Beijing Life ^0^ -the places and transportation-

Beijing Life

24 February 2011-present

Hiii, im back!!!! :D

After long time not blogging, I feel weird. Like theres something missing. Lols. Sorry to not posting for a while, because I must review, review and review, so I can catch the lessons. :P (50% true,50% just the reason) Honestly the main reason is because I must finished the books that I brought from Indonesia, so I can give to my cousin, to bring it latter when he nack to Indonesia. Im staying here, because im planning to stay 1 year only here, so its better for me to stay. I can improve my Chinese, and travelling around China. This 14 July, I will be travelling to Shanghai, Suzhou, etc with some friends who stay here. They are Felicia-Aling, Novi, Ade, Andi, Ani, and Cc Silvana. Okay, back to the main topic then. :P

So, I was going to Beijing, China based on the plan before. My dad really want me to study Chinese, and because learning languages is one of my passion, I agreed with his plan. So, after I graduate..i backpack to Australia, then I teach art and basic lessons for elementary school students. And on December 2011, I was taking Chinese course at Cerdas Bangsa. Cerdas Bangsa is an agent who help people study abroad to China and also they have courses too. The general and the incentive one. I took the incentive one. There are 4 basics, I took Basic one and two. :p for sure!!! :P I never learn Chinese before.  The incentive class have the tight schedule, more hours than the normal, and also more additional lesson. 9 hours/week.

After I finished the class and enlisted for the Winter Class, I arrange all of documents, like visa, and the important documents that I must bring. On 22 February 2010, I depart with Garuda Indonesia. I and my classmates in Cerdas Bangsa have different destination. Some are the same, like Martin(my cousin), Felicia(Martin’s girlfriend), Shelly, David, Evan, Adolf and Nori. And some others were going To GuangZhou and Shanghai. The maximum weight of baggage is only 30 kg. It sounds much, but actually its not. I just brought something important, but the fact I have 3 kg overweight. Haha. And be aware with the airport’s scale! They added the weight around 5 kgs. Its crazy!

Okay then..when we arrived, we felt so cold. Freezing, I revised. Because its still winter, and the temperature was around -5 degrees. When we’re speak, we can see vapor out from our mouth that indicate how cold the weather is. Everytime I go, I always wore complete suits. Sweaters, scarf, long coat, socks, long john, cappucons, gloves, even masker and ears cover. Lols.

First time I arrived at Beijing, I feel dazzled with the environments and the city’s situation. I must admitted that China’s improvement is speedy. I thought China is dirty, a bit vile and still ancient. I thought that because of the China’s movie and heard from people who went to China. But in fact, China is incredibly modern! Seriously! There are many malls here, and there is the most sophisticated place in Beijing, called ‘Sanlitun’. The area consists of stores with the outdoor concepts, like Adidas, Mango, Uniqlo, etc. And there is the biggest Apple store that I ever seen, and also bars, cafes, and there are restaurants where have great ambience, yummy foods and nice service! Some are in Sanlitun shopping area, some are in Stadium Area. I will talk about the foods later, specific in the culinary tour. :P (I always excited talk about food :p) Most people who hang out at Sanlitun are tourists. American or European tourists (Caucasian) and some other asian like Indonesian, Korean, and Japanese. I do love Sanlitun. ^^

Near Sanlitun, theres a great place too named ‘The Place’. Its really a fantastic place to hang out! J if you go from my place (fuwaixikou, fuchengmen) by MRT(ditie), you just have to follow the line. The end of line 2, because we’re in line 2. J or if you want go by taxi, you can stop the taxi in front of Tian yi. The price approximately 30 yuan.

I will talk about the great place to hang out later. ;) Sanlitun is one of the examples. :P

Beijing itself is a big city(just like Jakarta, or even bigger). China is a certain of the communist, and it still communist til now. But the different between China and North Korea(for example), China is welcome to any aspect development, like technology, culture and everything. We all know that China have the strong history, culture, heritage and tradition, and China try to be open minded, so China grows so fast in every aspect, especially in business. Nowadays, most every country in the world using China’s product. They’re import the China’s product because of the cheap cost, so no wonder they do the manufactures in China. So, no wonder China become one of the rich country in the world. China’s income don’t need to be question anymore.  Actually, China itself doesn’t really need the income from the inhabitant. The communist country just sell their own product and never let their people buy the import product, so they never import products from other countries. But nowadays, China already import many products, like branded products. But the price is so unbelievable high. Like, so so high. Its even 3 times more expensive than in my country. But, I think it still can be called advancement. J

