Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SKIING
Nanshan
60km northeast of the city 010 89091909,
nanshanski.com
; bus #980 from
Dongzhimen bus station to Miyun Xidaqiao (
￥
14), then taxi (about
￥
20), or direct shuttle
bus (
￥
40) daily 8.30am from Wudaokou subway (line 13).
The best of Beijing's ski resorts,
with thirteen 1500m-long runs. For snowboarders there are two kickers, a mini pipe and more
than a dozen boxes and rails, and there's also sledging and cable gliding. Entrance
￥
20, 2hr
skiing session
￥
120 Mon-Fri,
￥
180 Sat & Sun; gear rental will come to just under
￥
100.
Qiaobo Mellow Park
6 Shun'an Lu, Sunyi 010 84972568,
www.mellowparks.cn
;
bus
#915 from Dongzhimen bus station.
The city's best indoor snowboard slope. A 2hr session
costs
￥
210 Mon-Fri,
￥
250 at weekends, and a little less at night; equipment rental is
￥
100
for the set.
SNOOKER AND POOL
Pool
and
snooker
are very popular in China, and increasingly so thanks to the exploits of loc-
al stars such as Ding Junhui, who won the
China Open
in 2005 - an event watched on televi-
sion by an estimated 110m across the land. A great many want to follow in his footsteps, and
some locals are expert cue-wielders; you can take them on at any number of places around
town (some say there are over 2000), so just ask at your accommodation for the nearest. It'll
be around
￥
20 per hour for a table, and even at swankier venues, beer is usually available.
SWIMMING
Avoid
swimming pools
at the weekends, when they're full of teenagers doing just about
everything but swimming. Bear in mind that some
hotels
open their lavish pools and gym
facilities to non-guests; we've listed the most impressive of them below.
HOTEL POOLS
CITIC Hotel
9 Xiaotianzhi Nanlu 010 64565588,
citichotelbeijing.com
.
For family
pool fun, this hotel (formerly the
Sino-Swiss
) up by the airport has hot springs and the capit-
al's only indoor-outdoor pool.
￥
130/day.
Doubletree by Hilton
168 Guang'anmen Waidajie
010 63381888,
Ritz-Carlton
1 Jinchengfang Dongjie
010 66016666,
ritzcarlton.com
;
Fuchengmen
subway (line 2).
￥
220/day.
WestinChaoyang
1 Xinyuan Nanlu 010 59228888,
starwoodhotels.com
; Liangmaqiao
subway (line 10).
￥
250 for a weekend pass.
