Travel China and Beyond

Beijing Botanical Gardens and WoFu Temple

In the cold winter days of Beijing it is good to remember the nice sunny weather of the summer — that is when I remembered about our visits to the Beijing Botanical Garden.  The Garden is located near the West Hills in a nice wooded part of the city outskirts.  It is a nice place to escape in the summer as the garden itself has plenty of greenery, nice walk through fountains and plenty of interesting plants to see.  The complete Garden is comprised of:

• The Ornamental Plant Section
• Rose Garden
• Ornamental Peach Garden
• Tree Peony Garden
• Herbaceous Peony Garden
• Lilac Garden
• Crabapple and Cotoneaster Garden
• Magnolia Garden
• Bamboo Garden
• Perennial Garden
• Aquatic Garden
• Mume Flower Garden
• Arboretum
• Acer-Rosa Section + Coniferous Section + Tilia-Populus Section + Magnolia-Berberis Section + some other ones we did not see
• and Glasshouses
• Tropical and Subtropical conservatories
• Here you can find also examples of Chinese Penjing — which includes Tree Penjing (also known in the west as bonsai), Water & Land penjing and Landscape penjing.  Essentially all these forms of art are focused on recreating parts of a landscape in a very scaled down format.  Some of the trees grown in those landscapes are over 100 years old — quite an accomplishment indeed!   I must point out also that the art of penjing also has geographical / regional aspects.   I did not quite see all different types but from what I understood from some exhibits, there are essentially Penjing styles in pretty much most provinces of China - e.g. Jiangsu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Beijing, Fujian, Yangzhou, Anhui, Zhonzhou, and EVEN a Taiwan style.
• Another interesting part of the Botanical Garden is the WoFu Temple - also known as the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha.

At any rate, you should plan a visit to the Gardens, and spend a day among beautiful trees as well as surrounded by colorful Chinese Halls in the WoFu temple.

You can see some images from both the Garden and WoFu temple in the Photo Album area of the blog.  (Scroll to the area labeled Beijing Botanical Garden and WoFu Temple)

Quick Review of Beijing Shangri-La, China World, Kerry Center Hotel, Traders Hotel, and Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven

So you are planing for a trip to Beijing. Your next question is, which hotel should I stay in. Aside from Corporate requirements (if you are on a business travel) or room availability, you can consider what area of Beijing you will have to spend most of your time in. Here are some recommendations and brief reviews:

• Technology area of Beijing - Haidian District, ShangDi area:

If you are visiting the technology area of the city — i.e. Haidian Disrict or ShangDi, you will be better off staying in the Shangri-La. The hotel is located near the 3rd loop road in the Northwest part of town. The rooms are very nice and comfortable, the rates are great (probably a lot to do with the fact that the hotel is a bit out of the main downtown area of the city). The outside of the hotel does not look very impressive, but do not let that convince you not to stay there. The inside is completely renovated. In the back of the hotel there is a very nice Chinese garden (with the “mandatory” courtyard pavilions), which is a place for a nice afternoon tea or a walk. The hotel staff is very attentive, Cafe Cha has a great breakfast and dinner buffets, and if you desire you could sample the good Japanese restaurant. Overall a very comfortable hotel. One additional bonus, for those of you with business plans for visits to technology companies in Haidian district, the location of the hotel will save you the hassles of the 3rd loop road (if coming from downtown).

• Central part of Beijing (near TianAnMen, GuoMao, WangFuJing, the Forbidden City, Panjiayuan Market…)

If you are going to spend most of your time in the Central part of the city then China World, Traders Hotel, Kerry Center are all good options.

China World — probably one of the fanciest hotels in Beijing (aside from the Grand Hyatt, Peninsula, or St. Regis); Very conveniently located - a subway station is located in the underground floor of the shopping mall under the hotel; Also in the underground mall you can find a grocery store, as well as some other stores. Behind the hotel is a parking garage (if you need to meet with folks living in Beijing — they will need a place to park — believe me a good choice for those of us who live in Beijing and have had to meet people coming to visit), across the street is an extension of the shopping area with some restaurants. The South Beauty Sichuan restaurant is a good choice. The rooms of the China World hotel are very posh — and the entire hotel is very beautiful.

Traders Hotel - this is a more budget oriented (business fare wise) hotel, member of the Shangri-La chain. The rooms are definitely a bit more worn out (in comparison with China World and Kerry Center) but still a relatively god deal given that the hotel has the same location as China World.

Kerry Center Hotel - this is considered one of the most visited business hotels in downtown Beijing. Another hotel part of the Shangri-La group, so your membership card for frequent stays in properties associated with Sheraton, Westin, Starwood, etc should work. The rooms in this hotel are good. However if you consider the price and quality, you may be slightly disappointed. Now, if you are new to Beijing, you should definitely consider this business hotel. The reasons are many — airport pickup service (will get you through immigration, etc. very fast), English speaking staff — will answer your many questions and make recommendations on restaurants, places to meet, place to go shop; location in a shopping mall - near by (underground or at same ground level) shops for food, clothing, pharmacy. So, all in all, a good choice for short visit and a good place to start your experience in Beijing.

