Beijing : Backpacking in China

One long flight, and suddenly this trip is actually happening. Arriving in Beijing airport, heading to a youth hostel and exploring the city. Here’s our first experience in China and what you can expect if you come backpacking in China!

How to spend four days in Beijing China. This guide is for backpackers and first time travelers to Beijing. A quick over view of things to do in Beijing and how to spend 4 days in China’s capital city.

Note: This is the very first post of our defunct travel blog “The Big Trip”, also known as “Tiyulon”, which in time has grown with us and our family to become A Tiny Trip. The blog that started it all! And now let’s get on with it!

4 days in Beijing

Before I go into all the details- here’s our itinerary for four days in Beijing. This 4 day itinerary was perfect to give us time to adjust to the time zone and the culture shock of finally being in China!

  1. Arrival at the Beijing International Airport (not counted in our itinerary)
  2. Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Wangfujing, Donghuamen Night Market
  3. Day trip to the Summer Palace
  4. Visiting the Great Wall
  5. Lama Temple and Temple of Heaven

Day 1 in Beijing

Daphna was forced to wait for me at the Beijing airport so she spent the time drinking iced tea and speaking to locals also waiting around about the history of Israel.

Finally together we hired a taxi and 1 hour later we were in our hostel in the center of town. The foot massage place next door to the hostel was very enticing but we decided against for now. The hostel, Wangfujing is very nice, clean, cheap, and in a great location.

Day 2: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Wangfujing, Donghuamen Night Market

After a good nights sleep we were up at 7 and wandered across our first meal, a sesame flatbread and potato latkes of sorts from our local street vendor, all for a grand total 2 yuan= .25 cents.

Our cheapness didn’t stop there: we got 2 cups of hot water from the Mickey D’s across the street and made our own Turkish coffee. They don’t drink much coffee here.

After breakfast we made our way to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City which are must views in Beijing.

On the way we were called out by a couple local Chinese tourists who assumed I was Australian due to my rugged appearance. We walked with them to the square and then we parted ways.

Let’s put it this way, the sites were what you expect and daph’s feelings are that it was an anticlimactic event.

After the Forbidden City we made our way back to the area, and stopped at a bike shop in my quest to buy a folding bike. good deals, good deals!

Our next stop was the Wangfujing snack street but we weren’t quite ready for a crazy meal yet, so we just had a veggie pancake burrito… After a well deserved nap, we headed to the Donghuamen night market, featured on Andrew Zimmerman’s show.

It was a tourist attraction and the stinky tofu, a dish that is called by this very name was stinking up the entire street and so our appetite was severely suppressed. Some good photos and video footage is soon to come.

Day 3: Hutong, Summer Palace

An early morning again, we headed to the hutong next door. Hutong is an alleyway where food shops, stalls, and people’s houses are located. They run east to west and are a great place to see real locals.

We had steamed buns (Baozi) and soup for breakfast. Great photos here too. Next we took public transport to the Summer Palace and after some difficulty finding the right bus we arrived and spent the day there.

This was a wonderful place with great views, green areas, a nice lake, and lots of Chinese tourists. we went out to a small birthday dinner and then called it a night so that we can take full advantage of the Great Wall ahead of us.

Tips for Travel to Beijing

If you are considering backpacking in China, read this post for general tips. Now on to Beijing specifically:

Airport– if you want to change money at the airport there are two change counters, one by the baggage claim before customs and one in the arrivals hall. The one by the baggage claim is better and charges less commission.

General– a good map of the city is highly recommended, the streets are large and distances are far walking.

The metro is very good- before you exit look at the signs detailing which exit (a/b/c/d) is closest to where you want to go.

Miscellaneous– if you use a Mac computer and miss it you can go to the Novotel Hotel and use their free mac in the lobby.

Wangfujing Youth hostel– central location, new hostel, very clean, great showers, western toilets. highly recommended. Can be booked on hostelworld.com , 50 rmb/dorm [CLOSED]

If you have only 24 hours in Beijing or a short layover to check out Beijing, have a look for an idea of how to do that!

Now click through for the continuation of the post, where we finally see the Great Wall (not disappointing!!!!)

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1 thought on “Beijing : Backpacking in China”

  1. Michael & Daphna. It is so exciting the trip you are doing plus this blog with your experiences. It’s like traveling with you in the space.Looking forward to see the pictures. Is the next day for you, but Happy Birthday!!! Michael again. What a celebration. Just be careful, take care and have lots of fun. Roby

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