How to be a tourist guide in Beijing

[roddy]

Being the thoughts and opinions of self, having spent no small percentage of the last year playing tour guide to various folk.

General planning and strategy:

Get 'em to tell you what they want to do. If they say anything along the line of 'Oh, whatever you think is best' throw a guidebook at them and tell them to show some initiative. Then generally ignore everything they say - ie if they say 'Can we go shopping at the Silk Market' say yes, of course, and then take them to your nearest cluster of clothes shops where you won't get your arms torn off by the looka looka people and you don't have to work out cubic roots to start the haggling process.

Space the big, first-tier stuff to do - Forbidden City, Great Wall, etc - out as much as you can. If you take someone to those two and the Summer Palace all in the first few days they'll spend the rest of their trip being entirely underwhelmed by everything else.

Arrival:

International passengers seem to pop out of arrivals about an hour after touchdown. You can check ETA's here, although if their flight is a codeshare it might only be listed under the Chinese carriers flight number. If you get there early to meet them there's a Starbucks and KFC with a view of the arrivals area. I prefer wandering around pointing out dodgy taxi drivers to the security guards, who then make half-hearted efforts to chase them off.

I hired a car for 150Y for arrival, which covered the there and back trip to the airport plus tolls and parking if necessary. The car wasn't available for departure, and I forgot what the taxi cost, but it was under 100Y, from Xizhimen.

Things to do:

There are only the ones I think you could quite easily miss, or not even know about, or not be able to get to easily. Obviously everyone knows about the Great Wall et al.

English Corners:

Now anyone who's been in China for more than five weeks will dread the thought of an English corner. However for visitors it can actually be quite an interesting experience, as you get to speak to a fairly wide range of people, in English, in a short period of time, who don't want to sell you postcards. I'd recommend the one at Renda, Friday nights, 8pm, just inside the east gate - plenty of quality English speakers, and a range of undergrads, postgrads and real people. I suggest you drop off your charges for an hour or so, and head off to Waterstones (Sculpting in Time clone on Renda campus) for a deserved coffee. Be prepared to have to drag over-enthusiastic English practicers away when it's time to go.

What works well is going to the Summer Palace (or Old Summer Palace) on a Friday morning, spending the bulk of the day there, heading to Wudaokou or thereabouts for food and a rest late afternoon, then dropping in on the English corner.

Summer Palace:

Obviously everyone knows about this. Worth knowing though, is that if you come in the south gate (even taxi drivers won't believe this exists, and make sure it's the south one, not the southerly one on the east side) you get a long peaceful walk along the lake before assaulting the buildings and crowds at the north end. The boats that run from Yuyuantan Park will drop you off here.

Near the north gate is 苏州街, which you will instantly recognize as a cluster of overpriced tourist shops and restaurants round a canal. However, don't point that out. Say instead "this is all the original late Ping dynasty construction, you know'. I'm not sure if I'd recommend seeking this place out, but if you are walking past it might be worth a look - the people in the shops were friendly, at least.

Parks:

While it depends on the nature of the guest, I've always found that Beijing's parks are one of the highlights of the city. Not so much because of the parks themselves, as for the range of activities going on. I've seen hundred-strong choirs belting out revolutionary classics, duelling erhu's, almost-too-good-to-be-true wizened old men in white doing Tai Qi, ballroom dancing, kung-fu folk, musical instruments previously unknown to western science, etc, etc. Block out some decent chunks of time for just wandering around and enjoying this stuff. Beihai and Tiantan are probably the best, and both places you'll likely go anyway, but Yuyuantan and Zizhuyuan are also good fun. Get there early before everyone heads home for a nap. And even if you haven't got guests, go yourself - I know people who've been in Beijing for years and have never seen any of this stuff, which is simply sad.

Acrobatics:

There are a few different options for this. The only one I've tried is the show at 天地剧场, just north of Poly Plaza. Consistently been well received because even if it is overpriced and full of tour groups, it's performed by . . . kids!

