Beijing is huge, so take your time to explore the city. The traffic is very busy during rush hour so visit one or maybe two attractions a day is enough. You can do these activities next to visiting the Historical Imperial Buildings and the New Beijing Buildings and the Bucket list Great Wall! See all in my separate blogs.
1. Food Tour through the Hutongs
The question is, can you manage the real Chinese food?! Chinese food in the morning is indeed a challenge, but after this Hutong Tour you won’t have to eat anymore for the rest of the day. In this tour you will get to experience the real Chinese food culture and you walk through the narrow streets of the traditional residential areas of Beijing, the Hutongs. You visit many beautiful houses and sacred places. Great to have the variety of food, walking, culture and history in one tour!
The combination is perfect including a guide who tells everything in Englisch and buys the food in the typical local restaurants. She will take into account your flavors or dietary wishes; she didn’t serve us too crazy and strange dishes, but a little out of our comfort zone was fun and also tasty I must say. So highly recommended to do this Hutong Food Tour!
2. Panda Spotting in the Zoo
This was high on my bucket list, watching a Panda in China. Never saw a Panda before so time to go to the Beijing Zoo. The funny thing was that I was more of an attraction in the Zoo than the Panda haha! It was crowded at the Panda House; the pandas are immensely popular among the Chinese people as well. The pandas bears are too cute, with the charming black patches around the eyes and ears, sitting and laying while eating the bamboo all day.
The size of the panda is smaller than I imagined, around ±150 cm weighing ±120 kg, but still they are called giant pandas. The pandas are recognized as the national icon of China. The rest of the Beijing Zoo is also worth to visit, with over 14 thousand animals over 900 species of land and marines animals it has the largest animal collection of China.
3. Rent an Electric Boat at Kunming Lake, Summer Palace
A nice activity to do when visiting the Summer Palace is to rent an electric boat and cross the Kunming Lake. The views are spectacular on the Summer Palace and sail under the Seventeen-Arch Bridge (Shiqikon Qiao). The Seventeen-Arch bridge connects the east shore of Kunming Lake and the Nanhu Island and is 150 meters long with 17 arches in different sizes decorated with 544 lions all in white marble. You can rent a pedalo boat or much more fun an electric-powered boat for ￥130 per hour, which is enough to explore the lake. Great activity besides walking the Summer palace park!
4. Stroll the Houhai Lakes
After our visit of the Jingshan Park to watch over the Forbidden City we took a rickshaw to take us to the Houhai lakes. But this was a mistake, the guy did a full Sanyanjing Hutong Tour. A stop at The Temple Hotel with Fendi pop-up exception and an old imperial city wall. After the tour we stopped near the Houhai lake and walked the last part. Houhai, which means Back Sea, is one of the three interconnected lakes in north of downtown Beijing.
It is a great outdoor area perfectly spotting locals in their daily lives. The lake is surrounded by bars, restaurants and the lake itself is entertainment for boating, fishing, swimming and ice-skating in winter. The lake is perfect to get a good ice cream. Great and chill vibe here, in the busy and full city!
5. Shopping in Beijing
Beijing is a shopping Wahalla! The Pearl market or Hongqiao market is located opposite the east entrance of the Temple of Heaven Park. In this building there are hundreds of shops and stalls, with a lot of absolutely everything; jewelry, clothing, shoes, electronic equipment, name it! Thanks to my girlfriend’s tips and information, we knew where to go and bought the best and most beautiful stuff. Before I came to Beijing, I already placed some orders for Nike shoes and designer bags. I bought the latest Apple iPad on location and everything else will be delivered to your accommodation within a few days. The designer sunglasses with custom-made reading part, were ready within a day. At a secret location in the Pearl market we went to pick up the designer bags and of course bought another one; it makes you greedy! The question of whether it is fake or real lies in the middle, and in any case it is indistinguishable from the real products. It’s cheaper for sure, so I’ve secretly earned that flight back!
Ready to explore the Great Wall of China!!