You must be so happy about the transportation in Beijing! Beijing have the cheapest transportation fee among the other cities. You only have spend 0,4 yuan for the bus, anywhere you gou. And 2 yuan for MRT (ditie) anywhere you go. Sounds nice, right? ;) I feel so happy too about this! But, remember.. everything HERE have deposit. So, you must buy the transportation card first, it cost 80 yuan. 50 yuan for the fill, and 30 yuan for the deposit. So don’t lost it! If you don’t use your card when you’re going by bus you must pay one yuan or up to two yuan depends on the bus and how far you go, so pls note that you ALWAYS bring your card anywhere you go! ;) And if you have another card that you often use, like room card for example, you can just bring it together and put into the cute pocket. Hehe. The cute pocket have many variation of model and pictures, like hello kitty and anime or even actress. Anything that you like. And you can put sticker on it. Cute, right? ;) The price is 1 yuan each sticker. You can buy that in Tian Yi( near my school, I will explain it later) or just along the street. BLCC (Beijing Language the and Culture College) my school is based in the middle, which is really convenience because its strategic. J well, BLCC or you can call Beijing Hua Wen Xue Yuan is the language school for tourists, and subsidized by government. There are good thing and bad thing about BLCC. I will tell the good one first. The good things are: like I told you before, the place is strategic and its easy for us to go anywhere. Plus, near here there is market, traditional market, many kinds of malathang, the nearest mall call Ganjiakou and beside us there is the famous Tian Yi where you can but all the house furnishing, equipment and amenities there. Even many stores I the mall buy their accecories from here, because Tian Yi itself sell both individual and wholesale. And the other benefit is you can go travelling around Beijing every 2 weeks FREE and the end of mid smester we can choose one of many destination that they offer, like me before(JiangXi, Shanghai or Xi An) with the best tour and we just have to pay half of the price or even less. We pay 1500 yuan before for every destination. Really a great deal! And for language, its known already that BLCC is the best school for language, and they have longer class hours.

And I will tell you what the bad things from BLCC: there’re too many Indonesian and Thailand, which is really bad for me, Indonesian. I must speak Chinese oftenly or every day if I want to improve my Chinese, but in fact is because Indonesian everywhere I always talk Indonesian here everyday, except in the class. How horrible is it! So, in every chance I always insist my friends to talk Chinese. That’s why I choose roommate from other countries beside Indonesia, but she’s from Mauritius, and she speak French and English, so I speak English with her. Aaaaa…. But now, I like really really must speak Chinese. Seriously!!!!

BLCC is placed at Fuwaixikou, Fuchengmen, near Dong Wu Yuan. J

Placed that must be visited in Beijing!! :

I have several recommendation for the place in Beijing, whether ancient or modern. J

Well, lets talk about the ancient place first:

Sure, if you go to Beijing, you want to look the ancient place, things, heritage of China. Because we all know that China is known of their’s ancient things.

1.      Great Wall  ( Chang Cheng )

I think I don’t have to explain much about great wall, because Great Wall is one of the 7 wonders in the world. ;) I went to Great Wall with school by bus, 2 hours voyage from school. Its quite far, because Great Wall isn’t really based in the middle of the city, but its outer of the city. But, still based in Beijing. Great Wall itself is so incredible! I still can’t imagine million of people build that from one dynasty til the last dynasty. Because if you look there, the bridge is soooooooooo longgggggg. You obviously can’t finish it. Lols. The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. Great Wall is first built by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang between 220- 206 BC from Qin Dynasty, and it still rebuild and maintain through 16^th century. Imagine! How many decades it is! You must know there are thousands of people dead during build this great wall and they buried inside the wall… huff.. may they rest in peace. I admitted that I felt weird when I wak on that, because it remind me eith the dead peoples. You can read the complete history of Greatwall in Wikipedia. ;)

2.      1. Tian An Men

Tian An Men Square is the second largest square in the world. And like the other China’s ancient place or any place that you can named it, it also huge and there are many of gates and surround by wall and a kind of lake. Tian An men Gate was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1415. You can also go by bus 103 from Fuchengmen or other number of bus depends from place where you from. 

3.      2. Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan)

Is also a palace that based in Beijing, and mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. The ticket price is 30 yuan/person, and if you want to enter all the rooms there you must pay 60 yuan/person. But if you’re study in China, you just need to show your student card and just pay 18 yuan/person. J In here you can find a variety of pavilions, palace, garden, and other ancient architectural style.

