A trip to China is a budget option. Is it possible for Russians to enter China without a visa? Additional costs: the mentality of the locals

So, you are going to go to China. And they did it right! This country is famous for its centuries-old culture, inventions, natural landscapes, food and much more. Now there are many offers on the tourist market, but they are all of the same type and run along the same well-trodden routes. In addition, they don’t give freedom: look to the right, look to the left ... How about entering a country where they look at you with genuine childish interest, like an alien, where the whole car gets up when they see you)). Or chat with the locals and get to know the life of the country from the inside. All this is provided by independent travel.

Below are the main practical issues related to independent travel in China.

1. Visa to China

The first thing you need for such a trip is a Chinese visa. Visas are of several types, respectively, require different documents, different costs. The simplest is a one-time tourist. You can issue in a travel agency, which naturally will take an additional fee for their work. You can make a visa yourself by taking the documents to one of the consulates of the PRC: in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.

2. How to get to China and move around within the country?

There are several ways to get to the Celestial Empire from Russia: by plane, train or bus, and hitchhiking. It all depends on your budget, where you are going from and what places in China you are going to visit. China, as you know, borders on Russia in the Far East, from there the path to Beijing is the closest. You can cover this distance by train. From Moscow, St. Petersburg, the European part of Russia, the easiest way is to fly by plane. There are both direct flights and with transfers in Astana, Almaty, Dubai, depending on the airline. Cheap tickets can be found on the website .

Inside China, you can also move in different ways, which is more to your liking. We traveled on trains, bought tickets ourselves at the box office a few days before departure.

3. How much money to take to China?

It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer here - everyone has their own requirements and preferences. I can only provide a link to our

It is better to exchange cash in advance in Russia for dollars, since rubles in China are not changed. Dollars to yuan are changed mainly by the Bank of China, the exchange rate in the spring of 2013 was 6.1 yuan per 1 dollar. You can also use Visa and MasterCard bank cards. A fee will be charged for withdrawing money from the card. It is different for different banks, check with your bank before traveling.

Anya and I applied for ISIC youth cards, and in some places they give a good discount. For example, we saved 90 yuan (450 rubles) on Mount Emeishan.

4. What to take with you to China?

Experience is the son of difficult mistakes)) It’s not clear why we dragged sleeping bags with us, but it turned out that China is full of cheap and comfortable housing.

When collecting, pay attention to what kind of weather awaits you in China. For example, in the spring in the southwestern regions there is a lot of rain and dampness, while in Xinjiang it can be cool but dry. From here, choose what to take. For an independent trip, a backpack is an indispensable and convenient thing that you must have =).

In extreme cases, buy what you need in China, all the clothes are made there anyway!

5. Accommodation in China - where to sleep?

As mentioned above, the choice of accommodation is huge, especially in places popular with tourists. And competition keeps prices affordable. You can book a hotel or inn in advance - this is easy to do on the site. If you prefer to improvise, you can decide on housing already on the spot. I just strongly advise you not to do this if you are traveling on holidays: in early May and in the first half of October.

If you want to stay in an apartment or rent a room from the hosts (often cheaper than a hotel), try Airbnb (follow and get a free $25 on your first booking).

6. Where to go in China, attractions

Here the choice is simply endless, China is an amazing country! At every step waiting for the discovery =).

We visited 4 provinces, or rather , and province , Yunnan and Manchuria. The rest of the districts were simply passed by train.

7. Food

People in China love and know how to eat! Local residents have adopted the rule "War is war, but lunch is on schedule")). The choice of food is very large, although the main products for the Chinese are rice and noodles, as well as additives to them. You can have a bite to eat in local chifans or by buying products in the market or in supermarkets.

It should be noted that Chinese food is very spicy - be careful, especially in the early days.

When organizing an independent trip, mobile applications are very helpful. We wrote .

That's all I wanted to say about traveling to China on my own. Come to China, you will definitely be satisfied! Easy roads!

And so the long-awaited vacation began. I, unexpectedly for myself, was left without a companion - my companion at the last moment could not participate in the planned trip.

