Beijing winter

Have any of you been in Beijing during the Winter? I plan to go there in February and wondered what you can tell me.

I welcome any comments but also have a specific question:

Everyone warns about the crowds at Badaling Great Wall but I can't imagine that being true in February. Is that accurate?

....and for those who have been to Beijing but not in the winter, what can you tell me about transportation?

I have researched getting to the Great Wall and attractions downtown but I prefer to hear from someone who has actually done it.

I've been there in the winter, we lived there (briefly) in 2008.

I have no idea about crowds at the Great Wall. We never went there.

February in Beijing is cold and bleak. There are neither trees nor plants. Pollution levels are off the charts--literally. The US Embassy in Beijing has their own air monitoring system, and a couple of weeks ago the Beijing pollution readings were literally "off the charts", so high that their equipment had no way to gauge it. The Beijing airport was closed (again) as smog made visibilty so poor--200 meters--that planes could not land.

Winter in Beijing has little rain and on top of the ungodly smog, there is Gobi desert dust that blows in.

In February 2008 we went out for an afternoon of looking around to the Forbidden Palace (meh). Upon going back out onto the street to find our way home, there was a street sign directing to Tienamen Square. After asking around a bit we discovered that we were looking at Tienamen Sq. right across the street. But we couldn't see it for the smog. If it hadn't been for the street sign we would never have known it it was right in front of us.

There is nothing left of China in Beijing. Freeways, skyscraper shopping malls, stainless steel highrises as far as they eye can see in any direction. Freeways, highrises, freeways, highrises. No China. Think Houston or Dallas on steroids and ramp the pollution up to `chimney`.

My advice to you would be to visit a section of the Great Wall that is far far away from Beijing.

Wow, you paint a bleak picture. I just checked Forbe's list of the 25 most polluted cities in the world, and Beijing isn't even listed.

Have you ever been to Manila?

Forbes....whatever....

Check this Chinese video. English is not necessary to see how bad the pollution is. (brief fried chicken commercial at start)
http://tv.sohu.com/20111103/n324379857.shtml

And the recent airport shutdown as reported by the Telegraph (and a zillion other news sources)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthn ... ution.html

So you have these sources of evidence, plus my first hand experience....

But if you'd rather believe in some kind of rating algorithm dreamed up by Forbes, it's your vacation money.

Oh my goodness, haha, I didn't say I don't believe you. I'm just trying to "picture" how the pollution might be, in comparison to places I've already experienced.

That's why I asked if you have ever been to Manila.

Thank you for your replies, all information helps.

My girlfriend and I were in Beijing for about 10 days in late December and early January.

It's true that the air quality is pretty poor. Smog was often thick, and we both had sore throats from time to time because of it. That said, it was better than some other Chinese cities we've been to since. We actually saw blue skies in Beijing on some days.

As for the Great Wall, we didn't visit it on this trip (we'd to been Beijing before in June, 2010 and went then.) I'd skip Badaling myself and go to some other section. Badaling is pretty much just a modern reconstruction of the wall. While it looks nice, you can visit other sections near the city that have a better mix of real, historical wall and some pretty reconstructed parts.

And while there is plenty of traffic, skyscrapers and shopping malls, there's still worthwhile stuff in the city.

The summer palace is lovely, and not nearly as busy in winter as it is in summer. The military museum is a fascinating (if a bit ridiculous) look at how the government (and many of the people) of the country view their military history. The various temples are all reconstructions to some degree or another, but many of them are still beautiful and worth visiting. Tiananmen in general, and queuing up with the crowds to file past Mao's preserved corpse in particular, are interesting experiences. There's lots of good food to be found, and as a Chinese mate of mine pointed out, it's probably the best place to try the food from China's many regions without visiting all of them.

Most of the traditional hutong neighbourhoods have been torn down, and many of the surviving ones have been turned into tourist attractions and/or gentrified neighbourhoods full of fancy cafes and boutique shops. What you make of this will depend on you.
There are still a few "real" hutongs left though, which remain as real, living communities and are great to wander around.

The lack of vegetation (especially in winter) can make the city look pretty grim. But the public parks can be somewhat charming, with lots of Chinese out practising their hobbies (singing, dancing, tai chi, swordplay, you name it.)

There's a lot to dislike about Beijing, but we found there was a lot to like about it too.

Oswiu,

Thank you for such well written and detailed information!

I didn't know about being able to view Mao's corpse. Where exactly is that located?

An additional question for anyone: The temples and palaces sound intriguing, but we don't want to spend our entire trip visiting just buildings.

What else is there to do there, the more unique the better. I like to return home with "experiences", not just visitations.

Beijing can't be that bad, can it?

When I was in Shanghai during the World Expo, I left with the impression that China wasn't as dirty or as polluted as people usually made it out to be so to read that you can't see the Great Wall because of the pollution, is just an exaggeration, right?

I was in Beijing a few days in Nov 09, could see the wall fine in the sunshine, it had snowed a couple days before, was cool but nice. We had one day with a bit of haze in the air but no worse than Toronto on a bad day.

Judging by some of the other statements in the negative post, me thinks the lady doth protest too much!

NyPhil wrote:Oswiu,
I didn't know about being able to view Mao's corpse. Where exactly is that located?

An additional question for anyone: The temples and palaces sound intriguing, but we don't want to spend our entire trip visiting just buildings.

What else is there to do there, the more unique the better. I like to return home with "experiences", not just visitations.

Mao's remains are on display in a special hall in Tiananmen square. Just go to the square and there's no missing it. It's open Tuesday through Sunday. There's often a long queue, and bags, cameras and just about everything else are prohibited inside, so dress warmly and have a place to leave your stuff while you visit!

Acrobatics shows are often a bit touristy, but are really, really cool. If it's not busy they often upgrade everyone's tickets to fill up the front rows, so I reckon you're best off just buying the cheapest ones.

As for less conventional stuff, there was supposed to have been a huge (pet) dog market near where we were staying in Tongzhou way out in the city's east end. We never managed to find it, but if you do I reckon that'd be a really cool "off the beaten track" type experience.

I was in China during winter.... Its not too unlike the east coast as far as weather and smog... I just wanted to put in a plug for this hostel that I stayed at in Beijing:

http://www.chinesebox.hostel.com

Cheers,
Renee

Winter is not the best time to be in Beijing but you can still have a great time and there are advantages.

For example you will not get the normal crowds at hot spots like the Forbidden City (beautiful to see after the snow) and the queues at Mao Zedong's Mausoleum will be much shorter

Badaling is always crowded even in winter. The only difference is you have more elbow room. My suggestion is you either visit Mutianyu has a fair few people but not crowded like Badaling or, if you want a bit of an adventure, visit Gubeikou.

For a good hotel in Beijing, I recomend King Joy's Hotel. A dorm bed cost around 40rmb a night and the views from the 6th floor bar are awesome. Also just 10 minutes walk from Tiananmen.