Day 1 Sunday afternoon to evening:Keywords: South Luoguxiang, Yandai byway, Hutong, Kao Rou Ji, HouHai, Prince Gong’s Mansion
Beijing South Luoguxiang (It is indicated by letter A on the map below) and Yandai byway (B on the map).
Beijing south Luoguxiang [1] is name of surrounding area with letter A on the map. Both Beijing south Luoguxiang and Yandai byway [2] offers old Chinese style architecture called Hutong [3] as well as Chinese-flavored shops. Make sure that you will not get lost.
After your visit to Yandai byway, Prince Gong’s Mansion [4] could the next if time allows. If you want to succeed this ambitious plan you need walk harder.
It is time to reward yourself with delicious local food for the hard work you have done. It is dinner time. If you like barbecue, my friend has suggest the Beijing barbecue (the name of the restaurant is Kao Rou Ji [5]). The restaurant is not far from Yandai byway. For the sake of good food, you’d better memorize or even able to pronounce it. The lake close to the letter B on the map is called Houhai [6]. After dinner, you could walk along the lake for the beautiful night scene.
How you could get there & Map of this region: You could take subway line 5 to Beixingqiao station. When you are there, you could take a Taxi to Beijing south Luoguxiang.
Map in Chinese [7]:
Map in English [8]:
Day 2 SundayKeyword: The Tian an’men square, the Forbidden City
Lucky enough that The Tian an’men square and the Forbidden City are within walking distance from each other. And these two will need no introduction.
One-day time is far from sufficient to have quality time for both. I do suggest locating most of your time into the Forbidden City. By most I would mean at least 95% of your time of the day. Today is even tough than previous Sunday, also you need to take into account of buying ticket can be time consuming (If you can, buy it in advance). My fiend also suggests if you can bring enough water and food as they can be expensive (I am not sure how expensive it can be, but possibly it is not expensive in terms of British pound).
After The Forbidden City, I guess you are exhausted and your stomach is crying for good food. Now, you need to take either taxi or subway to WangFuJing Street [9]. The name is bit misleading as it is much bigger than the size of a street and where no car and motorcycle even bicycle are allowed. At one end of the street, there is a sub-street connected to the WangFuJing Street where many restaurants are located. There are lots foreigners, you could ask them or young Chinese fellow for direction.
How to get there & Map: To Tian’ an men square and the Forbidden city, first take subway to Tian'anmen West Station, which is a station on Line 1 of the Beijing subway. For your convenience, taxi is the best option.
To WangFuJing Street: WangFuJing Station is a station on Line 1 of the Beijing Subway.
Map [10]:
For further information on traveling in Beijing, visit ‘highlight China’ [11].
For taxi information [12].
Reference:[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/iris0327/2415124595/
[2]http://www.bjxch.gov.cn/pub/english/news/200809/t20080910_1118391.htm
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutong.
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Gong_Mansion
[5] http://www.bestfoodinchina.net/node/91
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houhai
[7]http://ditu.google.cn/maps?daddr=%E5%8C%97%E4%BA%AC%E5%B8%82%E8%A5%BF%E5%9F%8E%E5%8C%BA%E7%83%9F%E8%A2%8B%E6%96%9C%E8%A1%97&geocode=&dirflg=&saddr=%E5%8D%97%E9%94%A3%E9%BC%93%E5%B7%B7&f=d&hl=zh-CN&sll=39.93962,116.396928&sspn=0.015893,0.043688&ie=UTF8&ll=39.938484,116.394686&spn=0.007946,0.021844&z=16
[8]http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=luoguxiang,beijing&ie=UTF8&ll=39.93707,116.398044&spn=0.007947,0.021844&z=16
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangfujing
[10]http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=tian%27anmen+west+station,beijing&ie=UTF8&ll=39.913291,116.397657&spn=0.031798,0.087376&z=14
[11] http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/transport/
[12] http://www.drben.net/ChinaReport/Beijing/Beijing-City_Public_Transportation_System/BeijingTaxi-Info.html