Northern China Travelers Recommend

Beijing's hutongs are a glimpse - fast disappearing - of what the city used to look like before the skyscrapers started munching the skyline. A hutong is a narrow alleyway formed by joining together courtyard residences. When you hear people speak of 'the hutongs', they will often be referring to the neighborhoods formed by these alleys. Development has destroyed many of these traditional neighborhoods, but some have been preserved, most notably those around the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. These hutongs, close to the Forbidden City, are the spacious and orderly kind that would have belonged to aristocrats and top-ranking officials. Beijing's poorer hutongs are far more haphazard and cramped, but are still an important part of the city's history. Each hutong has its own name - sometimes many layers of names - and its own set of stories.

The Great Wall, a Wonder of the World and one of China’s most recognizable landmarks, deserves a place on any itinerary to Beijing. With several sections located just outside of the city, you’ll have your pick of experiences depending on what you want out of the visit. A majority of tourists to the Great Wall see the section known as Badaling Pass. Located about an hour from Beijing, this portion of the wall features a cable car to ferry guests to the top of a flat stretch of the wall spanning out in either direction. While it’s the most crowded portion of the wall, it’s also one of the most convenient and accessible. If you don’t mind doing a little climbing, Juyongguan is actually the closest portion of the wall to Beijing -- only 37 miles (60 kilometers) -- but it doesn’t have a single flat stretch in sight, and the steps are very steep and uneven.

Beijing is a wonderful mixture of the ancient and the modern, the past and the present. If you only have one day, do the essentials. Tiananmen Square dates from 1417 and has witnessed some of the most pivotal moments in China’s history, including the 1989 protests. It’s also the site of Mao’s Mausoleum, a place of pilgrimage for Chinese tourists. The queue for entry looks lengthy, but moves fast and entry is free. Nearby the Forbidden City has over 1,800,000 sq km of gardens, palaces and halls of relics dating back to 1407. Home to 24 emperors over five centuries, the Forbidden City opened to the public in 1924. Then see the other side of Beijing, the hutong, narrow, winding residential streets full of real life and communal-style living. Getting lost in the labyrinth is half the fun. No visit to Beijing is complete without seeing The Great Wall of China. An impressive 6,300 km of engineering miracle, it was built to protect China from the rampaging Mongols.