China

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

Letter prefixes on train numbers indicate the type of train. With the exception of the short maglev line in Shànghǎi, the fastest trains in China, running on dedicated high-speed lines at…

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

Some bus routes have prefixes and suffixes in Chinese characters. Occasionally, and mostly on out-of-town trips, there may be more than one bus with the same number, and then it’s important to…

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

Carts drawn by mules generally reach Peking in two days, but it has been done even in 26 hours. Sitting, however, in a cart without springs, and considering the bad road, it requires, besides a…

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

Check your passport: To obtain a China visa you must have at least six month’s validity remaining on your passport and two blank pages.

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

The home-grown entertainment is Běijīng opera (京剧, Jīng jù) for which the usual great antiquity is either claimed or assumed, but which is an early-19th century or at best late-18th century amalgam of ideas from puppet theatre…

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

There was a crowd perpetually round the tent: all our actions, all our belongings, were closely scrutinised — by the Mongols with vacant gravity, by the Chinese with magpie curiosity. ‘How much did this cost, Mr. Fu? How much did this…

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

Diplomats inevitably err on the side of caution, and the British Foreign Office often advises British independent travellers to register with them (in Běijīng t 8529 6600, latest advice at…