Re: [79attendees] Summer Palace by Subway (longer)

[Hui Deng <[e-mail]>]

cool

2010/11/6 Bjoern A. Zeeb <[e-mail]>

> Good morning,
>
> based on my yesterday's experience if you like walking, getting to the
> Summer Palace by Subway is doable.
> http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/Travel/Sightseeing/Summer_Palace/
>
> Path to the subway (pictures of the bridges were posted already).
> Walk out the Shangri-La, turn right, cross the bridge a bit further
> down, get off left back in directions of the Hotel you'll find another
> bridge rightish you want to cross to head eastwards.  Then you should
> be able to take any of the next three to your left crossing Zizhuyuan Rd.
> Taking the first one gets you to the Purple Bamboo Park which even if
> you are following only from the street can show you some local dancing
> lessons, ... You could possibly walk through, left as an exercise to
> the OSPF of the reader.  If you get to a pedestrian underpass you turn
> left before that and it'll be another ~400m to the station.  Takes you
> probably half an hourish to get there.  People staying at the Nikko
> might know this, as it's partly the way to the Shangri-La for them
> (reverse direction).
>
> You can find pictures of the national library and a map from
> around there as well here:
>        http://labs.chinamobile.com/wiise/meeting/venue
>
> I found this in addition to a dual-language Beijing Subway map
> helpful:
> http://www.explorebj.com/subway/pedia/station/national-library/
>
> Getting tickets is easy; if you cannot handle the machines just go
> to a counter and use your fingers.  Tickets seem to be 2RMB per person
> and trip. Everything inside the station or on the subway was bilingual.
> If you have a bag, throw it on the xray pick it up and walk through.
> Then make sure you know the end station of the direction you are going
> and check LED maps they have at the platforms at the train entraces
> gates.  You want direction Anheqiao North.
>
> It'll be a ~15-20 minutes ride.  Enjoy the hundreds of meters of digital
> ads on the tunnel walls;)
>
> You can get off at either Xiyuan or Beigongmen.  The former will get
> you to the main entrance.
>
> http://www.explorebj.com/subway/pedia/station/xiyuan/
>
> If you get out of the station on the wrong side, either use the
> station to cross or cross at the traffic lights.
> You want a west exist of the subway and need to go a bit north and then
> follow the long straight road going west with wide sidewalks on both
> sides for about 10min. At the end of that road walk around the busses
> and you'll get to the East Gate entrance, where most of the booked
> tours seem to hit the place.
> If you want to go back to the Subway from that East Gate entrance
> you can get a lift with a rickshaw for an unknown amount of RMB.
> Do not follow the masses of people heading to their bus.  They are
> most likely not going in the direction of the subway station, as there
> are a lot more busses along the outer east side of the park.
>
> If you decide you want to walk more and enjoy the quiter parts of the
> park (first or at all), go one stop further as I did:
>
> http://www.explorebj.com/subway/pedia/station/beigongmen/
>
> You want exit C or D I think and there may be a paper sign on the wall
> at the exist saying "Summer Palace".  If you get out turn leftish and
> follow the road past the bus stop and some locals selling stuff to get
> to the North Gate entrance.
>
> For either stop, for the route from the station to the entrance,
> there are usually no signs so that's the most adventures part of the
> trip, especially if you start at the North Gate and go back from Xiyuan;)
>
> At either gate you have multiple options for tickets and you'll
> probably be approached by someone asking if you need a guide.
> There seem to be electronic guides as well and people sell maps of the
> park for 10RMB or such.  For tickets it'll depend on what you want to
> see.  An entrace ticket should be 20RMB but several places inside are
> another 10RMB usually.  Not sure if you want the 50RMB combined ticket
> (Summer Palace, Garden of Virtue and Harmony, Wengchang Gallery [near
> East Gate entrance], Suzhou Street [North Gate], Tower of Buddhist
> Innocense) unless you want to see everything. Will also depend on
> whether you just want to walk around or visit all the places.
> There are signs leading you to the main attractions inside once in a
> while (dual language).
>
> Again, in the quiter spots of the park you'll find locals practising
> or making music or singing which can be enjoyable if you want to sit
> down and rest a bit.  The 'taste' of the air in the garden was different
> to the city and if you get down to the lake and the groups you could
> also try to find the idle paths off.  I have seen small groups of
> people 2-4 with private English speaking guides there as well.  For
> sure different to the groups with megaphones.
>
> It might be advisable to have a bottle of water with you if you don't
> do the lake-only thing but also climb up to the Tower of Buddhist
> Innocense and it's a warm day.  There are shops inside as well, mostly
> at the East Gate entrance side.
>
> You can easily spend half a day at this world heritage site or walk
> through in 2 hours.  Opening hours seem to be 9am to at least 16pm
> currently.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> /bz
>
> --
> Bjoern A. Zeeb                              Welcome a new stage of life.
>        <ks> Going to jail sucks -- <bz> All my daemons like it!
>  http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/jails.html
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