At the center of the ancient city of Beijing, was home to 24 emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Built in 1406 with more than 8000 structures and 1.5 millions pieces of collection. Today, the Palace Museum (formerly Forbidden City) is a public museum and World Heritage site. It was renovated again for the 2008 Olympic, so it still has the fresh look. Most of the tourist places go in to the low season rate since Nov. 1. The admission rate is 40 rmb and student rate is half the price. It is a better time to visit the places [View Full Entry]

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If you really want to see the average Beijing live, this stretch of street will fit your bill. It only goes straight and no turns, so you will not get lost. You can get off the Xidan subway station and heading north. There are many modern buildings and shops in the Xidan area. Large volume of both locals and some tourist shopping here. You can spend a whole day there if you want to shop. The first few blocks of the street is full of wedding photo studios, some of them are very fancy set up with individual counseling station with [View Full Entry]

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Beihai Park is behind the Palace Museum, approximately one mile west of the rear exit. It is also south of the Houhai area. I saw some tour group go here after the tour in the Palace Museum. The cost to get in the park is 5 rmb. If you want to go to the temple at the top and the city wall is 15 rmb. The lake is frozen now so is very clam and quiet. There are many lotus plants on the lake. It must be very beautiful during the early summer when they are in full bloom [View Full Entry]

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I have been waiting for the good weekend to go to the Great Wall. Wait too long for a clear sky and come the unexpected early snow, wipe out all the color leaves. When wait for the snow, and snow comes I do not have time to go. It snow earlier during the week and has been very cold in the 30’. I figure the snow is not going to melt so soon. I look at the sky at Fri. night, I think this is the time to go, otherwise I will miss out again. I can either take the train [View Full Entry]

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The second session of the class the teacher is sick. We can either switch class or make up class next week. Most people prefer get off early and make up class next week. I think is a bad idea. I have the whole afternoon and half the morning off, I can go somewhere. However I was not prepared for it. I only have the pocket camera and low on memory. It will take too long to go back to the apartment. I just hopped on the bus 690 in front of BLCU and head to the Summer Palace for 1 rmb. [View Full Entry]

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We have a field trip to the Capital Museum. There are total of two field trips in the school term. I did not go to the other one earlier the Great Wall. I was waiting for the red leaves but the snow wipes it all out. So I missed it. The museum is a modern large museum. We have 6-7 bus full of students still not feel crowded inside. There are so many galleries and things to see, a morning is not long enough. You can spend the whole day there to enjoy all the exhibits. It displays the whole history [View Full Entry]

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Last snow was on a Sunday, so it did not create a big mess. This time is overnight snow in the middle of the week. It creates a mess in the morning. The subway is unusually packed in such early morning. It is because the subway is always on time and no traffic jam. Most of the pictures are in Wudaokou五道口, Chengfu Road 成府路 in front of BLCU, and in BLCU. Feel more like Christmas than Los Angeles. Beijing usually does not have snow that early and not that much. Normally is early autumn, mid-autumn, late autumn and then early winter, [View Full Entry]

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Wangfujing may be the first tourist pedestrians’ mall. The shops are not that special or unique, the food area maybe. There are two small shops eating area, the one in the side street of the mall and the one at the end of the mall on the street. They took up half the regular street and make a food street full of vendors. [View Full Entry]

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The Wudaokou 五道口 subway station is a major access to the near by universities. Such as - Beijing Language and Culture University 北京語言大學; China University of Geosciences 中國地盾大學; Tsinghua University 清華大學; Peking University 北京大學; Beihang University 中國航空航天大學; Beijing Forestry University 北京林業大學; China Aricultural University 中&# [View Full Entry]

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This is an 800 years history street in the hutong area. It is about a mile east of the Houhai area. There are many bars and specialty shops in this street. Full of characters and uniquely decorated. The drinks are not cheap but not as pricy as Houhai, and the bars are very small in size. It is in between the Guloudajie East 鼓樓大街東 and the DiAnMen Dong 地安門東( the south entrance of Houhai major street ). If you missed the Yandai Xiejie 煙袋科街 by turning in the wrong street, most likely you will end up here. [View Full Entry]

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