But I decided not to cancel anything and go to conquer China alone, which I did not regret for a minute.

And here I am and my two suitcases are waiting for the start of registration at the airport in Minsk. Until I got on the plane, the boredom of waiting was stronger than fear. I was not worried about flying in an airplane, I was worried about whether I would be able to orient myself in the huge Beijing airport. I confess, once in place, fear took over for a moment, but, taking it in my hands, I found a taxi rank. I stood in a short queue, showed the taxi driver the address (the hotel in Beijing, as well as the air ticket, I booked in advance on the BiletyPlus.ru website) and drove off. By the way, there are very good hotels in China: the price is quite low, and the atmosphere and service are at the highest level.

The people call this skyscraper "Pants"

I spent my first day in Beijing in the Forbidden City, the largest palace complex in the world. Having stood in a long queue, I ended up in a place where mere mortals were once forbidden to enter. The retribution was terrible: they cut off their heads or boiled them in a cauldron (unless, of course, mortals are not servants of emperors and not ministers). The tour took me about 4 hours, and to be honest, walking was not very fun. It's good that I sent audio tours in Russian to the player in advance, otherwise the tour in Chinese would quickly tire me.

I also took a walk in Yiheyuan Park. Most of the territory there is occupied by water, visitors move along the bridges. Since the borders are not fenced, and there are a lot of people, it was quite scary to walk. With my random companion, we rented a boat. By the way, it is in this park that legendary walks on a stone ship are arranged.

In Beijing, I visited the main street of the city. Here are the most expensive shops and boutiques, as well as the world's largest screen, located exactly above the heads of passers-by. In addition, fountains are built into the asphalt, which can work at any time.

I lived not far from the Silk Market and became a frequent witness to whole performances with pseudo-exit buyers, their “comebacks” and long speeches convincing them that it was necessary to reduce the cost of goods. Here I have mastered the art of trading to perfection: they tell you the price, you lower it N times (depending on what you are fighting for, i.e. you are bargaining), then you listen to reproaches, you say “bye-bye”, they catch up with you and sell you for your price.

But on the Yabaolu shopping street, it is not customary to bargain until the last minute, they say, traders immediately set the minimum price. By the way, most of them speak good Russian.

Then it was time for the cultural program: I bought a ticket for the legendary Acrobat Show in Beijing. The ticket turned out to be not the cheapest (I was sitting in the 6th row and this event cost me $ 100). But it was an incredible sight: very expensive costumes, stunning scenery, and what can we say about the skill of acrobats! A dozen dancers on one bike, incredible support, but most of all I liked the huge ball that was installed on the stage - three motorcyclists were spinning circles inside it at once! I saw with my own eyes the wonders of human grace and plasticity. It was an incredible sight that was worth the money. I really liked it! If someday fate brings me to Beijing again, I will definitely go again.

I also visited the zoo in Beijing. The vast territory contains hundreds of species of animals, but of course, panda bears touched me the most. By the way, panda babies can even be picked up, of course, by paying. Near the zoo, on the same site, there is also a dolphinarium.

At a tea ceremony in Beijing, I was offered 12 types of tea. For some reason, the cups are not washed here, they were simply doused with boiling water right in front of us. Probably, this is an element of the local tea ceremony. We were seated at a special wooden table and, in turn, the fragrant drink was poured into tiny cups made of red clay. Despite the fact that the tea was infused for a very short time, it was quite strong and tasty. I liked the vanilla flavored tea the most.

By the way, about tea. In any public place in Beijing, guests are always served a cup of hot and invigorating drink.

And, of course, any lunch in a restaurant begins with tea and fruit. Restaurants in China have revolving hanging tables so as not to reach for your piece, knocking down all the salads on the way. Portions are small but filling. On my first day in Beijing, I ordered Peking duck. They cooked it right in front of me, there was little meat in it, in addition they chopped it. The most valuable is the skin, it is eaten with sugar, but I did not dare.

