Beihai Hostel

... a short trip to Beijing over our Christmas vacation. We flew from Seoul to Beijing. We took a bus to Beijing train station where our hostel was. The first day of our trip was a tour to the Great Wall and then to the Ming Tombs. Once the tour was finished, ...

I went for a short weekend away to a small island off the coast of Beihai, Guangxi. The island is sorta nice. The people are friendly but everything is quite expensive. Plus, the beaches aren't the greatest. I did enjoy the tide pools near the Volcanic ...

... but happened to pass Pearl Market which I had remembered reading about and ended up buying Daisy a tea pot and 6 cups. Beihai Park was another interesting park with another large lake and more old Chinese buildings so even though Beijing has undergone ...

... to sell us things, I was surprised! We took some pictures, I bought a 5 RMB visor because I left my sunglasses at the hostel and then we headed off to the Forbidden City. Having been to the Forbidden City 2 prior times, I wasn't exactly pumped to be ...

... 's best one. Beihai was kinda whack... very touristy and there was like 3 different entrance fees for parts in the park.  I left Beihai for my hostel... the room was empty so I took a huge nap and then headed here.  Sorry for no pictures, the ...

... high pressure selling of over-priced art.  We immediately bid the peeved chap farewell and continued our ride. Beihai Park contains an amazing number of well preserved ancient buildings including many temples and a colourful tiled screen 27 ...

... , and carved out of a single piece of sandalwood; a fact verified by the Guinness Book of World Records!       Beihai Park For our final hours in Beijing we wandered through to Beihai Park next to the Forbidden City. Originally for the ...

... The Forbidden City - palace of emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368 to 1911), traditional Chinese architecture. Beihai Park - beautiful park near The Forbidden City, temples around a lake with lotus plants.   ...

... clever as it worked using GPS to work out where you are and what recording to play you regarding that location. After returning to the hostel to collect our bags, we headed to the new hostel that we had booked - Lama Temple - on the metro. It was ...

... one. We figured it couldn't be that hard if people sign up for it on a daily basis. We booked it through another hostel because it included transportation and all entrance fees for our 10 k hike. We found out how to get to the other hostel to ...

... to bring on my next trip. We made it to Beijing right on time at 8:30 in the morning.  We bussed it to our hostel which was a crazy, uncomfortable, and crowded ride...but we made it.  We stayed at the Sanlitun Hostel which is in the Sanlitun ...

... though is about getting Chinese money, as that was what we spent a good amount of our first afternoon with. The map our hostel gave us indicated a few banks, though they were rather spread out and didn't appear very common. We walked to the closest one ...

... (ok, we had been thinking of doing it for a while) to bike around Hainan. We rented bikes at Blue Sky International Youth Hostel and immediately realised they were crap. We knew there would be no way we could bike around Hainan. However, we thought we ...

... en fin, expedito. A la salida, al primera negociada...cuánto vale el taxi?...afortunadamente escribimos la dirección del hostel en chino, entonces quedaba claro para el conductor cuan lejos era.... Luego de varias negociaciones en ...

... up close!) - The Temple of Heaven (FULL OF CHINESE TOURISTS!!..but again located in a really nice park) - Huhai Lake and Beihai Lake, really nice traditional lakeside Chinese areas, with lots of 'hutons' (side streets) selling street food and old people ...

... sky scraper parts. We went back a couple of times to investigate. That night after returning the bikes we stayed local to our hostel (right outside Beijing station) – our hostel had a huge bar where we have sampled a few big bottles of Beijing beer. ...

... a sleep-in! Ah, what luxury to lie in bed till 10 o'clock for a change. Spent most of the morning lounging around the hostel and talking with the other backpackers. We met a bunch of guys who had biked from Scotland to Beijing, through Scandanvia, Russia ...

... nbsp; We have of course done some of Beijing's major sights like the Forbidden City (now called the Palace museum), the massive Beihai Park, Tiananmen Square (the biggest public square in the world) and Jinshan Park (with views of the city from the top ...

... ;t go for it, but in many ways, I am happy that I kept those men and their tools out of my ear canal.  Back at the hostel, I collect my now dry clothing.  Mix, the hostel owner, asks me to write on a piece of paper my name and where I come from ...

... back to the hostel involved a couple of near misses with taxis but we got back in one piece. Sitting down in the hostel I realised I was rather saddle sore which could make the next day interesting! For dinner we set off trying to find a vegetarian ...

... ; The weather here is a great recipe for getting a cold of course.  Our last scenic stop for the day was at the stunning Beihai Park... it is combination of Hyde Park in London and Central Park in New York and one of my favourite spots in Beijing so ...