Description
With details concerning major attractions, off-the-beaten-track spots, drinking and nightlife venues, and restaurants and hotels/hostels from all over the city, Panda Guides Beijing is the most complete guide of its kind. Written by a team of expats who live in and know China’s roaring capital, our Beijing title is the first guidebook to offer local discounts to readers, as well as an opportunity to win a free trip through China by purchasing the book. Apart from all the money readers can save by following the Panda, this edition of Beijing also comes with a pullout map of the city, while individual maps can be found inside for key tourist attractions, and mini-maps are provided for every local business (hotels, hostels, bars, and restaurants) that show all major cross streets and the nearest subway station(s). What’s more, we’ve made the travel experience even easier by placing each attraction’s vital info (i.e. transportation details, opening hours, admission, phone number, website, etc.) in clearly marked orange boxes at the beginning of every listing. This volume is also packed with sample itineraries, a Mandarin phrasebook, a user-friendly index, sections on culture, history, art, music, and movies, full-color pictures (to give you an engrossing feel of a destination before the reader even goes) and much more! Plus, the Hot Topics section will reveal what life on the ground is like with coverage of fascinating themes such as Air Pollution, Food & Water Safety, Traveling with Kids, Scams, Travel, Culture Shock, Taboo & Etiquette and others. For all this and more, Panda Guides Beijing isn’t just a guide, it’s an experience. For more on our books and maps, and to get updated information concerning travel news and special events throughout China, check out www.PandaGuides.com.
Robert Linnet Born in Denver, CO, Robert received his BA in Linguistics from the nearby University of Colorado. After growing up admiring ancient Taoist philosophies and the furious fists of Bruce Lee and Gordon Liu, he came to China in 2009 for a summer stint at a martial arts school and a month of travel. Utterly smitten with the country, he hurried back in the summer of 2010 and has made it his home ever since. Robert has traveled to more than 20 cities throughout China, practices kettlebell and Baji Chuan kung fu, and is obsessed with adding to the thousands of Chinese characters he currently reads and writes. Though he resides in Beijing, he recently made a trip to his girlfriend Chen Chen’s hometown of Xi’an to marry her. Robert speaks fluent Mandarin and French and is working on adding Shaanxi Hua (the dialect of Xi’an) to the list. Trey Archer Trey Archer is from Lake Charles, Louisiana and studied International Affairs at the George Washington University. While backpacking Latin America in 2007, he declared while hitchhiking by boat from Colombia to Panama that he’d pursue a career in travel writing after graduation instead of entering the world of diplomacy. Since then he has traveled to nearly 100 countries, speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin fluently, and has lived in nine different nations. In his free time he practices various martial arts (especially muay Thai), keeps up with the New Orleans Saints, cycles and is still obsessed with traveling. He’s been in China for six years and has visited almost every province, but currently he resides in the hutongs of Beijing. Emily Umhoefer Emily Umhoefer is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native who arrived in Beijing two years ago after a stint as a staffer on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. As a writer, she’s worked on everything from nonfiction political bestsellers to poems and press releases and now, this guide. Having worked as a wilderness trip leader in Tanzania, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Colorado, Emily loves the outdoors, and on a beautiful summer day you’ll find her exploring Beijing by bike and joining the old men in Speedos to take a dip in Houhai.