• Area near the Temple of Heaven and HongQiao market

And finally if you want to be still near major sites like the Temple of Heaven, but in more low key hotel, then the Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven is a good choice. The hotel is new, the staff is very pleasant, and actually a good choice for stay in Beijing for someone familiar with the city and at least rudimentary knowledge of Chinese language. You will need those skills to navigate around (get a cab, ask for a place to be taken to, etc) — but the hotel is a good value. My wife and daughter stayed there in March of 2007 as we had moved from our Beijing house — and had an executive floor room with breakfast (in the business club lounge) for about RMB800 per night. An excellent deal!

And here is my daughter’s opinion on these hotels: (I am not kidding — these are her viewpoints — so take it from a 8 year old):

Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven — her rating is “Awesome!” Why? If you visit out of season, you will be one of the few guests and that means you get great service from the staff, and plenty of attention.

China World — a really fancy hotel, with a shopping center underground, very beautiful, with wonderful music being played in the lobby by a string orchestra + a piano

Here is an album with photos from hotels worldwide:

Hotel_Views

I will keep updating the set with images from multiple cities and regions. Keep checking back for more

China Polution takes center stage in various news/media publications

All of a sudden articles about China’s pollution problem are sprouting in multiple publications.  Here is the latest one — this time in Wired magazine (although they are also quoting Los Angeles Times)  …

Interesting to watch how all this is bubbling to the surface now — when China is starting to gather more noticeable economic strength.  Those who have lived in China over the past 10 years know that China’s environmental problem is no news — on the contrary — it has been a big issue for residents of that country.  (See also earlier postings in this blog)
However we also recognize that the issue is very closely linked with the rapid pace of modernization and manufacturing — at the end of the day it is all about the $$$ — or how to make those.  Usage of low capital investment - i.e. read not advanced and environmentally clean technologies has generated huge profits but also strained the environment in China.

The question now is “What will the Chinese Government do about it”??????

Do you want to go on a Safari in Beijing ? — a Trip to the Beijing Wildlife Park

Just recently someone asked me — “Is there a place to see wild animals in Beijing?”  Of course most people’s natural reaction is — “Go to the Beijing Zoo…!”

Well, I have something else for you — you may want to go to a place a bit off the beaten track (for China / Beijing) — the Beijing Wildlife Park (also referred to as the Beijing Safari Park).  The park is located on the Badaling Expressway — the same road that you may take to go to the Badaling section of the Great Wall.   If you are driving yourself — look for big signs to exit from the highway and follow signs to the place.

My family and friends of ours actually visited the park in the winter — it was a sunny, but cold day (you can see the snow patches on the ground — on the photos below) — but being relatively cold had its advantages — there were hardly any people in the park.

Once you get to the park you will have to stop your car and go and purchase entrance tickets (about RMB70 per adult and 50 for students, kids below 120cm as usual gain free admission).  Near the entrance you will also see a sign advertising the purchase of various small animals to “yes, you guessed it” feed the tigers and lions….

The park has a wide array of animals including some very rare White Siberian Tigers (see the photos above).

While in the park you can also have a glimpse of a section of the Great Wall — added bonus

And the final piece of information — you will be glad to know that you can drive your own car through the park — it is quite unnerving to slowly inch your way among several lions or tigers but it is also pretty exciting.  We felt relatively safe as we were one of the few people in the park and there were guards / park employees (you can see their jeep in at least one of the photos) near some of the electric gates.

At any rate, if you want to experience the thrill of having a lion, tiger, or a bear within an arm reach, this is the park to visit.  Happy travels!

If you doubted that Tour Guide companies lead you to shopping, now you have a proof

In discussions with some visitors to Beijing you would often hear their descriptions and some times complaints about the fact that they were lead to various stores or left for a long time at shopping arcades on visits to museums or historic sites around Beijing.  I personally do not think much of tours as options to see the city, but many people do participate.

At any rate, now  Sina.com reports that the Beijing Gov’t has not only confirmed (via their recent orders) that being the case, but are also mandating that the tour companies stop the practice.  Here is a link to the article: http://english.sina.com/life/1/2007/0424/110414.html

So, now that you know this, isn’t it better if you explore the city on your own

Information on one of the more established areas for expats in Beijing

I wanted to post a quick summary for those searching for information on places to live in Beijing…If you have a family with you and are looking for an area close to the WAB or ISB (International schools in Beijing), you may want to consider the area near by River Garden.  Included here is an image / map I prepared based on a Google Earth snapshot of the area:

In this area you can find not only River Garden (established community) and Eurovillage but also Capital Paradise (to the West of River Garden — not seen on the image here), and Leman Lake (next to River Garden — they share a wall, not seen on the image either).  All these developments are within 5-10 minutes by bus or bike from ISB and about 10-15 minutes from WAB (Western Academy of Beijing).  As you can see from the image above, this area also includes a fairly well established shopping plaza with the proverbial Jenny Lou’s supermarket as well as a bunch of restaurants — even a Domino pizza franchise outlet, services like a Vet clinic, medical office, a tailor, as well as some shops for clothing and shoes, and of course a golf driving range.
If you have questions on this area do not hesitate to drop me a line.