Beijing Travel Guide

Getting There By Air

Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)
Tel: (10) 6454 1100.
Website: www.bcia.com.cn

Beijing's airport is located 25km (16 miles) northeast of the city center. The main international terminal opened in 1999 for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. As part of Beijing's pre-Olympic overhaul, Lord Norman Foster's glittering new Terminal 3 opened in 2008, claiming to be ‘the world's largest and most advanced airport building'. A second international airport is also currently being planned outside the city itself.

Approximate flight times to Beijing: From London is 10 hours 10 minutes; from New York is 14 hours 40 minutes; from Los Angeles is 12 hours 30 minutes; from Toronto is 16 hours 20 minutes and from Sydney is 13 hours 30 minutes.

Airport facilities: These include bureau de change, ATM, hotel reservations and transfers, duty-free and other shops, cafés, restaurants, left-luggage and tourist information. Terminal 3, which is located 7km (4 miles) from Terminals 1 and 2, is the best equipped in terms of dining and shopping.

Transport to the city: Metered taxis are available at the airport (journey time - 45-60 minutes). The Airport-City Shuttle Bus (tel: (10) 6459 4375) departs every 30 minutes (0530-2230) from outside arrivals hall 11. Buses take six routes into the city - the most popular is to Xidan in central Beijing, a short walk from the Forbidden City. The other routes are to Fangzhuang, Beijing Railway Station, Gongzhufen in western Beijing, Zhongguancun high-tech park in the city's northwest district (journey time - 35-60 minutes) and Nanyuan private airport. Shuttle buses to the airport leave regularly throughout the day from the China Aviation Building, and from both the China Art Gallery and Zhongguancun. Opened in 2008, the ABC (Airport to Beijing City) express train connects Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao metro stations in the city to both Terminal 3 and Terminals 1 and 2 in 25 minutes.

Getting There By Road

A Chinese driving license is required to drive in China, and to get one of those you must have a Chinese residence permit, rather than just a tourist visa. Foreign residents may bring their own cars into the country but this involves a huge bureaucratic effort. Urban driving is chaotic, sometimes extremely congested, and it often seems as though little attention is paid to rules and regulations. Traffic drives on the right and the minimum driving age is 18. The speed limit in China is 30-60kph (19-37mph) on city roads and 100-120kph (62-75mph) on expressways. Road signs are in both Chinese and English in major cities, but only in Chinese in more remote areas. Foreigners who want to travel by car within China are generally recommended to hire a car with a local driver.

Emergency breakdown services
There is no breakdown service in China.

Routes to the city
Main routes out of Beijing are denoted by city names such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu Expressway, Beijing-Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Expressway, Beijing-Shenyang Expressway and Beijing-Chengde-Zhangjiakou First Class Road.

Driving times to the city
From Taiyuan - 6 hours; Chengde - 3 hours 30 minutes; Tianjin - 1 hour 45 minutes.

Coach services
Traveling by coach to smaller provincial towns can be hair-raising, with poor-quality buses and even poorer quality driving. But coach travel between major cities is convenient and generally pretty comfortable. Coach quality ranges from old, run-down, smoke-filled bone-rattlers that stop at every small town en route, to modern, air-conditioned coaches with TV, reclining seats and hostesses dishing out free mineral water. You get what you pay for. If there's a sleeper coach available, take it. Overnighting on a coach is never as comfortable as on a train, but coach tickets are much easier to come by because services are so frequent, meaning there's often no need to book. Note, tickets on the newer, modern coaches tend to be more expensive than trains. There are dozens of bus and coach stations in Beijing, but the main long-distance stations are Bawangfen and Sihui, in the east of the city, and Liuliqiao and Lianhuache, both close to each other in the southwest. Dongzhimen Transport Hub Station, which is connected to the subway system, is also handy for buses to nearby destinations.

Getting There By Rail

China's extensive railway system is a world leader in terms of speed and efficiency, although tickets - particularly hard-sleeper tickets - are often hard to come by, and buying them can be tough for non-Chinese speakers. Your hotel can normally help.

Rail Services
Trains in China have up to four classes - hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper. Hard-sleeper tickets (the beds aren't literally hard) are like gold dust. Tickets can be bought in stations or through CITS (tel: (010) 6522 2991; www.cits.net). Reservations, especially for hard sleepers, should be made in advance, although you cannot book more than 10 days in advance. The useful website www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains has an English-language timetable and lets you book tickets, for a hefty fee. Beijing has three main train stations. The most central, Beijing Railway Station, serves the north and east. The newer Beijing West Railway Station serves the south and west. The super modern South Railway Station has high-speed trains to nearby Tianjin.

Rail Operators
State operator China Railways runs all train services in China. Trans-Siberian services to Russia and Mongolia leave from Beijing Railway Station. Tickets must be bought from the CITS office inside Beijing International Hotel, one block north of the station. The China-Tibet railway runs from Beijing West Railway Station, as do trains to Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Connections
From Moscow - 5-6 days; Lhasa - 44 hours; Ho Chi Minh City - 43 hours; Hong Kong - 24 hours; Guangzhou - 21 hours; Xian - 12-15 hours; Shanghai - 10-12 hours.

Getting Around in Beijing, China

Public Transport

The local bus system in Beijing is dirt cheap and extremely extensive, but tough to negotiate for non-Chinese speakers. Travel by subway or taxi is far easier, although remember to carry with you the name of your destination in Chinese characters to show taxi drivers. Very few speak English. Beijing's subway is slick, modern and easy to use. Signs and announcements are in English as are ticket-buying machines. Tickets cost a flat rate for a single journey, no matter how far you travel. The ABC (Airport to Beijing City) express train connects the airport with Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao subway stations.

Taxis

Taxis in Beijing are plentiful, cheap and metered, and are usually just hailed from the street. Tipping is not expected.

Driving in the City

Few tourists attempt to drive in Beijing, as hiring a car is a lengthy process and roads are congested. Visitors also need a Chinese driving license, which can only be obtained by resident permit holders. Basically, don't bother.

Car Hire

Car rentals usually come with a driver, but familiar foreign rental agencies are only slowly breaking into the market. Avis (tel: 400 882 1119; www.avischina.com) has an online booking service. Otherwise try one of the local taxi companies such as Beijing Beiqi Taxi (tel: (010) 8661 1062), although you'll need a Chinese speaker to help.

Bicycle Hire

Cycling is a great option in Beijing. The roads are as flat as a chessboard, and almost all of them have bicycle lanes, although cars don't always keep out of them! Bicycles can be rented from many youth hostels and hotels. A citywide scheme called Beijing Bike Rental (www.bjbr.cn) is another cheap option. It has rental stations outside some subway stations (Gulou Dajie on Line 2, for example) and at various tourist sights around the city. For better quality but more expensive bikes, try Bicycle Kingdom, 34 Donghuangchenggen Nanjie, Beiheyan Dajie, Dongcheng District (tel: 133 8140 0738; www.bicyclekingdom.com).