Browsing Category: Travel Tips

The Silk Road Didn’t Begin China’s Global Story: Foreign Influences on Qin and Han China One of the biggest surprises waiting inside the Qin and Han Civilization Museum is that China’s connection with the outside world did not begin with the Silk Road. Most of us imagine ancient China developing behind mountains and deserts, only opening to foreign civilizations when caravans began crossing Central Asia during the Han Dynasty. The museum quietly challenges that...

Most travellers only see airports as places to pass through. We see them differently. When planning our 18-day China journey, we deliberately scheduled our final day so we could spend several hours exploring Beijing Daxing International Airport (北京大兴国际机场) before our midnight flight home. That might sound unusual at first. After all, why would anyone voluntarily spend extra time at an airport? The answer became obvious the moment we entered the departure hall. Rather than...

When most people imagine Beijing, China, they think of the Forbidden City (故宫), Temple of Heaven (天坛), Tiananmen Square (天安门广场) or the Great Wall of China. Those are certainly must-see attractions during any Beijing trip. But after several visits to Beijing, Elaine and I discovered that some of our favourite travel memories happened away from the tourist crowds. This time, we stayed at Motel 168 (Beijing Lishuiqiao Metro Station), a budget hotel that turned out to be one of the best...

Like many first-time visitors to Beijing, I initially assumed we should stay somewhere close to the Forbidden City, Wangfujing or Qianmen. After all, that seemed to be where most tourists stayed. Then I started comparing hotel prices. The reality surprised me. Compared with many other Chinese cities such as Xi’an, hotel rooms in Beijing are noticeably more expensive, especially those inside or near the city centre. Budget hotels often came with compromises—small...

There were actually two seemingly impossible challenges. First, boarding a budget airline with only 7kg hand carry for an 18-day China trip. Second, doing exactly the same on the flight home after 18 days of souvenir hunting, book buying and local discoveries. How did we pull off both? Before our 18-day China trip, Dad gave Elaine a challenge. “Can we travel across China with only hand carry luggage?” Elaine looked at me....

Planning your first trip to Beijing, China can feel exciting… and slightly scary. After all, Beijing is not just another city. It is China’s capital, a city with more than 20 million people, thousands of years of history, ancient imperial palaces, modern skyscrapers, huge roads and one of the busiest subway systems in the world. Many first-time visitors planning their Beijing itinerary probably have the same questions: “Is Beijing easy to travel...