'China Travel: Beijing' ↓

Since last week, the Beijing authority has been placing bikes in more than 100 hotels for the free use of tourists. It is intended that a total of 10,000 bikes will be placed in these hotels, with each hotel getting an average of 20 bikes.

This new measure is obviously for welcoming in Olympics. However, the good news is that the bikes will still be kept in the hotels for tourists’ free use, even after the Olympics. So ask about free bikes if you stay in a Beijing hotel. You may stand a chance to get one.

Beijing’s Qianmen Dajie (Front Door Main Street) was the city’s busiest and most famous business street during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The street, in decline since the mid 20th century, has recently been restored to its look in its prime, lined with wooden buildings and decorated in “old Beijing” style. Famous traditional Beijing eateries are grouped into a corner of the street.

To be reminiscent of the “old Beijing”, the place has a tram running, which was a familiar Beijing sight from 1924 to 1966. The tram’s whole journey is about 10 minutes, crossing the whole breadth of the street of more than 800m.

The restored Qianmen Dajie has been open to the public since May 2008, after a 2-year facelift work. 

     
It is common knowledge for the Beijing locals that, if you want to buy books, go for the array of bookstores converging in the Haidian area(海淀區) , where all the prominent universities are located, such as Qinghua University or Beijing University.

Since May 2007, the bookstore area called Book City (圖書城) has been given a facelift by the authorities, with grey as the standardized color of the area, and allowing only bookstores or culture related businesses in operation. Some new bookstores have moved in.

Though the color of the City is drab, it now boasts hosting some of the “vanguard” bookstores in China, such as the reputedly first and only 24 hour bookstore Guang He Zuo Yong (photosynthesis, 光合作用), focusing on lifestyle books with coffee shop attached, and the giant Di San Ji (The Third Pole﹐第三極) bookstore, which claims to be the biggest bookstore in the world with the widest choice of books. I am not sure its claim is valid but the bookstore has become a new force in Beijing’s book industry, with its 20,000 sq meters of floor areas and 300,000 books on offer. The Beijing University is just around its corner.

In the Book City, you can also find secondhand and specialty bookstores, galleries, stationery shops, and so on.

Foreign visitors may think the Book City offers Chinese books only and hence irrelevant to them. Wrong. You can also find English books, Japanese books and Korean books here. In the Di San Ji bookstore, for instance, one area is devoted to second hand foreign language books, including some real bargain second hand English books.

Beijing’s new air terminal, Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport, reputedly the world’s largest airport building, will start trial operations this Friday, 29 Feb. 

The new terminal will have 64 restaurants, 90 shops and a high-speed commuter train that will transport passengers to the city centre. And its runway is big enough to handle the huge Airbus A380 superjumbo. Its floor space, to match up to its reputation as the world’s largest airport building,  is nearly 100 hectares.

The building, designed by the famous British architect Lord Foster, is decked out in red columns and gold roof, the typical “Chinese elements”, an evocation of the imperial palaces in ancient China.

What interests me most is that the state media hailed its world-record pace of construction – finished in under four years. But not to forget that it also means a world-record pace of destruction - more than 10,000 villages have been demolished over a short period of time to pave way for the construction.

And the fast pace is intended - to open the new air terminal in time for the Olympics in August when a huge number of visitors are expected and the current airport capacity can hardly cope.

How expensive is the rent during the Olympics months in Beijing this summer? A two-room apartment of about 115 square meters, which is not more than half-a-hour walk from the major Olympic venues, will cost RMB14,500 in monthly rent, according to reports. The apartment’s current monthly rent is only RMB3,000.

In China, there is a special name for apartments like this - they call it “Olympic housing”. It refers to apartments near major Olympic venues, fully equipped with electrical appliances and furniture, and new - completed after year 2000. It is predicted that the rent will start to climb from May, culminating in August when the Games are held.

Hotel price, predictably, will also go up by four to six times over the same period. So if you plan to go to Beijing to watch the Olympics, plan for the accommodation now.

You can find websites devoted to housing/accommodation service during the Beijing Olympics, such as this one. Sorry, though, it is in Chinese language only.

Starting early this month, the direct train service between Hong Kong and Shanghai/Beijing will use more modern trains. It is said the deluxe soft sleeper room has been upgraded to be like a mobile hotel, equipped with bathroom, TV with LCD high-definition monitor, sofa and wardrobe, not to mention its own air condition.

The Hong Kong MTR company (www.mtr.com.hk), which runs the service, is offering  discounts on this occasion of new train introduction.  If you buy the ticket in Hong Kong, you will have a 10% to 20% discount, depending on if it is a single-way or round-trip ticket. A one-way ticket for Deluxe Soft Sleeper, for instance, costs HK$1072 after discount. The offer is valid until the end of June this year.

The Beijing-Hong Kong Through Train and the Shanghai-Hong Kong Through Train operate on alternate days, taking about 24 & 20 hours respectively.

Check out here for details.