With hopes of making it to Beijing to shoot Triathlon for the Olympics still alive - I recently had a chance to scope things out over there. The city has changed a lot in the past few years from the Monster new terminal 3 at PEK airport to "The Nest" in the Olympic village - there is an interesting mix of the Old and the New.The ride from the Airport to my hotel near the Forbidden City was about 90 yuan (RMB) including the 10y toll. Fortunately at about 7:1 that translated into less than $14 USD for the nearly 40 min ride. In general prices were pretty good (bartering mandatory in most places) as long as you avoided the Major hotel chains. For diet coke lovers I can report that I paid as little as 2y for a can in local markets and convenience stores but was hammered 55y once at a hotel bar! The cans are a displaying a cool Olympic logo right now and about half the time they still donned the old pull tab style.
Despite the huge crowds at the tourist locations - highlights of the trip included a visit to the Great Wall (around an hour from the city), the Forbidden City, Olympic village, checking out the great food, shopping at the Silk Street Market (talking barter fest here with all the great brands you know and love at bargin prices - are they real? Who knows but lots of stuff definitely passed the "sniff" test.
The air quality rumors are largely true but the effect is more subtle than you would think - kind of feels like you're at altitude so when you try and exert yourself it kicks in (or maybe that was the jet lag :) The one place where there really was bad air was on the subway. In general the subways were very clean and efficient. They are in the middle of installing tons of ticket machines (currently you need to go to a counter and hold up as many fingers as you need tickets (2y each so it's a great way to get around for cheap) There are humans that take your ticket and tear it off as you enter - looked like they were installing electronic ticket gates to go with the ticket machines too.
As for crowds - avoid the subways during rush hour - something I didn't do and there were several stops where it was so crowded that when the already packed trains arrived and a few people managed to squeeze off - there was a mad rush followed by guys in uniforms pushing us into the car so the doors would shut.
Still tons of bikes on the streets (nothing you'd see during a triathlon - we are talking bikes you're mom would ride here) And I didn't see one helmet the entire time. Granted most of these folks were going pretty slow but right turning cars didn't yield to bikes (or people for that matter) so you really have to be heads up when riding. You see people carrying everything on bikes (especially the three wheelers with some cargo space in the back)
I could go on with stories but I'll let the photos tell the rest - if anyone is headed over for the Olympics or otherwise I'd be happy to give you my 2 cents on any travel questions. (Wikitravel has some good background on the City as well)
Enjoy