Underground City: 地下城

This is mildly difficult to find, but keep coming north from the north gate of the Temple of Heaven and look for the hutong it's in on your left, then keep going and look out for it on the south side. Staff were very friendly and they have enthusiastic guides with reasonable English. It's a fun visit, but you probably don't need to allow much more than thirty minutes, excluding finding-it time. Unfortunately all you get to see is tunnels, rather than the actual spaces - I'd hoped to see some of the actual rooms, but in effect you just get taken to the front of various bricked up doorways and told 'behind here is a library with space for sixty billion books'. Still fun though. No photos.

Great Wall:

Badaling gets a bad press, but if you are pressed for time and can avoid a weekend it's a reasonable option. It will still be busy though, on any day. Simatai is more spectacular and less reconstructed, but it's a good bit further - two and a bit hours by car, I think.

If mobility is an issue, it's worth knowing that the Badaling cable car drops you off pretty much on the wall, whereas at Simatai you've still got a fair trek ahead of you.

Aviation and Tank Museums.

Both in Changping. Aviation Museum was very good fun. The main exhibition bit is in a cold war hanger carved out of a mountain, but more interesting is the fields of broken down old planes outside. It's all got a bit of a neglected feel to it, but great fun for military enthusiasts or anyone who was once a twelve-year-old boy.

Tank Museum is on a much smaller scale, and much more run down. I've been to some rubbish museums in China, but this was the first one where you had to walk around goatshit in some of the exhibition rooms. That said, you do get to sit in a tank, and there was actually one driving around a field over the wall at the end. We just saw the turrent bobbing about over the wall though, and we got waved off when I stuck my head through a gate to try and see more.

Capital Museum

This is in a fantastic new building at Muxidi, quite possibly worth a visit for the building alone. Some of the 'traditional Beijing life' exhibitions are a little plasticky, but generally it's very good and I would put it on a par with the Shanghai Museum and the good one in Xi'an, in terms of design and visitor-friendliness, if not content. Also has Beijing Opera (actually 昆曲, but I've yet to find anyone who can tell me the difference between 昆曲 and 京剧) performances on Saturdays.

Annoyances

Very few. The only times I got annoyed were:

Gallery touts operating inside the Forbidden City ( "Hello, I'm not a tour guide", "No, you're worse"). Once would be acceptable, but by the tenth I was all out of friendly refusals.

Back gate of the Forbidden City needs to be better policed, constant scrum of vendors, touts, etc. It's a tiny area, and all it would need is one or two effective security guards.

Similarly the Jianguomen strip - if it isn't rolex watch sellers, it's ladybar pimps (although pimps imply there's a chance of sex, rather than an excessive bar bill, so maybe that's unfair), or it's 'massage' girls (likewise? I don't know), or it's socks and T-shirt sellers, or it's beggars - first time in China I've encountered an able-bodied, adult beggar, I think.

Rickshaw drivers. Yes, I know you're bored, but you can stop following us now. Prize goes to the the guy near the Underground City who a) actually only had a standard 三轮车 with a plank for a seat and B) tried to tell us we were going the wrong way, it was very far, etc.

There were a couple of other very minor things which some people might want to be aware of. One is being handed student tickets when you pay for full price - obviously this presents the opportunity for someone to pocket the difference. Similarly the collection of the entire ticket, rather than just the stub, which means it can be resold. Neither of these actually result in any financial loss for you, but it's not something I'll let happen if I notice it.

That's all I can think of for now. I've tried not to type up stuff you can just get from a guidebook, hope it's of some small use.

[Shadowdh]

This is highly useful... many thanks... I will have to act as a tour guide twice while I am there, so this will come in handy...

[BFC_Peter]

This is not just useful information for potential tourist guides, it will be useful for novice tourists like me.

I am trying to plan a visit to Beijing later this year and while I will be 'guided' by native Chinese people (family and/or freinds of family), my experience to date shows they're not the best when it comes to this kind of thing and it's me that does most of the planning so thanks for the info.

