Moms Travel TipsTravel Tips and Vacation Ideas for the Whole Family

Spring has always been an ideal time for nature lovers to enjoy warm weather and blooming flowers. In Beijing, not far the 4 star Beijing Guohong Hotel, tens of thousands crowd Yuyuantan Park for a grand flower-appreciating event.

Each April, the Yuyuantan Cherry Blossom Festival is held right as the popular plants begin to bloom. And if you come to take a few snaps of the breathtaking blossoms, don’t be surprised if a great portion of Beijing’s 16 million inhabitants have the same idea.

The nearly 20 varieties of cherry trees were a gift from Japan on establishing relations with China in 1973. Throughout the years, the flower has become a symbol of the natural beauty of China’s capital city.

The blossoms in colors of bright white and pale pink indicates that spring has finally arrived in Beijing. When the festival gets started, thousands of families would walk along the bank of the lake, where most the cherry trees are planted, to savor the spectacular scenes of the beautiful cherry blossoms.

Given a park as picturesque as this, some visitors even bring their guitars, kites, or set up a picnic to enjoy the best the Beijing spring can possibly offer. And there is no surprise that so many newlyweds come to this park for their wedding photos that they will cherish for a lifetime. Many couples stay at the beautiful Beijing Hwa Apartment Hotel when they come to Beijing to take these pictures.

In a word, the flowers are in plenty, and so are the visitors. So the advice is: make the best of your chance to get some artistic shots when the crowds are clear.

But exactly when the cherry buds will open is a question no one can answer. The flower is very sensitive to temperature, and in many places the bloom only last less than a week.

However, in the Yuyuantan Park, you can enjoy this flower’s delicate beauty from late May right through April. That’s well over a month! About 3, 000 cherry trees come into bloom at slightly different times, allowing visitors to enjoy longer the galore and beauty that can only be enjoyed once in a year.

Highlights of the festival include planting trees, so you can make a contribution to a greener Beijing. And the chance to adopt one of the 3, 000 cherry trees allows you to love more of this beautiful flower. A series of other activities are also held, such as the interesting shuttlecock contest.

From the park, you can also get a good view of the popular structure China Central TV Tower, the tallest in all Beijing. There are also a number of great hotels in Beijing, China!

Beijing is a great city for shopping with its tens of thousands of state-of-art malls for residents and tourists alike. But one street in particular is right next to some of Beijing’s most famous hotels, and it keeps the style of the old.

Imagine such a place where you will be offered the sense of age, where you can get lost in a sea of antiques and traditional Chinese handicrafts. Beijing’s Liulichang Street enjoys a history that goes back to the early Ming dynasty in the 1500s, and there’s no shortage of artisans around here.

Since several hundred years ago, the street has been one of Beijing’s most trodden places for shopping. Today people walk through Liulichang to shop for paintings, antiques, fans, jade, embroideries, tea sets, and all kinds of Chinese ethnic items.

For unique Chinese gifts to bring back, this is just the place for you!

Here are some of the shops:

Pin Hu Tang – A Good Cup of Tea Made Easy

This quaint shop at the west end of Liulichang Street is where big-time tea lovers go for authentic Yixing purple clay teapots. It’s not far from the Haige International Hotel

Yixing teapots are said to be able to improve your tea by allowing tea aromas to build up right in the walls of the pot. The secret lies in the special material they use for the pots: Yixing purple clay, which is porous and absorbent.

The clay is unique to Yixing, and the shop carries a large collection of purple clay teapots they made themselves. The owner himself is a well-know teapot maker in Beijing.

The designs of their teapots are pretty unique. There you will find shapes imitating pumpkins, gourds, stumps, and castles, to name a few. And you will find skillful engravings on these teapots: a scene showing harmony between man and nature, a quotation from an ancient love poem, or an auspicious animal mounting the lid to entertain your eyes…

These really are things you won’t find in your back home! No wonder so many foreign tourists were willing to buy a few.

Gu Miao Hua Yuan –- Pristine Beauty of Flowers Live On Your Walls

This interesting little shop is tucked away in a 600-year-old building and offers exceptional Chinese flower paintings that have found their way into the homes of many Beijingers. It is just a short ride away from the Hwa Apartment Hotel. 

There are paintings of plums, orchids, chrysanthemum flowers, and bamboo; all are the skillful work of our master – Mr. Xie.

Mr. Xie owns this shop. Despite he paints on all flowers, what he is best at is still peony, the flower that fascinates him the most. To create peonies that are true to nature, he’s spent over a decade observing the flower.

This is the fine work of potters using an ancient celadon-making technique!

There are both frame and easy-to-take scroll works offered in the shop.

Qing Ci Lan Ting – A Lovely Touch To Your Home

This interesting little shop with an old-fashioned façade carries a large collection of celadon products made in Longquan, a southern Chinese town knows as the hometown of celadon.