Perhaps, I was most impressed by the restaurant where you pay only for the entrance (about 18 yuan). At the entrance, guests take off their shoes and they are given slippers. Visitors dine in cozy pavilions, surrounded on all sides by water, and the passage through the restaurant is carried out by small bridges. And you can close the curtains in order to hide from prying eyes. And then a real celebration of the stomach begins: food can be taken in any quantity, as much as the soul (but most importantly, the stomach) wants. It serves delicious sushi, seafood, sweets, beer, sake. The restaurant is open intermittently and you can’t sit there for more than two hours, take food to go, of course, too.

Of course, I wanted to see the building of the legendary Bolshoi National Theatre. The entrance to the theater is underground, because it is surrounded on all sides by water. I did not go inside, I was impressed in absentia.

It is not for nothing that China has been called the healthiest nation: every morning (around 5 am) in city parks, the Chinese do gymnastics, waltz or their national dances. I did not take part in the exercise, but I took a couple of photos.

It was interesting to travel, especially for the Chinese any “European face” is a real exotic, they often came up and asked to take a photo together.

From Beijing, I went to Baidahe and Shanghai. But more on that in the second part of my post.

1) Haggling in the markets and with taxi drivers naturally falls on the fingers. The main thing to know is that the Chinese show numbers differently from the Europeans - they show the numbers from 1 to 9 on the fingers of one hand, not two.

2) At bus stations and railway stations, often no one speaks English. It is better to write in advance on a piece of paper the name of the destination and the desired time period of departure, this is done using an Internet translator or dictionary. Just get in line at the cashier and hold out a piece of paper. The exact time and price will be shown to you on a computer screen or they will also be written on a piece of paper. Of course, they will also be on the ticket - everything is in Chinese:
In this case, March 7, 14 at 15:40, seat 3, bus number K0935, price 17 yuan, goes to Mengla city

Most important words:
Today is 今天
Tomorrow - 明天
day – 天 (order lead time 1 day) or 日 (day of the month)
month - 月
year - 年
morning - 上午
noon - 中午
evening - 黄昏
and cities: Guachzhou (广州), Shenzhen (深圳), Hong Kong (香港), Guilin (桂林), Kunming (昆明), Beijing (北京), Shanghai (上海)

3) In China, there is censorship on the Internet, to the point that messages on social networks are manually moderated!
Facebook and You tube are banned and inaccessible, RenRen is used instead of the first one, Youku instead of the second one. For instant messages, the network and WeChat are used. Although Google is available, Baidu is much more popular. Vkontakte works without problems.

4) Almost all public toilets will not have the usual toilet bowl. Instead, there will be a floor-standing toilet, familiar to many from our school toilets. You also need to carry toilet paper with you. But tourist toilets have a star rating, like hotels.

By the way, you should also carry a supply of napkins with you. They are not available in cafes and restaurants or they are sold for a fee.

5) 4 - purely unlucky, it comes to the point that there are no 4 floors in houses.
8 is a lucky number. Phones of large companies often end in eights.
The main Chinese color is red.

6) Chinese is the name of a large group of languages, often mutually incomprehensible. Each city may have its own dialect. The government is trying to campaign for the popularization of a common language - Putonghua or Mandarin. In Hong Kong, Macau, Canton (Guangzhou) and overseas diasporas, the vast majority of the population speaks Cantonese. One thing pleases - all dialects use the same hieroglyphs, which, by the way, are also partially used in Japanese. So the spelling is the same. If true, there are difficulties with the presence of two writing systems: traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters. If you do not plan to read ancient texts, the latter will be enough for everyday needs.

All this works until you get into areas with Tibetan and Mongolian scripts, languages ​​​​of the Thai-Lao, Burmese or Arabic group. On top of that, in some villages, many people cannot read.

7) The most useful application for the phone is Waygo, which can translate inscriptions using the camera on the fly, without the Internet.

Google maps help you not to get lost, and the navigation mode can give you the best route on land transport and tell you which bus to go where, though Internet is required.

A SIM card can be purchased with a passport. Mobile Internet is very expensive: 300 MB for 96 yuan per month.