4.     3.  Old Summer Palace (Yuan Ming Yuan)

Yuan Ming Yuan originally called The Imperial Gardens, built in the 18^th century, and known for its extensive collection of garden and building architectures and other work of arts. The construction beganin 1707. The imperial garden were made up of 3 gardens: The Garden of Perfect Brightness Proper, The Garden of Eternal Spring, and The Elegant Spring Garden. And in here there is European style palace that made by stone.

5.      Temples

There are many of temples in China. Definitely! Its China, and temple is everywhere. Lols. So, if you are interest visit the temple, you can go to these recommendation temples: Temple of Earth ( Ditan) located in the North, Temple of The Sun (Ritan) in the Eastern, Temple of The Moon (Yuetan) in the western of the city, Dong Yue temple, Tan Zhi temple, Miao Ying Temple, White Cloud Temple, Big Bell Temple and Confucius temple.

T    4. Temple of Heaven

Is the most well known temple among them. Personally, I know Temple of Heaven from the cover of my Hanyu(Chinese grammar) book. :P Its located at southeastern part of central Beijing. Its constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of Yongle Emperor. You can see the huge and pretty of garden surround the Temple. Because the temple itself is located in the central. Temple of Heaven was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. ;)

7.      Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium)

Is known as the National Stadium, the yard in front of this is soooo huge! The most unique from this stadium is it’s architecture. And theres McD in front of the stadium area and there are many snacks there, you must be like it! ^^ This stadium is used for 2008 Summer Olympics. The stadium cost USD 423 Million. Amazingly expensive! The talented architects are Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

8.     5.  Forbidden City ( Gu Gong)

Was the imperial palace from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty. You can go by ‘103’ to there. Like the other place in China, Gugong is also HUGE!! Like there are many walls, gates, and rooms. Obviously, because its palace. :P That’s why emperor always using litter to go anywhere inside of the palace. But Gu Gong ia ancient and gorgeous at the same time, you can see how majestic it is by the architecture and the decoration. Gu Gong itself always full of the people everyday, or even EVERYTIME I through it. Seriously!! Since 1925, Gugong has been under the charge of the Palace Museum. It built between 1406-1420, consist of 980 buidings and 8707 bays of rooms.

9.      6. Beijing Botanical Garden

Is located at the northwestern of Beijing, and was established at 1955. Personally, I love this botanical Garden!! It sooo beautiful! Its riveting!! XD

10.  Museum

There are hundreds of museum in China, there are museum in the Forbidden City, Tian An Men and others places like Capital Museum, Beijing Art Museum, The Military Museum of The Chinese’s people, Geological Museum of China, and The Beijing Museum of Natural History.

Okay, now I will talk about the modern place, like shopping malls:

1.      Wang Fu Jing Snack Street

Wang Fu Jing is also called ‘little New York’ in Beijing. Wang Fu Jing is one of my favourite destination in Beijing. ;) Because Wang Fu Jing is a big are where there are malls, church(chatedral), many kind of departments stores, book stores and also the Snack street. You can find almost anything here, from the basic to the high class brand. Like from Zara to Burberry. Sounds great, right? ;) and there are many variety of restaurants here, from the muslim restaurant to Japanese restaurant. And I love the snaks and the environtment there. Its like an European and Chinese style at the same time, but most of the architecture design is European. I love it! And you must go at night, because it looks really nice and fantastic at night! There are many variety of snacks there, like tanghulu(big fresh fruits that coated with sugar),, Chinese yoghurt, many kind of roast like chicken, beef, lamb, pork or even the weird animal or insects like scorpion and its friends. Euhh.. and there are also variety of noodle, kinds of tempura(prawan,crab,shark,etc), banana rice cracker, and other interesting snacks. The price is affordable, but you must bargain at some place, they can give you expensive price, so watch out! And there are many kind of nai cha (milk tea) there. But my favourite is ‘Coco’. It taste really good, with the big glass and with the affordable price. Another great nai cha brand is ‘Happy Lemon’. Most of my friends like it, and they really like the pudding. So, try it! ;)

2.      Xi Dan

In Xi Dan you can found 2 malls (Joycity and the another mall across the street) that design simple and modern, its cozy and nice. And like other mall you can find Zara, Etam, Ochirly, Season Wind, Prich, Eland and any other brand like that. And in Xidan, there is shopping market too! Girls must be like it! Pretty dress with pretty price! ;)

Add: 131 Xidan Beidajie, Xicheng District, Beijing
Web: http://www.xidanjoycity.com/

