Beijing Expert

We were helping a friend looking for an apartment in Beijing for the upcoming Olympic Games.  But turns out our friend got a sweet “House swaping” deal with one Chinese family during the olympics.  We feel bad for the apartment owner, so we are posting the apartment information here.  Maybe it will be helpful for you if you are looking for a place to stay, it is definitely a better deal than over priced hotels.  We have been to the apartment, and we do aprove!

*beijing Olympic apartment

*Beijing Apartment rental

*Beijing short term Apartment

2008 Beijing apartment

The second round of 2008 Olympics ticket is just about to start. According to Beijing Olympic official website, the tickets sale will start in the next two weeks. This time, the tickets will be sold as first come first serve. You can either order the tickets by going to tickets.beijing2008.com or order by phone, or going to the bank.

With millions foreigners and Chinese rushing into Beijing for the Olympics, Beijing hospitality availability becomes a big problem.  From some news I read a few days ago, most of the hotels are already booked full.  Where are you going to stay in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics?

I found a squidoo page online that suggests some really interesting alternative options for where to stay in Beijing during the Olympics.

2008 Hotel Frenzy
Are you coming to Beijing for the Olympic games? You might have a harder time booking a hotel than getting a pair of opening ceremony tickets. Hotels rates are going up to 600% during the olympics. And a good size of hotel rooms will be reserved for Olympic officials, athletes and families, Chinese officials, and a lot more Chinese who has good Guanxi. So how can an average Joe get his ass in a hotel?

Act early and think about alternatives!

If you book now you will have a better deal and better chance to get a room. However, only large hotels are taking reservations for next year. You might need to use you negotiation skills with smaller hotels.

Alternative ways to stay for cheaper price.

1. Homestay: A variety of organizations and individuals are getting willing families open up their home for travelers during the olympics. You can choose from a traditional court yard home or a modern apartment. Make sure the location is close to subway stations and bus stops.

2. Renting your own apartment: With the money you are paying for 10-15 days of stay in a hotel, you can rent a fully furnished apartment for 3 months. You can also save money by cooking dinner instead of going out to restaurants to eat every day.

3. House swap: Just as you want to come to see the olympics, some Chinese family or expat family might as well want to get out of China to avoid millions of tourists. You can post your information on listing website such as craiglist to find the willing families.

4. When all fails: When all fails you can try nearby cities and remote Beijing district. Beijing city is surrounded by vast rural area. You can stay in Miyun, Huairou, Shunyi districts. A bit far out but you can enjoy the beautiful scenery. Tian Jin and Tang Shan are only 2-3 hours away from Beijing. Trains and coach buses are abundant.

Good luck getting your rooms in Beijing. If you need help, you can email me. i am thinking about renting my apartment out as well.

So now the question is how to get flight tickets and tickets for the games!

“Mid-Autumn Festival” which is also known as the “Zhong Qiu Jie” in Chinese, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. This year it falls on September 25^th.  Mid-Autumn is a time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the full moon – an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck. Adults will usually indulge in fragrant mooncakes of many varieties with a good cup of piping hot Chinese tea, while the little ones run around with their brightly-lit lanterns.

“Zhong Qiu Jie” probably began as a harvest festival. The festival was later given a mythological flavour with legends of Chang-E, the beautiful lady in the moon.

According to Chinese legend, the earth once had 10 suns circling over it. One day, all 10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved when a strong archer, Hou Yi, succeeded in shooting down 9 of the suns. Yi stole the elixir of life but to save the people from his tyrannical rule, his wife, Chang-E drank it. Thus started the legend of the lady in the moon to whom young Chinese girls would pray at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

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Beijing Pop Festival will be held in Chaoyang Park on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9. Don’t let the name fool you, the festival is nothing “pop” but everything “Rock n’ Roll”.

This year’s line up is especially awesome. Including two of my personal favorites, Wan Xiaoli (万晓利）and Nin Inch Nails. Wan Xiaoli’s new album got a lot softer than before, a little bit too commercial for my taste. Let’s see if he can still rock this time. Nine Inch Nail’s “Closer” and “Hurt” have long been on my top rated playlist. I am excited to see them in person this time. So if you are in Beijing for the weekend, head to Chaoyang Park and enjoy the best music event of the year.