Hotels can be booked on booking, but local players give better prices, it's worth comparing on RoomGuru

8) A couple of years ago, there were a lot of counterfeit 100 yuan bills in the south of China. Until now, in any store, such banknotes are carefully checked. The crooks may try to swap your real bill and return you a fake one, they say the best defense against this is to crease the corner or fold it so that the crooks would not be able to repeat the same with a fake quickly.

For the same reason, when paying in a taxi, transport cards are handed over in a case - there is no possibility of a quick replacement for another card with a zero balance.

9) Speaking of transport. Buses are entered through the front door. Payment at the entrance either by transport card or in cash without change in a special box. Fares can be fixed or staggered. For example 1 or 2 yuan in Kunming depending on the type of bus. The exact value can be seen on the money box, though in Chinese: 一元 (one yuan) or 二元 (two yuan). While in Hong Kong, you need to look at the fare from stop to stop in advance at the stop, or if you use a transport card, do not forget to re-attach it at the exit, otherwise the maximum fare will be charged.

Transport cards can also often be used to pay in stores and to enter museums and parks (for example, at 7-11 and McDonald's in Hong Kong)

10) Laundry in hotels is very expensive. Street laundries are not easy to find, but dry cleaners can sometimes be found. Rush orders usually double the markup. You can also stay in an apartment - there is almost always a washing machine, and the powder can be bought at the nearest store.

Experienced sinologists are encouraged to complete the story in the comments. Indicate your experience of traveling or living in the country.

Several familiar bloggers visited Blagoveshchensk last year. They wrote a lot about the capital of the Amur Region, but for some reason almost nothing about the Chinese side. When I asked why, everyone gave different reasons, but I was even afraid that they were forcibly formatting flash drives and erasing memory on the road. After all, it cannot be that a person, having found himself in another country for the first time, will not write anything about it!

Fear-fear, but interest is stronger. I captured the stages of crossing the border, despite the fact that photography is strictly prohibited there.

Residents of Blagoveshchensk constantly travel to China, they do not need a visa. It used to be for every weekend, but now it has become more difficult due to the increased exchange rate of the yuan. For some reason, Russians from other regions are convinced that only those who have an Amur residence permit in their passport can travel without a visa.

In fact, any resident of Russia can enter the border city of Heihe if he has a passport. Theoretically, you can even get to Beijing without a visa or arrange a trip throughout China. In practice, this adventure is likely to end in failure - when boarding a train or plane, your documents will be checked by border guards. But you will have enough color in Heihe, especially if you have never been to China.

1 When I was going on the road, the first thing I did was to exchange rubles for yuan. I did this in Blagoveshchensk, fearing that the course would be worse on the Chinese side. Do not repeat my mistake: as long as the situation is such that the Chinese will give you more: the ruble has become twice cheaper, they are happy to come to us to buy their own goods. In general, if we are talking about a small one - change where you want.

2 The trip to China starts from the river port. In winter and summer, the only difference is how you will be transported to the other side: in winter it is a bus, in summer a boat.

3 Prices bite. A regular ticket costs 2150 rubles. In the summer it is not much cheaper, maybe 200 rubles. The whole embarrassment of the situation is that the trip will take a maximum of five minutes, the bus will simply transport you to the other side of the river and drop you off at Chinese customs.

4 It's still on our shore. Chinese beauty does not freeze at -25!

5 The waiting rooms of the river station could certainly be refurbished, with the money they receive for fares. And now there are so few people, before the jump in the rate, large crowds dangled to China, people missed two or three buses, they could not get in there. The income is huge. There is duty free, where the cat cried.

6 Buses run every 15 minutes. It's made in China, of course. But the numbers are Russian. And the driver is Russian. And I, with a Russian passport, also get on this bus.

7 For some reason, the Chinese have their own transport. Apartheid in the Far East. They say that in a Chinese transport company, travel is several times cheaper. But we can't go there.

8 Hovercraft are not used. Apparently, they are simply not needed, the flow of people moving is minimal. After all, if I didn’t mess up anything, can these ships move on ice?