[koreth]

I visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu and thought it was great. Only slightly further away than Badaling, but much less popular -- I think I saw nearly as many Chinese tourists as foreigners and the touts weren't too obnoxious.

[roddy]

@ koreth. I haven't actually been to Mutianyu - would certainly consider it for any future trips. At Simatai they've started semi-regulating the walkabout vendors. What happens is that on the way up you'll pass large groups of them sitting by the path. Basically they queue there, and one of them is allowed to go up with each party of tourists. They are then 'attached' to that group, and aren't allowed to sell anything to anyone else.

At first this annoyed me, as I had no desire to have an attached vendor following me around. However, I came to the conclusion that this method means you only need to convince one person you aren't buying, rather than 20. Our guy hung around at a respectful distance until he gave up, and compared to the kind of relays you used to get, where one tout would dog you for ages, only to pass you on to another one later, this is much preferable. They're also friendly, and were pointing out the best way to get from A to B, making sure people didn't miss the turning to get off the wall, etc. So no complaints there. Can't speak for the stretch between Jinshanling and Simatai though, this is just at Simatai proper.

@BFC_Peter: The average guidebook will contain a lot more information than many Beijing residents when it comes to touristy stuff to do, as you'd probably expect. Hardly any Chinese people I've spoken to, including long-term Beijing residents, had heard of the Underground City, Tank and Aviation Museums, some of the smaller temples (大钟寺 and 五塔寺 spring to mind, housing bells and stone carvings respectively) which are well worth a visit if you have the time. If you can, take your guides to the Underground City, and assuming they don't know about it they'll be blown away that a) the place exists, B) you can visit it and c) a foreigner is taking them there. Apparently entry to individual Chinese tourists (as opposed to tour groups) used to be forbidden, but a friend of mine went recently with no problems.

[heifeng]

Things to do:

Shows:

At the red theatre (somewhat near Tiantan) they have The Lefend of Kungfu which I saw through BNU for free once, but later took some guests to see and they enjoyed it. This link says it is until Dec 30th. I dunno if that means 2006 or 2007....And I just bought tickets at the door. (Bring a student ID if you have one) Also it is best to sit on the first level, center, so you can get a better view of their moves..

KTV. Wudaokou has many songs in many different languages, and are fairly well updated. In the US at least (except for China town, lil' Tokyo or K-town) you don't really have Karaoke where you get your private room, so this may be a new experience for them.

Paddle boating at Houhai is fun and reasonably priced and opened fairly late. I recommend just bringing your own food and drinks. You can also buy some street food around there at night too. During the day you can also follow the hutong tours and not have to pay anything (or borrow a bike). (they ride really slow anyway b/c they get all traffic jammed together in the alleyways...)

Yonghegong: I personally really like Yonghegong more than gugong. If your guests want a smaller place to walk around then this is not a bad option. Pictures come out pretty nice from here.

Tiantan is nice when the senior citizen are playing intruments and singing, as is beihai park.

Panjiayuan: My guests love antique (looking) things so went here twice. The first time I had to break them into the world of bargaining. The 2nd time they went they still got ripped off, but they really liked what they bought so it was definitely worth it to them.

Great Wall: there is a bus service to Badaling from Qianmen ( I think that's where it was...hmm). You can also take them to the tombs too if that interests them. On the way to the GW they sell those lift tickets to take you up the wall a ways, but you really don't need to buy that ticket...especially if there are alot of people going that day. You can actually climb faster than waiting in line.

Summer Palace: On hot days you may need to bring an umbrella and food otherwise you just want to die and give up half way through...

Xiang Shan isn't that fun to me, but the street leading up to it is nice to walk though, so guests may like it. It is suppose to be nice in fall because of the leaves, but you'll just get stuck on the mountainside for 2 hrs staring at the behind of the person in front of you because everyone wants to see these red leaves:tong

Clothes, hats, sunglasses, bags, socks, you name it.

