General: Beijing > Reviews > An expat's guide to Beijing

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
Family Friendly

Advantages:	Cheap place once you've got there
Disadvantages:	the problems one experiances are basically due to the language barrier

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Beijing isn't all that I was made to believe it to be it has a touch of the oriental old style with areas such as the Summer palace and the Forbidden city, which are a must see for those who intend on taking back photos of the ancient dynasties. However those who have visited know of how metropolitan the city is it's streets are crammed full of people busy with city life, much the same as London or any other major city. There are towering offices that seem to travel miles into the sky, roads that weave in and out and to be honest leaves the best of us wondering where we are. The city is terrific there are more things to do here thatn in most cities around the world and whats more it's cheap. Areas for shopping are basically well established market places, these include the silk alley, San li Tun (otherwise known as the bar street), there is also a small market that does a bustling trade just outside of the Holiday in here called the Lido. The Lido is centre to most transport for foreigners, with shuttle buses arriving from the foreign compounds every hour.
Beijing itself is about 96KM wide and is still growing a rapid rate the place often looks like a building site, yet within a few weeks a prestine building pops up from what appears to be no where it truly is a city on the move.
The transport system is extremely cheap but by no means simple, I recommend sticking to the taxis a basic fare is 10 RMB that's a little less than a pound sterling, and there are plenty of taxis roaming the streets no matter what hour it is. The clubs here close basically when the people leave so there are plenty of sunrises yet to be seen.
So good luck and travel well.