Late last year, my husband casually asked me if I’d like to
go to Beijing for my birthday. It was winters, there was no tour available, we
don’t speak mandarin, and we had very short time to prepare but those are not
the kind of details over which you’d refuse a trip, right?
I asked friends who had lived in China, I perused over
travel articles, I read through blog posts but nothing much (positive anyways)
was said about traveling to China in winters but we (a family of four) went
anyways. It was much easier to travel in winters than to change my birthdate and
thus began the journey. I thought I’d share my experience for any future travelers
who’d like to explore China during winter holiday break.
The last organized tour to China was offered during the
first week of November and after that the tourism industry goes into
hibernation. That just means better travel deals and less tourists. We booked
our hotel and flight package through Expedia and chose to stay close to
Forbidden City rather than Olympic Village which was the other option in this
bundle and is a much modern area compared to the heart of old town.
Since, it was low tourist season once we arrived at the
hotel, we got to pick between two very modern and beautiful suites after taking
the tour of each room and besides that our breakfast was included in the room price.
We like to find hotels which include breakfast during our vacations since it
sets us up for the day ahead for sightseeing/hiking as the case may be. The
breakfast room wasn’t crowded even though it was holiday season in the western
hemisphere and the chefs could easily entertain our requests for omelets and
soups.
Low tourist season meant that we could negotiate better deals
on local travel, we booked a package for visiting the Great Wall through our
hotel concierge. Before visiting Great wall, I had imagined it to be an overly
crowded section of an ancient, crumbling wall but thanks to our visit during
the winter season, we hardly had any folks with us on the wall. It is huge,
magnificent and beautifully restored. And best of all, no photo bombers in any
pictures. I could have sat and meditated there for hours before being disturbed
by any other visitor, and that is not the case in rest of the monuments that we
visited.
One of the biggest threat that our friends’ warned us
against was cold. Well, we knew it won’t be a problem with us being from
Minnesota. Our key pieces of clothing were long underwear (a couple of sets)
and lots of layering. Malls, Taxis and Subways are all air-conditioned so you
need to take off a few layers when you are indoors. Also, lots of walking (for
us) meant that layers were mostly off and sometimes on. Scarves, hats and
gloves were big help after the sun went down and if there was a breeze.
One big concern that DH had was the air quality. He
researched and found that air quality is bad during winters and smog lingers on
so he ordered these 3M masks from amazon to take us along the trip. They were
comfortable and we used it for the first couple days while walking on the road.
Most people tourists and locals alike wear masks so it wasn’t too awkward to
wear them all the time. But I took them out often since I didn’t want them in
all my pictures. Once we were inside a monument, building, I took them off completely.
On our third day in Beijing, there was a strong breeze that blew the smog away,
it made the air quality much better but the weather considerably chillier.
The best part about going on our own rather than being part
of a tour group was authentic Chinese food. The couple of bad food adventures we had
were when we were part of a tour (Great wall) or took a guide’s suggestion for
a restaurant (Xi’an), it was hugely overpriced, bad strip mall Chinese food. Otherwise
the food was excellent and local eateries are very helpful and would like to
serve you their best dishes. We had some very fun experiences when the locals
suggested to us the dishes we should order while at the restaurant. Will share those
in subsequent posts.
All my friends’ who have gone to China with a tour group complain
about the food, one experience that we can’t identify with. Food in Beijing was
excellent! The air quality issue persists during spring and summer as well, so
winter wasn’t really making it much worse. We also heard a lot from friends about
overcrowding and people rushing and pushing at all tourist places and not being
able to enjoy the sights because of that. Based on these inputs, we are glad we
went in winter and didn’t go with a tour group.
We made all our transportation bookings (High speed Rail and
sleeper rail) ourselves, there was always one window at the station ticket
counter where they spoke English. We mostly traveled in Subway train within town and
sometimes took Taxis. It was a great trip, where we were able to enjoy food,
sights and shopping at our own pace without any pressures and create some
wonderful family memories.
Please feel free to ask any specific questions if you are
planning a trip but I do plan to share pictures of all the sights we saw and
the experiences we had…