You can take them to Tianyi and set them free on buying what ever stuff they need, such as a lifetime supply of socks, etc.

(I avoid silk street and those places at all cost...there stuff is just from Tianyi anyway I think)

Types of food to make sure they try:

Peking Duck

Ma la tang

Hot pot

Xinjiang

Korean

Shanghai

Dumplings, baozi,

Kaoyu on Gui jie at night is fun. They will probably like al the red lanterns and such.

Wang fu jing night market with all the crazy skewers, and that area in general.

-At the Wang fu jing book store there are also some english books, including cook books, so it's another nice stop if they want to get all their books about china in one stop. THen you can open a 会员卡 and put all their crazy bulk purchases on there and earn some free points for them (or yourself...)

Massage:

You can take your guests in for traditional blind massage too after a long day of walking around. The one accross from BNU's east gate is 80yuan/hour or 50 w/ student ID. The service there is very professional. (They also have a member card, something like 1 free massage for every 8, but that's if you don't use your student ID)

Economical Welcome gifts:

I gave my guests dust masks (ok, well last year the sand storms were much worse), slippers, guazi (you can teach them how to eat then efficiently), er guo tou, and a water bottle, packets of tissue and hand sanitizer. If you are really motivated you can probably lend them some IC card if they actually plan on using the subway and buses to minimize their messing around with actual cash.

Tell them to bring stomach and headache medicine and eyedrops just in case.

Scams: I have my guests read throught the scams link here and scare them a little bit so that they know not to fall into any traps. This was good because they definitely got approached, but didn't get suckered into anything:mrgreen:

I also just gave them the heads up on the following:

1) Customer service doesn't exist, and realize you may need to shake off people who latch onto you to sell you stuff.

2) Cross the street carefully.

3) Don't trust strangers that randomly approach you or try to take you somewhere.

4) Keep your really money and your other money separate.

5) Enjoy your trip.

[roddy]

I always find Yonghegong is good to do as a first-day thing - it's impressive, but not so massive you're going to tire yourself out walking around it, plus it's easy to get to and you can wander through hutongs towards Houhai afterwards.

I can see why some people might prefer it to the Forbidden City. For my the Forbidden City is about the scale and grandeur of the place - although if you get off the central axis and walk around the east side there are some charming little courtyards which you'll quite likely have all to yourself. That's the bit you need to pay the extra 10Y for access to, but it's worth it.

[heifeng]

That's the bit you need to pay the extra 10Y for access to, but it's worth it.

Is that where the 9 dragon wall is located? If so, then yes, that area was probably my favorite too.

Lame but fun:

They're some other courtyard areas where you can wear emperor costumes and take your own photos. That can be kinda fun. But there is also a service where they just superimpose your head onto someones body who is wearing the costumes...that's no fun. Choose wisely.

Another problem with gugong is all the construction going on now...bit of a picture eyesore

[roddy]

Yeah, that's the bit. Oh, and the Starbucks of course. Definite highlight (sh)

Construction: When I was there middle of last month, the first hall after you enter (no idea what the name is) and the back gate were all wrapped up. However, they'd wrapped the hall up in a picture of itself, which was nice. Confucius Temple is also under construction - they'll let you in, but it didn't look worth it. I think they were the only two construction related issues I noticed.

Never done the emperor's old clothes thing. They're also always the worst for trying to attract customers. One in Beihai was walking up to foreigners and just saying 'Emperor, emperor' repeatedly in a really fast, high-pitched voice. Try doing that to your co-workers, it's really annoying.

[Shadowdh]

Can't speak for the stretch between Jinshanling and Simatai though, this is just at Simatai proper.

At the start of the walk from Jinshanling they seem to attach themselves to a particular person... then pretty much just follow that person for the first 6K or so till the reach an invisible boundary and then tell you they have to go back... Mostly not too pushy (at least mine wasnt) and the prices start outrageous but if you bargain you can get within the realms of reality... My seller was also a great guide, she told me a bit about the history of the area (she had lived there all her life and was pretty informative) and showed me the best ways to go and best views... at first I didnt want to buy anything off her (she had only showed me postcards and books) and offered here some money as a gift for her guide services (also great to practice your Chinese with) but she was having nothing to do with it!!!... but then she showed me a t-shirt with the lame "I climbed the great wall" logo which I wanted anyway so I bought that.