9 We go down to the floating bridge. It's five barges chained together. In winter, they block the Amur, and people can ride on them. Private transport is prohibited, only buses and occasionally Chinese trucks.

10 In fact, with such a passenger flow and active trade, a normal bridge suggests itself. In addition, our neighbor is China, which is famous for its ability to build roads and bridges in the shortest possible time. The first shuttles began to travel en masse in the early nineties, twenty years ago. And ten years ago, in 2004, our countries agreed on visa-free entry through this border crossing. There were even more people. Time to build a bridge? No, time to buy new boats and buses.

They say that every time Moscow asks why there is still no bridge over the Amur in Blagoveshchensk, local authorities go to the capital and somehow settle the issue. Too profitable business, to take two thousand rubles for five hundred meters of the road. She is called by the people - "golden mile".

Perhaps things will get off the ground by next year, when they promise to build a cable car here. Although this, too, is not at all an easy way, and you can take the same two thousand for a ride. Wouldn't it be easier to build a bridge? No, we have a special way.

11 The arrival hall is heavily smoky. This is the first thing that catches your eye. They smoke inside the station and are not shy. The interior looks like a small airport, everything is much more decent than in the port of Blagoveshchensk.

Border formalities go through quickly, but you still need to pay a little more. On their side, the Chinese are asking for another 100 yuan (today about a thousand rubles) for two tickets. One seems to be the visa fee and the other is the entrance ticket. Yes, China entry ticket.

12 As soon as you leave the border zone, a million Chinese rush to you, who begin obsessively offering their taxi services, assistance in accommodation. If you are Domodedovo Airport at rush hour, then you should understand what I mean. Only here they bombed ten times more, and they pester ten times more actively. I didn't know how to get rid of them.

Suddenly, the hall was filled with uniformed men armed with shields and clubs. Military police. The coolest guys from Chinese law enforcement. They began to circle around the room, banging their boots on the tiled floor and batons on their asses. This is how you have to deal with obsessive bombers, learn!- I thought.

In fact, they just walked in a circle and went to another room. Such security measures were introduced by the Chinese authorities after a bloody attack at a railway station last year. They don't have entry barriers.

13 Here I am free. The Ferris wheel, which so beckoned from Blagoveshchensk, turned out to be unfinished up close. The builders screwed up, and he was not accepted for safety reasons. Or maybe on purpose? Is this a Potemkin village?

14 The city, which lives entirely on trade with Russia, is now going through hard times. It is necessary to change the schemes: Heihe is the very north, and by the standards of China, a distant province. And they brought a lot of goods.

15 The closest building to the customs office is the shopping center “Ostrov”, the nastiest place in the city. By the way, we really are on the island, moreover, it once belonged to Russia. At what point and how the Chinese ended up there, I don’t know, tell me. After all, they fought for the uninhabited Damansky in the sixties, but this one was given up without a fight?

16 Inside, at first glance, an ordinary shopping center with all sorts of junk. The main thing, as I understand it, is not to rise above the first floor. They say that they can beat a tourist there if you stop to look at the window, and then you don’t buy anything. It is especially dangerous now when there are no Russians in the city. Or maybe they're pushing.

17 Funny Chinese signs in Russian start here.

18 Although what awaits us in the city itself is much cooler. There will even be a separate post about them!

19 Vodka shop is my favorite!

21 There is another shopping center just behind the Island. The same Yuan dong, which is so clearly visible from the Blagoveshchensk coast. Near it there are buses that go to the center. Usually everyone uses taxi services: it is inexpensive even now, within a hundred rubles in the city. But the bus costs ten.

22 What is the first thing to do in China? Breakfast, it's time. In the morning, the stomach is empty. Even if the noodle shop is not yet open, but is open - come in, you will not be left hungry.

23 Igor met me in Heihe. He lives in China, is fluent in the language and does business, helping to ship goods across the border, and then send them to transport companies throughout Russia. Igor is the king of shuttles :) And I, the cudgel, will never learn how to take pictures properly on goPro - people turn out to be different from what they are in life.

