight out of a movie, but this is actually just my everyday life and it's just my normal commute. Going to the little foreigner shop, you know, kind of like the Chinese or Indian market back at home, small selection, jammed shelves, except that it's all full of American stuff because the tables are turned and you're the foreigner buying weird stuff now. Too many more to list, and I've only been here 6 months! - Jan 2011
Everything from walking the Great Wall to hanging out in Starbucks with friends. Learning to cook Chinese food. - Apr 2010
My Chinese friends. - Jan 2010