[imron]

Panjiayuan: My guests love antique (looking) things so went here twice.

This is definately the place to go for any guests looking to pick up Chinese souvenirs. You can get everything here, paintings, wordwork, metal work, painted glass bottles, seals/chops, "antiques", lanterns.. the list goes on and on.

[deezy]

This is definately the place to go for any guests looking to pick up Chinese souvenirs. You can get everything here, paintings, wordwork, metal work, painted glass bottles, seals/chops, "antiques", lanterns.. the list goes on and on.

Is there a good website to get a quick primer on Chinese antiques?

It'd be nice to get a quick overview for dummies before I check out Panjiayuan...

[simonlaing]

Nice topic, thread,

I think the parks are very interesting as well. Often in the fall they will have a fair in the north park .

Also timing is important. Most activities happen in the early evening or early morning.

Joining in on Dancing or Taichi with old people can be fun.

Getting up early for the flag raising and tianamen square is sometimes interesting though often crowded.

Also talking about there different places to climb the great wall is important as I think Simatai you can walk farther with a guide.

Anyone do the Marco polo bridge memorial? I was going to go to the park but ran out of time?

HAve fun,

Simon:)

[imron]

I remember once when I first came to Beijing, I was in Tiananmen square, and there was a section cordoned off, and there were lots of people starting to crowd around to watch, and the crowd kept getting bigger and bigger, so I thought "hmmm I guess I came just at the right time" because it looked like they were going to be staging some big event/activity. And so I stood around waiting for whatever it was that was going to happen, and then after about 15 minutes a bunch of guys came out, lowered the flag and walked back inside and that was that. Bit of an anti-climax really.

[cstrikedish]

Is there a good website to get a quick primer on Chinese antiques?

I know a site which named gdroom.com. Maybe it is your need.

[deezy]

^ Ah, thanks! Looks like a cool site...too bad I can't read Chinese yet! DOH.

What about any good Chinese coin sites? I could see myself actually buying a few old coins, maybe some with the square holes. But, how do you tell which ones are real or fake?

BTW, how's the weather in Beijing for August? I heard it's real hot & muggy? So, should I mostly just bring short sleeve shirts & shorts/pants? No need at all for a jacket?

[imron]

But, how do you tell which ones are real or fake?

Easy. The ones in the museums are real, and the ones in the markets are fake

[cdn_in_bj]

BTW, how's the weather in Beijing for August? I heard it's real hot & muggy?

You heard right.

[bianfuxia]

This is a handy thread.

A couple of additions from my recent tour guiding efforts.

1. The park immediately north of the Forb City - I think it is called Coal Hill - is worth visiting on a weekend. On Sundays, and probably Saturdays, if you climb the hill after a morning visit to the FC, you can see the big expanse of the whole FC to the south and on good visibility days you can see out to Wudaokou and Xiang Shan, for example. Then go down the north side of the hill and hang out in the park. Around 1pm a huge group of people seem to get together, with a band, and have a cool opera style sing-a-long. And there are tonnes of smaller music groups practising all around too. It's a good way to wind down after checking out the FC.

2. Roddy mentioned the aeroplane musuem - the one I know, which sounds like the one he mentions, is up north of the 6th ring at Xiao Tang Shan. You can take a city bus there from Andingmen Subway station for about 7 kuai or something (can't remember exactly). Takes about an hour. Ask for "feiji bowuguan" and the bus stops right at the door. There are loads and loads of vintage jets and big planes, some parked outside and some in an underground bunker.