24 Now I will tell you about the way back, it is also interesting. I will definitely tell you about the two days that I spent with the Chinese.

25 The border guards will ask for 35 yuan. It's a ticket out of China, yes. Not a bribe, an official fee. I seem to like taking pictures with my phone - the quality is lame, but it's not as bad as it used to be. But stealth is the best weapon of a spy and a photoblogger. In summer, you can even shoot border guards if you put your phone in your shirt pocket.

26 The same “Russian” bus and a cheerful driver who said that the cable car, it seems, will really be built, and then he will not have a job. Because in summer the same driver is the captain of the boat.

27 I was driving back in good weather, I was able to shoot this wonderful bridge. Normal bridge. You can’t go fast on it, but it is several hundred meters long. The pontoons were built half from Chinese barges, half from Russian ones. This is the Chinese part.

28 And this is ours. Noticeable difference, right? And it's not that the barges themselves are older and narrower, although this is also the case. But couldn't the road have been cleaned properly? No you can not. Just like you can't build a bridge.

29 Such is the journey. Nothing extreme, as you can see. But how terrible China is, how it is painted - I will tell you in the next report.

How to save the psyche with two small children and the ubiquitous Chinese :)))

Why China and why now.
Thinking about where to take children to the sea, in the wake of recent events: the terrorist threat in Europe and the Middle East and the sharp fall of the ruble, it was rather unexpectedly decided to go to China. Moreover, at that time there was an Aeroflot campaign for air tickets, and for money, if before China was at least cheap, now it is certainly not expensive.

Flight Moscow - Beijing by Aeroflot.
Here everything went without incident. Our friends took us to Sheremetyevo, from where we flew safely to Beijing.

So we flew...

A TV with cartoons and programs and games was just what we needed...

Some have lunch...
Although it is certainly difficult with children on an airplane, they do not like to sit idle for a long time.
Upon arrival on the Aeroexpress, we got to our hotel - Dragon King Hostel (preliminarily I had to spend about 4 hours at the airport, due to the time of check-in at the hotel and the cost of a night transfer to it, but the children had a great sleep)

This is the number we had. Pretty good, in my opinion :)

The hotel can be easily reached by subway (From Zhangzizhong Road subway station (line 5) (exit C) walk to it for 2 minutes, we did not know this, so we had to stray. Initially, I thought that there were not such long distances in China, then cardinally changed my opinion, so just the metro and don’t even think about it)

In general, the place itself is very convenient, there is a store nearby with very cheap prices for China (in the photo below, the most unattractive entrance, where there is a bunch of boxes with goods - all the nearest stores are purchased in this store (wholesale from 2 pcs.), Prices are actually an order of magnitude lower ) (not far from the store 7 eleven - like so), there is a bank opposite with a 24-hour ATM (across the road).

Here it is on the second floor (description and photos can be found later in the report)

Day 1. Beijing. Sky Temple...

The scale of the park and buildings is certainly impressive, especially considering when it was all built. In the park you will always see groups of Chinese people who either dance or meditate, someone just walks and enjoys nature (you will never be alone :))))). The following picture somehow opened up to me: a grandmother rides in an electric wheelchair (as for the disabled), reaches the steps, gets up, lifts the wheelchair, sits down and eats further (my jaw even dropped), in general, they take care of themselves :)

Previously, only emperors could enter this temple, and the road to them is long and with a constant slight upward slope, as if you are rising into the sky. It’s worth visiting the temple, the architecture and the park area are simply beautiful, I personally had doubts about the originality of the temple itself (but maybe I’m wrong), they arose when examining it very closely :)

In this temple, sacrifices were held (thank God, only animals) for a better harvest or rain, or something else. The interior decoration of the temples are identical.

This is another temple in the same park area. After passing through this temple, only those close to the emperor went further, and only the emperor entered the Temple of Heaven itself (Temple of Heaven in the previous photos)

The main gate of the previous temple. Here our children were held in high esteem, everyone wanted to take pictures with them, especially with the Beehive (blue eyes). Lukyan was amused by such an abundance of attention to him :)

And this is another part of the park area. It’s hard for me to say what she was responsible for, because. It was not enough to peep through the crack, it seems to me that this is something like a barracks.

