Beijing is changing rapidly. As somebody told me you never know when your favourite restaurant will dissapear. It was the last months before Olympic Games so works were almost everywhere
It is a city with thousand years of the history. Served as Mongols Capital, than sahred the capital title with other cities Beijing regain this titile permanently in 15 century. As all China was closed to foreigners for the centuries, so almos all buildings were tipicall and traditional. Now everything is chaning. Population is growing rapidly, air polution is terryfing, old houses give place to new skyscrappers, Hutongs are demolished and builded from zero. But still if you go to the park on Sunday morning you will find the charm of Beijing - danes , sings, plays, etc. Also very close to the city is The Great Wall - its streching from the sea till the remotes areas in Kashgar province. A hundred tousand of workers lost their life during construction of this breathtaking construction.
I spend in Beijing almost a week, but I still didn't saw a half of attractons.
Favourite spots:
Great Wall - there is several possibilites from Beijing. Most known is Badaling only 40 kilomteres away from the city, then is Mutuyanu, Jinshanling, Simatai and quite new acces in H.....
What's really great:
I really enjoyed the street life in Beijing. Food Market on Donghshang street, Forbidden City, confucios temple and temple of the heaven
Sights:
Even one week can be not enough. Most known is Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Lama Temple, Confucius Temple, Tiananmenn Square, Jingshan hill, beihai Park etc.
Accommodations:
I slept in Peking International Youth Hostel, pefect place with perfect location close to the Forbidden City. Also there is plenty others hotel, hostels, everything depends how much you can spend on the night. Close to the main street there are hotels from international chains like Marriot, Hilton etc.
Restaurants:
Dongshang street, small family run places to eat. Safe, not always very clean, but still faboulous.
Other recommendations:
Go to the park and enjoy what the people are doing there. I was in the park on Sunday morning and I was really suprised. From the entrance people were doing thousand of things like: dancing classes, ladies playing with the ribbons, mens playing chineses chess, others were singings and playing on some intriguing instruments. Everybody relaxed enjoyed things that were doing in the moment. I realised how our cultures are different. There was one lady singing - for me it was interesting, some lady from UK said that the singer is being murdered and the Chinese were just stunned by the singer. Huge auditory from old to youngest, everybody just amazed. Other suprising thing was that it was not for the tourist. They just enjoyed the life.
Normaly I don't buy many souvenirs - but after my trip to the park I bought a set of Chinese chess.
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