Thorn Tree travel forum

1

The cost of the taxi is about $40 from the airport to the downtown. You can download a travel map of Beijing from chinatourmap.com It's more easier for you to arrange your itinerary in Beijing. Avoid to buy anything in the tourists shop. The price is much higher than the shop for the local Chinese. Good Luck!

2

In Beijing, a taxi to the Hilton Hotel from the airport will cost you about RMB50. (That's about US$6.) The Hilton s on the north east corner of the third ring road, about 45 minutes away from the centre of town, and Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. If you are going into town from there, go outside peak rush hour - the third ring road is a long car park at those times.

#1 has a good plan, although you could do the Lama Temple and Houhai hutong tours on the same day. I would stay away from the Silk Market and go to Ya Show, where the stall holders are quite as aggressive. It's also much closer to your hotel. Definitely try to go to Panjiayuan. If you don't need prescription glasses there's not much point in going to the Glasses City.

Cheating comes in two forms - the rare pickpocket, or the shopkeeper who ramps the price because you are a foreigner and don't know the real price. Do a sreach on these pages for the numerous postings on how to bargain with them.

By the way, the Hilton has a really nice up-market bar on the first floor, called Zeta. Nice place to chill out after a day's sightseeing.

Cheers, Paul.

3

Oh my. For your sightseeing and shopping please look at some guidebooks, or do a search/browse on this forum. These are FAQs!
Or at least tell us more about your sightseeing interests and preferences if you're looking for specific suggestions.
There's a direct airport hotel shuttle from Shanghai Pudong airport to the Hilton Hotel that would cost you only 30 RMB each. Much better than taxi, especially since if you have 5 people -- taxis take a maximum of 4 passengers only.
Cheers!