Part of the Language section of A Better Guide to Běijīng

The Emperors once forbade their subjects to teach foreigners Chinese on pain of death. Never shy of considering their jurisdiction to be global, they also forbade…

Part of the Language section of A Better Guide to Běijīng

You may not want to learn Mandarin, and you certainly don’t need to learn the language in order to travel independently in China, but for those who’d like at least to have some idea how it works, here’s a rough…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s Practical A-Z

Tours to China from overseas

The purpose of organised tourism in China is to separate you from as much money as possible while delivering as little value as possible, and simultaneously delivering…

Part of the Travel section of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s Practical A–Z

From the Airports

For full details of airport services including shopping, dining, train tickets, and wi-fi see Getting Away.

Part of the Travel section of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s Practical A–Z

200,000 vehicles enter Běijīng from surrounding areas every day to join over 5.5 million vehicles registered in the capital, or so local research says. In 2011, although it took China Daily…

Part of the Travel section of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s Practical A–Z

By Air

Buying Air Tickets

飞机票 fēijī piào air tickets

Part of the Travel section of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s Practical A–Z

Despite the manic driving, travelling by taxi in Běijīng is safe, inexpensive, and convenient when done with intelligence. Select your taxi according to the following recommendations…

Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng

This is an alphabetical directory of Běijīng’s metro stations that lists for each one every nearby sight or useful service mentioned in this book, bus links (b) to sights further afield, and other practical information for that station. See…

Part of the Travel section of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s Practical A–Z

In Lanchow the authorities, when they gave us back our papers, had assured us that they were in order for Chinghai. But they were not; before sending us on to Sining, Lanchow should have provided us…