3. If you like planes but can't be bothered going out to Xiao Tang Shan, go to the Beihang campus (Aviation University) just near Wudaokou at the intersection of Xueyuan Lu and the north fourth ring. There is an entrance of Xueyuan Lu just south of the north 4th ring, or you can enter from that too. There are signs on campus in English directing you to the aeroplane museum. They have a dinky indoor display and a courtyard with about ten or so vintage planes of different types. It costs a fiver to get in I think.

4. Olympic facilities are a good one - the Birds Nest and Water Cube, again at the 4th north ring. We went in April while they were still under construction but I understand you might actually be able to do tours now? Even if not, you can get nice and close and my visitors really liked the idea of seeing it being built. Of course, they're nearly done now but still, some people might be interested to see them anyway.

5. "Hutong walks" are always good. Depending on how adventurous you and your guests are, you can go hutong-lite down near Qianmen, Dazhanlan (by which I mean that famous shopping street off Qianmen) and that area, where there are restuarants with english menus, etc, or if you have a bit more time, and know your way round a bit more, head further south west from there. There are a nice bunch of lanes behind Jishuitan. Head south from that subway about 100m and then veer east. Bear east and south and you'll find some lovely, lively lanes. You'll come out eventually down near the back lakes and you can carry on down from there into Houhai bar area. There must be tons of other areas that I'm not so familiar with.

6. Streetwalking north up the train tracks from Wudaokou station is a good one too. If you go a few kms you reach an open sort of area with small hutong-style compounds, which give a remarkable contrast to much of the rest of Beijing. It's an easy way to experience the fringes of the city, where it starts to mesh with the countryside.

7. Bike riding pretty much anywhere is fun. I dinked my mother in law which was quirky. (ps dinking means to give someone a lift on your bike). If you're in the Wudaokou area there is a lovely bike ride north of the station to the 5th ring, then along the canal out to the summer palace or to Xiang Shan.

8. Panjiayuan is good of course but if you're not able to visit that (I think it's only open weekends?) the street called Liulicheng is not bad. You can reach it either by walking through that hutong area west from Dazhanlan (if that's its name) or by heading south from Hepingmen subway station. The stretch of street to the west is better, I think, mainly because the shopkeepers there seem a bit more mellow. They sell all the typical little souvenirs. That street is actually quite an ancient one and has some old stationery shops in it which sell nice calligraphy supplies and stuff like that, at basically reasonable prices. Some of that makes nice gifts.

Lucky 8, that'll do!

[deezy]

4. Olympic facilities are a good one - the Birds Nest and Water Cube, again at the 4th north ring. We went in April while they were still under construction but I understand you might actually be able to do tours now? Even if not, you can get nice and close and my visitors really liked the idea of seeing it being built. Of course, they're nearly done now but still, some people might be interested to see them anyway.

I heard you can't tour inside them quite yet...

7. Bike riding pretty much anywhere is fun. I dinked my mother in law which was quirky. (ps dinking means to give someone a lift on your bike).

I thought I saw a sign saying this was technically illegal in China? Not that that remotely stops anyone though...lol.

8. Panjiayuan is good of course but if you're not able to visit that (I think it's only open weekends?) the street called Liulicheng is not bad. You can reach it either by walking through that hutong area west from Dazhanlan (if that's its name) or by heading south from Hepingmen subway station. The stretch of street to the west is better, I think, mainly because the shopkeepers there seem a bit more mellow. They sell all the typical little souvenirs. That street is actually quite an ancient one and has some old stationery shops in it which sell nice calligraphy supplies and stuff like that, at basically reasonable prices. Some of that makes nice gifts.

Yes, Panjiayuan is open only on weekends...

Liulichang is a nice-looking historical street to visit, but does not compare with Panjiayuan in terms of selection and prices for goods. Panjiayuan is huge and probably the size of a few city blocks.

And yes there were some pretty hot, muggy days. The sun can shine surprisingly strong through all that smog! One day I got so hot I actually broke out the umbrella for shade like lots of the local ladies. Be sure to keep hydrated if you are walking around in the sun all day...