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Story and Images by Melanie Votaw
Beijing: A Pre-Olympic Look
January may be an odd time to visit Beijing because it’s very cold and dry, but the plus side is that the crowds are seriously reduced from the warmer months, when I’m told you can barely walk at the most popular sites. Since crowds are not my thing, I was happy to visit the city in January before the Olympic madness.
The best thing about Beijing is that the most famous sites in all of China are in the  vicinity, including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Ming Tombs, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and the famous pandas at the zoo.
The Great Wall is the only one of the above attractions that requires a short drive outside of the city. There are several different sections of the Great Wall, but the portion called Badaling is the easiest, especially if your time in Beijing is limited. It’s fairly close to central Beijing, and you can work in the Ming Tombs and a visit to a cloisonné factory afterward. If you’re with a tour, you’ll no doubt stop at one of several large buildings near tourist spots where you can have fantastic Chinese food or tea surrounded by enormous jade sculptures and aisle upon aisle of souvenirs so beautiful that it will make you dizzy.
I hired a private guide to take me around the city, but you can easily navigate it on your own using public transportation and taxis. Many taxi drivers don’t speak English however, so you’ll need to get your concierge to write down the name of your destination in Chinese. Most young people in Beijing speak English very well as they’re taught the language in school. So, for the most part, it isn’t difficult for English-only speakers to get around the city.
 Even if you don’t hire a private guide, it helps to have a guide show you around the historical sites. You’ll miss a lot of the fascinating intrigue of Chinese history if you don’t have someone to tell you the details. No matter how much you’ve studied in books, you’ll get a lot more juicy information from a local guide. For example, my guide showed me the passageway in the Forbidden City where the last emperor rode the bicycle he was given by his British tutor. I was also told how all of the construction of the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven is free of nails. The intricate pieces were carved with such precision that they fit together without any connecting metal and have remained intact through all sorts of weather events. Of course, that doesn’t mean that no restorations are done to the buildings. One of the Forbidden City buildings had scaffolding on it during my visit.
My favorite site was the Summer Palace. Located on the water, this was the Empress Dowager’s place, a very intriguing character in not so distant Chinese history that was the voice and true power behind several child emperors. For exercise, she walked one of the passageways every morning with her entourage behind her and then was transported by boat back to her starting point. There is an exquisite marble boat in the water next to the palace that was built for the Navy but was never allowed to sail.
 Near the Temple of Heaven, considered to be one of the most sacred spots in the world, locals gather daily to play cards and checkers, sing, dance, and play music together. It really sunk in that I was in China as I watched this joyful community of people and listened to the traditional music and singing.
One night, I went to an acrobatic show. It’s primarily for tourists, but it’s well worth seeing. These performers do things that seem superhuman, such as balancing on a cylinder while standing on the head of another guy who is balancing on a cylinder. The finale consists of 15 girls riding a single bicycle around the stage. There are other shows in the city, such as the Peking Opera, if you’re so inclined.
Shopping in Beijing can make you crazy. Wangfujing Street is the main shopping area, and at night, it’s filled with outdoor stalls where you can buy all sorts of strange food (if you dare risk the dysentery.) My guide took me to one of the large “silk district” buildings filled with one vendor after another. Each floor is devoted to something different – silk fabrics, jewelry, etc. I bought a painting on silk and a terra cotta teapot, but the sellers were too aggressive for my taste. A couple of them literally grabbed me and pulled me back toward them as I tried to walk by.
 United Airlines serves Beijing, and I flew direct from Chicago in about 13 hours. I stayed at two hotels located in different areas of the city.
When I arrived at my first hotel, the Hilton Beijing, women in red Chinese silk dresses were playing traditional instruments in the lobby. Fine Chinese hotels provide you with enormous feather pillows, and the Hilton’s linens were especially fine with a crisp white down comforter.
Breakfast buffets are usually spectacular in top Asian hotels, but the Hilton gets the prize as my favorite because the service provided by the staff was superb. My orange juice and tea were constantly topped off, and I was brought a special exotic juice concoction, different types of breads right out of the oven, and a selection of newspapers. Of course, the hotel has an additional restaurant and two bars, as well as a health club and pool. One nice touch was a card that you’re given at check-in, which includes useful sentences in Chinese and a list of the main sites, which you can circle in order to show your taxi driver where you want to go.
 While the Hilton is located in a tourist area not too far from the Forbidden City, my next hotel – the JW Marriott – was located in the Chaoyang District, which is part of the Central Business District or “CBD”. The hotel is part of a massive complex of upscale stores and office buildings called China Central Place, and it’s brand new as of November 2007. With 588 rooms, a steakhouse, an Asian bistro, a French brasserie, a separate bar, a health club, a pool, and a spa, it’s an exceptional property located next door to the Ritz-Carlton. The health club has heated mosaic stone lounge chairs and exercise machines with TV screens. The French brasserie includes a cheese counter, where you can choose from numerous ingredients to be added to your cheese for your own special combinations.
The manager of the Marriott met me at the door and welcomed me to the hotel, even though he had no idea I was a travel writer. The room was very high-tech with a 24” flat screen TV and a DVD player with a USB connection. I especially loved the smaller flat screen TV at the foot of the bathtub. After walking around cold Beijing all day, I thawed out in the tub while watching an American movie. Now, that’s luxury!
© April 2008 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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