We didn’t get there, it was already after 18-00, which means everything is closed :)))) In China, if you got up at 12-00, then you were late everywhere :))) For this reason, we didn’t succeed a few days - I slept for a long time, could not get involved in any way :)

And some of our crew move quite comfortably, almost like emperors :)
Thus ended our first day in Beijing, on the way back we still managed to drop into the shopping center for souvenirs, which we will inflate upon arrival from China (wait...)

For information:
If you exit the central entrance of the park (next to the metro station) and walk to the left for about 30 meters, you can cross the overpass to the other side of the road. Here, go to a large store and buy souvenirs. Do not forget to bargain, immediately lower prices 3-4 times. A very good place for buying souvenirs and a snack (price / quality corresponds), further to other tourist sites of such a choice and such a low price as we did not find here :)
The cost of visiting the park (Temple of Heaven) in 2016 is 34 yuan (I don’t remember if I’m a student or not)

Well, in the evening we had locally produced fruits .... Ripe mango is just super, especially after a hard day for the body.

Day 2. Beijing. Peking Duck
The next day somehow didn’t work out for us, and as a result, for the whole day we were able to see only half of Gugong and eat Peking duck in the evening. The duck itself somehow did not impress, no, of course it is tasty and all that. But the whole essence of it is not so much in the duck, but in the processing of its skin (so that it is crispy and juicy) and sauces while eating it.

This is what our restaurant looked like. We had to wait about ten minutes for a table.

Ulya, as always, showed herself to be a maniac before eating...

And so, Day 3
On this day, we went to what everyone associates China with - the Great Wall of China, to a site called Badaling.

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For information:

Student ticket price - 20 yuan (regular price 40 yuan).
In principle, these are all costs (if you are a fairly athletic person), but if youif you don’t want to sweat and go up to the wall (about 30-40 minutes) on foot, then you can ride on a special sled on wheels (it’s hard to name this device correctly).
Moreover, when you go down, you will get a whole bag of positive emotions - a small attraction like this :))) We liked it, the issue price is 100 yuan (round trip) per person. Having also reached the very top of the wall (one of the highest points, you definitely won’t miss this place) you canride (go down) cable car

road, but I would recommend that you save this money for something else, because.you won’t see beautiful views on the cable car anyway, but it costs a lot, and I don’t advise you to miss the attraction (downhill on a sled) - it’s very cool :) As far as I remember, this is an Italian attraction of some shaggy years :)))As elsewhere, it is better to take water and percuss with you, because. prices here will be 2 times higher than usual and no one will bargain with you. When leaving, there is an aviary with bears, and next to it there is a sliced ​​apple on a plate so that you can feed the bear, but not from your hands, of course, but just throw food at him, this pleasure will cost 5 yuan :)Of course, it’s a pity for the bears, it doesn’t seem to me to spend all the time on the concrete floor :)
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The wall itself is certainly impressive, here are a couple of photos to represent the whole scale. Here Lukyan met a group of schoolchildren who, as usual, wanted to take pictures next to him, so it’s not known whether the wall was a landmark or Lukyan, of course he really likes this attention :))))

Of course, there are a lot of people on this section of the wall, but it has several undeniable advantages: accessibility (direct bus), proximity (only an hour drive from Beijing), and of course the fact that it has been restored and looks, of course, impressive (neither vegetation nor the sea, or other features of the relief)

And on such a thing we climbed, and, accordingly, descended (I highly recommend it, especially the descent)

A small attraction for the memory of the wall, there is nothing mego extreme - but it is remembered :) It was fun :)))
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How to get to the wall yourself:

The easiest way is to take the subway to 积水潭 Jishuitan subway station, exit A. When you go upstairs and stand with your back to the subway exit steps, you need to go straight back (I mean direction). As a guide, you will pass a large bus station to your left (as if walking along it). Buses can be seen just outside the Deshengmen Watchtower (not visible from metro)and from there take bus number 877 (tourist bus, it is much more convenient) or 919 (regular bus, only it runs during the non-tourist season) the price of tickets for them is the same.