There you will be fond of a selection of products with designs found nowhere outside of China. The engravings of bowl, for example, is inspired by a special type of fish found only in a small river in Longquan. A big river snail is what another teapot looks like. It looks so real that you wouldn’t recognize it as a teapot at first glance!

Frankly, there is a little something for everyone looking for something unique to display at home: a hat-shaped vase for holding roses, a pumpkin-like jar for storing CDs, a lotus leaf-style platter for holding food, and so on.

Cracks are found on some products. This is the fine work of potters using an ancient celadon-making technique. The body continues to crack after a celadon is done, but stands as one thanks to the glaze. The cracks only add to the beauty of the item.

The shop also provides free tea to visitors who might get thirsty from a day of shopping. The manager is a young, nice lady. Quite a celadon expert, she knows celadon well and is kind enough to tell whatever you hope to know.

Lao She Teahouse, sitting at the center of Beijing not far from the Avic Hotel is where tourists get a taste of old Beijing life while sitting down for a good cup of tea.

Among its eminent customers are former U.S. president George H. Bush and Jordanian queen Rania.

Indeed, it has so much to offer that you may hope to move to Beijing enjoy everyday.

The building itself reminds you of a Qing dynasty loft, and as soon as you see it, you feel as if Beijing of the 19th century has come into life! The waiters are all in ancient outfits, and welcome you in with an old-time greeting that seasoned Beijingers say invoke the feel of old Beijing teahouses.

Despite being called a teahouse, Lao She is more like an entertainment venue, where some of China’s finest traditional performing arts are staged every night. Here you can watch acrobatics, Kung Fu shows, comic dialogue, Peking opera, ventriloquism, and the celebrated face-changing dance while enjoy a good cup of tea.

One of the biggest hit here is the well-known face-changing dance that comes from Sichuan province. By simply waving his arms and twisting head, a perform can change his mask in less than a second. The top performers can change their masks up to 30 times with the flick of a wrist. Because of difficulty of changing masks in such a short time, only a handful of artists can perform this dance today. There are also occasionally such performances around the Beijing Hwa Apartment Hotel.

Another program that also amazes many is the ‘Han Deng Da Gu.Singers of this ancient folk art don’t sing in the normal way. They sing with such a holder in their mouths as is mounted with a few of burning candles.

They have to keep the candles in a good balance with the face muscles, otherwise the candles will fall. Singers of Han Deng Da Gu at the Lao She Teahouse are all masters. They sing so masterfully as if there is nothing in their mouth. Around China, there are only a very limited number of singers who are able to perform this ancient art because of the difficulty.

For tea lovers, there is even more to celebrate at Lao She Teahouse. Here waiters perform a kind of acrobatics to pour tea. The pot they use to pour tea is pretty bizarre: it has a long spout that can measure up to 1.5 meters. When serving, the waiter will first flip the pot around his body for a while, and then pour tea from the long and thin spot without splashing a drop. This is not a task that anyone can accomplish, and is much appreciated by the audience.

You can also enjoy a variety of Beijing snacks as you enjoy the shows. Rolling Donkey, or Lv Da Gun in Chinese, is a serving of glutinous rice balls stuffed with bean paste and eaten as a light meal. Millet Much, or Mian Cha in Chinese, is porridge with sesame and peanut butter. For your sweet tooth, Wan Dou Huang-small cakes made of beans-is always a good try.

Prices are reasonable; an average of 50-60 dollars should be enough to cover the fare of the shows, tea and a couple of snacks. The teahouse remains open from 14:00 to 22:00.

The Lao She Teahouse’s location in central Beijing is very convenient, and you can book a Beijing hotel here.

Beijingers take shopping the same way as athletes take their sports, they can’t be more serious. For several hundred years, Beijingers have been coming back to the same street of shops near the famous Beijing Emperor Hotel to buy their daily supplies and special items.

As an old Beijing saying goes: buy shoes at Nei Lian Sheng, hats at Ma Ju Yuan, fabrics at Rui Fu Xiang, and tea at Zhang Yi Yuan, which are all famous brands on this street, called Da Shi Lan. 

Right near the Forbidden City, it’s very easy to find Da Shi Lan and the shops that have been in business for hundreds of years.

Simply walk south from the Beijing Redwall Hotel, past Tian’anmen Square, and you’ll be there in five minutes.

The oldest commercial street in Beijing, Da Zha Lan began to boom in as early as Ming dynasty 600 years ago. Meaning ‘big fences’, the street might be as unique as it sounds.Nearly 600 years ago, worrying the rampant thefts in Beijing, an emperor ordered fences to be built to prevent the ill phenomenon. Residents in the Da Zha Lan area built fences that were higher and stronger, and thus people began to dub the area ‘big fences’ for easy reference.

Like it was hundreds of years ago, the street today is packed with teahouses, tailor shops, silk stores, theatres, restaurants, as well as handicraft stores. They cluster one after another in ancient buildings that immediately bring you back in time!