Happy Valley Theme Park opened since summer 2006. This summer the park offers a discounted Night admission. Visitors can enjoy perfomances and parades from 7pm till 10 pm. The park consists of six themed regions respectively named “Bay Forrest”, “Atlantis”, “the Lost Maya”, “Aegean Harbor”, “Shangri-La” and “Kingdom of Ants”. The chief manager of Beijing “Happy Valley”, Gao Jun, says visitors can have fun while learning about ecology, culture and history of the world through the parks’ exhibits which include buildings, sculptures, gardens, murals, performances and games.

This park will be the second theme park opened by the OCT Group. The first “Happy Valley” has been successfully running for years in Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, the group plans on building two more “Happy Valleys” in Shanghai and Chengdu.

Happy Valley Beijing is located near southeast 4th ring road at the Beijing-Shenyang Highway entrance. Telephone: 010-67201818

Most Chinese remember being told this romantic tragedy when they were children on Qixi, or the Seventh Night Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which is usually in early August. This year it falls on Sunday, August 19.

If it rains heavily on that night, some elderly Chinese will say it is because Zhinu, or the Weaving Maid, is crying on the day she met her husband Niulang, or the Cowherd, on the Milky Way.

According to the Chinese lore, a cowherd lived with his elder brother and sister-in-law who disliked and abused him, that he was forced to leave home with only an old cow for company. The cow, however, was a former god who had violated imperial rules and was sent to earth in bovine form. One day the cow led the cowherd to a lake where fairies took a bath on earth. Among them was a weaving maid, the most beautiful fairy and a skilled seamstress. The two fell in love at first sight. They ignored Heaven’s strict rules and were soon secretly married. They had a son and a daughter and their happy life was held up as an example for hundreds of years in China. Yet in the eyes of the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Deity in Taoism, marriage between a mortal and fairy was strictly forbidden. He sent the empress to fetch the weaving maid. The cowherd grew desperate when he discovered the weaving maid had been taken back to heaven. Driven by the cowherd’s misery, the cow told him to turn its hide into a pair of shoes after it died. The magic shoes whisked the cowherd, who carried his two children in baskets strung from a shoulder pole, off on a chase after the empress. The pursuit enraged the empress, who took her hairpin and slashed it across the sky creating the Milky Way which separated husband from wife. The cowherd was stopped by the surging river. But all was not lost as magpies, moved by their love and devotion, agreed to let them meet one day (on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month) each year. All the magpies in the world, according to lore, gather on that day to form a bridge spanning the Milky Way so the lovers can reunite. Even the Jade Emperor was touched, and allowed them to meet once a year on the seventh night of the seventh month. (more…)

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” the last book of the Harry Potter book had a synchronized world book release in Beijing. Fans of the series lined up at 7am outside of Wang Fu Jing Xinhua Book Store. The fans are mostly foreigners living in Beijing, since the book is in English. I was still surprised to see so many young Chinese fans lining up for the English version of the book. According to news reports, a whopping 10,000 copies are sold on the first day in Beijing.  

The long line attracted a lot of attention from the passersby. Some of the best overheard conversations:

Old man: “Hey, what’s the line for?” (eagerly wants to get in the line)
Fan:”The new Harry Potter book”

Old man:”Ohh. I thought you were waiting to buy bread or something.”

Woman: “Hey what’s this line for?”

Fan: “Harry Potter’s new book.”

Woman:”Oh, is he signing the books?”

The Chinese version of the book will be released in October.

According to Chinese lunar calendar, June 19th is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is a famous traditional festival – Duanwu festival.For thousands of years, Duanwu has been marked by eating Zongzi and racing dragon boats.

The taste of Zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves to give it a special flavor, varies greatly across China. Zongzi is often made of rice mixed with dates in Northern China, while Eastern China people like to stuff Zongzi with pork, ham, chestnuts and other ingredients, making them very rich in flavor.

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Olympic Tickets are now available for applications, You have 30 days left before the ticket application deadline of June 30, 2007. Get the more information at

Beijing Olympic Official Website.