The month-long 2010 World Cup “destroys” my routine life. But one thing I still keep on doing is reading. I’ve been reading a 410-page novel “The Great Wall” written by John Man. He is a great storyteller as well as a historian. John Man is an expert on the Great Wall of…
Polite and knowledgeable tour guides are much sought after by foreign tourists who want to hire private tour guides to make most of their trips to Beijing China. So, how to find these helpful and resourceful tour guides? Usually foreign tourists rely on the following channels to locate private tour guides: 1) Travel Forum and Travel Review Websites: like Tripadvisors.com, Virtualtourist.com…
With the closure of Simatai Great Wall, the volume of hiking Jinshanling Great Wall will increase greatly. To have a snowball effect, the local Jinshanling adminstration stipulates that travelers can use one ticket for multi-day hiking at Jinshanling on the condition that they stay overnight at Jinshanling Hotel. Jinshanling and Simatai are the only…
June 12, 2010, we went to Chengde from Beijing by coach along the Jingcheng Expressway. Though the expressway was completed and opened to the public on Sept 27, 2009, it was my first time to enjoy the its speed and comfort. Jingcheng Expressway is 209.1km in length with 132.4 km in Beijing and 76.7 in…
This year’s Duanwu Festival falls on June 16, 2010. Duanwu Festival is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. Duanwu Festival is also known as Dragon Boat Festival. Duanwu Festival is celebrated in memory of the famous Chinese scholar Qu Yuan. He was a loyal minister serving…
On June 10, 2010, we got a fax from Simatai Great Wall Administration to the effect that Simatai Great Wall is going to be closed since June 17, 2010 for the local government is going to rebuild Simatai Scenic Area and the opening date is unknown. We were all shocked at the disappointing news….
Beijing dwellers have the longest average commutation time from work to home, 52 minutes commute on average. In other words, Beijing has a largest number of commuters in China. Each day people get up around 6:00am. Some bike into work; some ride the subway; other either take a taxi or driver a car to…