Transport: Subway Line 1 at Xidan; Bus Lines: 808,105, 109, 22、47,102, 204,603,604,690

3.      Raffles Mall (Dongzimen)

Raffles Mall is one of the biggest mall in Beijing. Its really complete here, so I don’t need to describe what stores inside it. :P

4.      Sanlitun

I love sanlitun!!!!! Sanlitun is really fabulous! It looks great, with the great restaurants, great store, and the great peoples. You can see many tourists around the world visit here. And in here there is cinema too! The price is 80 yuan/ person. But if you can show your student card, you can get half price. I love the architecture and the design, and there are Mexican, Indonesian, Italian, Indian, European restaurants here! It so complete! Even theres Outback Steak here. Hehe. Near Sanlitun mall area there are night clubs too, Fix and Mix. And near that, there is the giant pizza that you must try! ^^ and I heard from other people that apple stire that is one of the biggest apple store in the world. But I dunno exactly. :P

Add: Courtyard 19, Sanlitun Road, Sanlitun

Tel: 6417-6110(The Village Sorth), 6417-7110(The Village North)

Web: http://www.sanlitunvillage.com/eng/Pages/index.aspx

Opening Hours: 10am-10pm

5.      Glory Mall

Its located near the Indonesian Embassy, you can goggling if you want. Gloria have 2 malls too, and there is the yummiest takoyaki that I ever taste. The store’s name is Tama o Yaki, and its dominated with the black colour! :D

6.      The Gate City Mall

You can find FCUK, Miss Sixty, b+ab and other brands here. Its located at Zhongguancun area.

Add: 19 Zhongguancun Dajie, Haidian District, Beijing

Tel:8248-6688
Web: www.thegate.cn

Opening Hours: 10am-10pm

7.      JiaoMao Shopping Mall

You must be love the architecture of the building, because personally I love too! It so unique and cool! It consists of three office towers and mega shopping mall. There are 40 public bus that pass by, so its really easy to go here! ;) In here, you can found supermarkets, international brand stores, recreational, and even kindergarten, and also KTV.

Add: No.1, Xizhimenwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100044,

Tel: 86 10 5830 1008 Fax: 86 10 5830 1599=

Opening Hours: Daily 10am-10pm

Web: http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/Jiamao-Shopping-Mall

8.      Oriental Plaza

Its located at the east of Tian An Men square and known as the one of the largest commercial complexes in Asia. You can find Apple, Bally, Burberry, Valentino and more here!

Add: No.1 East Chang An Avenue, strategically located along Wangfujing Street, Beijing

Tel: (8610) 8518 6688, 8518 4466

Web: http://www.orientalplaza.com/eng/corporate/

Opening Hours: 9:30am-10:00pm

9.      Jinyuan Yansha

It also called ‘The Great Mall of China’. This mall is made for the middle consumer class. J there are skating ring and restaurant space the size 2 football fields!

Add: 1 Yuanda Lu, Haidian District, Beijing

Tel:8887-4601
Web: http://www.newyanshamall.com/en/

10.  The Place

The place is mainly composed of the huge screen in the middle and two luxury buidldings on its both side. The Place is also a place for luxury shopping and gourmet experience. The place is designed by Jeremy Railton. He is also the designer for the world largest electric screen in Las Vegas. There are D&G, Ferrari and Chaterhouse.

Add: 9 Guanghua Lu, Beijing

Tel:6587-1188
Web: www.theplace.cn

11.  Solana

Solana is mostly design by europeaqn architecture. Actually, I like Solana, and you must be love the lighting at night. But you must walk so far from the terminal, like really really far so my friends and I not often go here.

Add: 6 Chaoyang Park Road

Tel: 5905-6565
Web: http://www.solana.com.cn/english/web/index.asp

12.  Beijing Yintai Center

Beijing Yintai center is composed by 3 main buildings: Park Hyatt Beijing, Park Hyatt Penthouse, and Park Hyatt Residences. Its architects is John Portman and associates. In here, there are Giorgio Armani, D&G, Hermes and other brands.

Add: 2 Jianguomenwaidajie, Chaoyang District,Beijing China

Tel: 86 10 85666060

Web: http://www.yintai-centre.com/en/index2.htm

13.  Shin Kong Place

There are Anna Sui, Bread Shops, Flourists and other luxury cafes here.

Add: No.27, Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100025

Tel: +86 10 6530 5888
Web: www.shinkong-place.com

Opening Hours:
Mon – Sun: 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.

Subway: Line 1, 2, Batong and get off at Dawan Lu