Beijing, China Travel Info

Photos & story by: Debbie Stock

Beijing, China — The center of government (People's Republic of China) is Beijing, with a whopping 21 million-plus residents. It's challenging for tourists from California to get a grip on just how big the city is, though similarities can be drawn between it and Los Angeles (over 10 million in LA County.)

Its history dates back millennia and is widely recognized through World Cultural Heritage Sites such as Imperial Palaces and Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including the Forbidden City and Mukden Palace, Peking Man site, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and nearby Great Wall.

Tourists surely have these on their bucket list, but also make sure to see Tiananmen Square containing Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

We arrived in China when there was still scant snow on the ground, the temperature was frosty and Beijing was heavily into smoke season, meaning the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Los Angeles with its well known pollution problems and traffic jams, is dwarfed by Beijing, and, in fact, some of the West Coast's air quality issues come directly from China as its pollution floats across the Pacific.    

After the overnight flight (around 13 hours) we arrived in Beijing in the early morning and grabbed a quick Starbucks in the airport before heading to the Temple of Heaven. In the large paved area near the Temple women (mostly) were doing morning exercises and the tourists tried to copy their slow movements of arms in the air and one foot up at a time. 

We made it to several of the must-see tourist traps such as The Great Wall of China which requires LOTS of stair climbing to catch a vista, and Palace Museum with Tiananmen Square that has massive crowds of international tourists. Most are of Asian descent--and we Caucasians were very much a minority, standing out like sore thumbs pretty much everywhere we went in China during our visit.

We had a group lunch prepared for us and the meal was a taste of what was to come--lots of oil in the meals leaving floating pools in every dish from cooked cabbage to small slices of chicken or beef in gravy sauce on a bed of rice.  The food was not particularly appetizing for the most part, and many quickly began searching out Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonalds.

The four-diamond Presidential Beijing Hotel provided a great night's rest before embarking on our 10 day journey across the country of China, flying from Beijing to Shanghai and putting many miles on the well-built roads and highways to popular attractions.

Beijing is a great place to begin your journey. The airport is the second busiest in the world so your chances of finding an affordable flight are much higher.