The Shops

Nei Lian Sheng

The 160-year old shop Nei Lian Sheng near the Beijing Hwa Apartment Hotel sells handmade cloth shoes. Their shoes are famous for the excellent craftsmanship and unmatchable comfort.

In the past, the major patrons of shoes made in Nei Lian Sheng were offials working in imperial palace nearby. Not only were the shoes made with excellent finish, but the name suggested something that everyone hoped to fulfil: spiralling up to be the top-ranked officals.

Today, workers apply the same techniques used a hundred years ago to make customized shoes. The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was a big fan of Nei Lian Sheng and many of his shoes were made here.

Ma Ju Yuan

The hat shop Ma Ju Yuan was built in 1817. Starting from a small stall, the shop came to make the ‘red turf hat’ for the Qing dynasty government.

That was probably why old Beijingers took a hat made in Ma Ju Yuan as a showy object.

In the years that followed, the shop saw countless orders for hats from princes, religious figures, and foreign leaders. Even today, many people prefer to have a hat made to order in Ma Ju Yuan.

Rui Fu Xiang

Established in 1891, the shop sells all kinds of top-quality fabric: cotton, silk, woolen cloth, and so on.

The very first flag of P.R. China, the one raised in 1949 in its nation-founding ceremony, was actually a work of Rui Fu Xiang.

Tailors of the shop make some of the most gorgeous cheongsams you are likely to find in Beijing. Numerous foreign tourisits had fell in love with their products and ordered one of their own here for a showy display back home.

Zhang Yi Yuan

In 1900, Zhang Yi Yuan came into business. Ever since then, the shop has been some of the best tea you can find in Beijing. Each year, they purchased tea leaves directly from tea-growing farmers. They only sell tea grown and processed in a completely natural way.

They put into use some unique techniques to process tea leaves, which are sought after by many seasoned tea lovers. Now there special jasmine tea is sold at a low price and is worth trying.

Da Guan Cinema

Da Guan Cinema, Beijing’s first cinema, was established in 1905. You can even find it in the Guinness Book of Records as the cinema with the longest, uninterrupted cinema in the world.

Today, the cinema is pretty much in its original decor, and you can enjoy a film while sipping tea like people did several decades ago. Every day, increasing number of people flock in for the one-of-a-kind experience of watching movies in Beijing’s first and oldest cinema.

Looking for some fun near your hotel in Beijing? Getting ready to let your hair down? Looking for one of a kind party experience to jazz up your stay in Beijing?

Visit Beijing’s Sanlitun Street, where the capital city’s top bars, cafes, restaurants and nightclubs are located.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympic many celebrities, including swimming star Michael Phelps, movie star Vince Vaughn, and soccer star Renaldhino, made appearance at the bars here.

The street, better known as ‘Sanlitun Bar Street,’ lies in the famous embassy area near Beijing’s east 3rd Ring Road. Every day as the sun begins to set, foreign tourists, expats, and locals with extra energy to burn overflow this place.

The street comprises two parts: Sanlitun North and Sanlitun South. Sanlitun North is where you will rock until the early hours of the morning. It’s quite nearthe 4 star Beijing Taiyue Suites Hotel.

North Street is lined with several dozen cookie-cutter bars, most of which have tables outside where you can sit and enjoy a cold drink. The treat can be agreeable even in Beijing’s hot summer, because the dense trees keep you out of the sun and offer you only cool shade.

Most of the bars on the street offer liquor and beer from around the world to cater to an increasing number of international customers. Some even carry microbrews from your hometown!

Despite this, many visitors to China fall in love with local draft beers such as Yangjing and Tsingtao, which are palatable and refreshing by anyone’s taste. Each of the two beers sells around 25 RMB or 3 dollars, a little expensive by Beijing standards, but still cheaper than back home.

Another good spot for cheap drinksis the bar at the Beijing Avic hotel.

At night, many of the bars feature live performances, and it’s usually after midnight before the party reaches its climax. Party goers wiggle to the hip beats the band play, bartenders work on exhibition flair, and waitresses weave in and out of the crowds to serve your beers. The spirit might be slightly different from that back home, but at this point in the night, who cares!

Of course, if you want to keep things quiet and have an intimate conversation with your loved one, there are bars tucked in the alleyways offering just that. Lovely surroundings create cozy and romantic ambience.

Most of the bars offer salad, hamburgers, spaghetti, and soup, so you can have a quick dinner here. Otherwise, just take a short walk to Sanlitun South for a more formal treat.

Sanlitun South is home to a few restaurants serving all kinds of south Asian and European cuisines. A considerable number of ambassadors and diplomats are among the regular customers.

Alright, now you are acquainted to the street, and you are ready to set out for a great winning & dining experience while in BeijingWarning: too much drink may make you can’t get back to your Beijing hotel, and miss your Great Wall tour the next morning!