Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The area around
Xizhimen
is one of the city's transport hubs, and many pass through it on
their way to the Summer Palace. However, there are a few interesting sights along the road
heading west of the railway station; these include two great
temples
, and the city
zoo
.
Beijing Exhibition Hall and around
北京展览馆
, běijīng zhǎnlǎn guǎn • Xizhimenwai Dajie • 010 68316677,
bjexpo.com
• Beijing Zoo sub-
way (line 4)
Built by the Russians in 1954, and easily distinguishable by its slim, star-topped spire, the
giant
Beijing Exhibition Hall
is by far the city's best overtly communist construction - a
work of grandiose Socialist Realism with fine details, including heroic workers atop columns
carved with acorns. It's certainly worth inspection; though its cavernous halls are usually
closed, the architecture can be appreciated from side-roads to the east and west.
The road on the east side leads to the dock for
boats to the Summer Palace
. Head up the
alley on the west side and you'll come to the city's oldest Western restaurant, the
Moscow
-
the food is mediocre, but check out the grand decor if you're passing.
The zoo and the aquarium
动物园
, dòngwùyuán • Xizhimenwai Dajie •
Zoo
Daily April-Oct 7.30am-6pm; Nov-March 7.30am-5pm
Aquarium
Daily 10am-4.30pm; dolphin shows daily 10am & 2.30pm • All-inclusive tickets
￥
130, children
￥
70, children under 1.2m free; zoo-only tickets
￥
40 •
010 68390274,
www.bjzoo.com
• Beijing Zoo
subway (line 4)
Beijing's city
zoo
is most worth visiting for its panda house. Here you can join the queues
to have your photo taken sitting astride a plastic replica of the creature, then push your way
through to glimpse the living variety - kept in relatively palatial quarters and familiar through
the much-publicized export of the animals to overseas zoos for mating purposes. While the
pandas lie on their backs in their luxury pad waving their legs in the air, other animals (less
cute or less endangered) slink, pace or flap around their miserable cells. The children's zoo,
with plenty of farmyard animals and ponies to pet, is rather better, and the new
Beijing
Aquarium
, in the northeast corner of the compound, is surprisingly good. As well as thou-
sands of varieties of fish, including sharks, it has a twice-daily
dolphin show
.
Wuta Temple
五塔寺
, wútǎ sì • Wutasi Lu, off Zhongguancun Nandajie • Daily 9am-4.30pm •
￥
20; free to first 300 visitors
on Wed • National Library subway (lines 4 & 9)
The canalside
Wuta Temple
boasts a central hall radically different from any other sacred
building you'll see in the capital. Completed in 1424, it's a stone cube decorated on the out-
side with reliefs of animals, Sanskrit characters and Buddha images - each has a different
hand gesture - and topped with five layered, triangular spires. It's visibly Indian in influence,
and is said to be based on a temple in Bodhgaya, where the Buddha gained enlightenment.
There are 87 steps to the top, where you can inspect the spire carvings at close quarters - in-
