Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CITY TOUR COMPANIES
Beijing Sideways
beijingsideways.com
.
Dash around Beijing in a sidecar, its adjoining
motorbike driven by a local expat. Plenty of options available, including
hutong
tours, night
tours, and trips to the Great Wall.
BikeBeijing
133 81400738,
bikebeijing.com
.
Small company with a big reputation,
thanks to their excellent programme of rides to areas in and around Beijing. They've
everything from half-day
hutong
jaunts to 15-day grassland excursions; see their wwebsite
for full details.
CITS
cits.net
; branches include; Parkson Building, 103 Fuxingmen Dajie 010
66011122 (daily 9am-5pm); the Beijing Hotel, 33 Dongchang'an Jie 010 65120507; and
the New Century Hotel, opposite the zoo 010 68491426.
This state-run behemoth is the
biggest operator, though certainly not the best. They offer tours of the city and surroundings,
and advance ticket booking within China for trains, planes and ferries, with a commission of
around
￥
30 added to ticket prices.
City Bus Tour
400 6500760,
www.citybustour.com
.
Runs similar standard city tours
to those run by
CITS
but scores for convenience, since you can book online. Their coaches
are modern and you'll have an English-speaking guide.
The Hutong
thehutong.com
.
This excellent outfit runs some interesting tours, includ-
ing informative culinary and tea-market trips.
THE MEDIA
Hopes that a newly wealthy, post-Olympics China would relax its hard line on dissent
havebeendashed;ifanything,theheavyhandofthestatecensorhastightenedsincethe
Games.AllChinesemediaissoheavilycontrolledthatitshouldn'tbereliedon,though
the country's increasingly net-savvy populace is finding new ways to source informa-
tion.
Newspapers and magazines
Despite the censorship, the official English-language
newspaper
, the
China Daily
(
china-
daily.com.cn
)
, is a decent enough read; surprisingly, the same can be said of the
Global Times
(
globaltimes.com.cn
), an offshoot of the nationalistic
People's Daily
. Imported news pub-
lications (sometimes censored) such as
Time
and
The Economist
, and Hong Kong's
South
China Morning Post
(
scmp.com
), can be bought at shops in four- and five-star hotels.
There are a number of
free magazines
aimed at the expat community, which contain up-
to-date entertainment and restaurant listings and are available at expat bars and restaurants.
Look for
The Beijinger
(
thebeijinger.com
)
,
City Weekend
(
cityweekend.com.cn/beijing
)