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In the evening, fruit on duty as usual.

Day 4. Temple of Confucius.
Getting up early in the morning (on the fourth day, and even probably on 3, I somehow got involved in getting up at 6-00) we went to the temple of Confucius, where Confucianism was born, a landmark point (I always wanted to see).

And here is the monument to the founder of Confucianism.

Park area of ​​the Temple complex.

Inner garden. Trees that are more ..., God knows how many centuries these trees have been :))))

Inside the temple itself. The decoration styles in the temples are very similar, so if you have looked at one of the Chinese temples (well, maybe two), then you can no longer waste your time on interior decoration :)

This is the house that Emperor Confucius gave for teaching his son :)

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For information:
The entrance fee for an adult is 20 yuan.
Student valid only for students whose age does not exceed 24 years, we were not lucky, we had 25 years in ISIC written. In general, this rule is quite common in China, so keep this fact in mind.
For inspection, I definitely recommend it, also if you have time nearby there isThe Lama Palace of Peace (Yonghegong Lama Temple), and the quarter itself next to the temples is very interesting.
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Next, we went to Gugong (Forbidden City), but since we partially examined it the previous day, we went to Jingshan 景山 Park, which is located immediately behind the Forbidden City and from the highest point of which opens the best view of this most forbidden city ( in fact, the name of the park sounds like this in translation from Chinese - “view from the mountain” or “mountain with a beautiful view”).

Naturally, the entrance to the park is paid, but we are saved by student international standards made in advance, do not forget that the age in them must be up to 24 years old inclusive. In general, student wallets really help to keep your wallet thicker in China, so don’t forget to use it (especially if you look young, I don’t think you need to learn how to make a student wallet in our homeland).

View of the observation deck, which offers a good view of Gugun.

And here is the culprit himself - Gugun or the Forbidden City, in a different way. The view itself is impressive and the inside is very cool.
Then we went downstairs and decided to walk the googong in reverse order. But as of April 2016, I can say for sure (100%) that the entrance from the back is closed and you can only pass through the forbidden city from one side - the main entrance, next to the metro. Because of this, we had to take a taxi to the main entrance, otherwise we would not have had time to inspect the palace in full (a taxi cost us 20 yuan):)
Well, then just pictures - look and be impressed :)

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For information:
The cost of the entrance ticket to the forbidden city is 40 yuan per person, for students 20 yuan.
In terms of time, calculate somewhere in half a day (it took us a day, but we and the children, and we ourselves were a little stupid at first), i.e. and the Temple of Heaven and Gugong can be seen in one day if you get up early and leave late and if you are athletic enough for a long walk (and you will have to walk really a lot).

Day 5. Amusement park and Summer Imperial Palace.

In general, things didn’t work out for me in Beijing (the reality turned out to be very far from the original plans), for all the days of our stay in the capital of China we went to the Cube water park 3 times, but all these times it was closed and only in On the third trip, I found a Chinese who told me in English that the water park was closed for a whole month - in general, we were somehow unlucky with him :)
By the way, we also went to this amusement park twice, because. it is written on the Internet that it works until 21-00, but in fact it works until 18-00, like everyone else in China :))) Although it seems strange to me for an amusement park, there is of course also Happy Valey it definitely works until 22-00, but many attractions in it close after 18-00, and open only after 13-00 (be careful in general)), but it’s still too early for us, in this we were not allowed to ride everywhere: ) Looking ahead, I’ll say that Disneyland Paris (and this park in Beijing is an attempt to copy a park in Paris) I liked more, somehow everything there is more well-groomed and festive than here :)

We spent about 3,000 rubles in it, which, in principle, is not small in itself (the exchange rate of the ruble, of course, was very depressing, earlier (2 years ago, before the crisis) all the pleasure would have cost us 1,200 rubles). Of course, the kids liked it and in such a good mood we went to see the Summer Imperial Palace.