BeijingPlus app for iPhone and iPad

A constantly-updated travel planner and professionally-written guide. Conventional travel guides can be out of date as soon as they are printed. This is a totally different travel guide, built around a community of readers and travelers, including the author.

This app is built around superb professional travel writing, and the sharing of comments with other readers. See updates from other travelers and send in your own. The app has a Journal to keep your notes as you plan your trip, to which you can add photos, update during your trip, and keep forever alongside the outstanding guide content.

Arrive in Beijing and spend a few days soaking up the Imperial sights – the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palaces and the Great Wall. Spend your evenings enjoying Beijing duck, opera and maybe a trip to the acrobats. If you have time, take a train up to Chengde and spend a couple of days enjoying the imperial retreat before returning to the capital and flying on to Xian. Allow a full day at the Terracotta Warriors and another day to explore the fascinating walled city. Make sure you enjoy a Dumpling Banquet, as well as dinner in the Muslim markets. Reflect on your trip in the overnight train back to Beijing. Beijing, literally translated, means Northern Capital, a title it has held since the Ming Dynasty (see History) and a name that still holds true today. Whether imagining the past or marveling at the future, this city is most definitely still the cultural, political and, to the Pekinese, geographical, heart of the Middle Kingdom. While Beijings modern appearance owes much to the Communist era and the recent influx of capitalist cash, its most impressive and inspiring monuments are recognition of its long imperial tradition. The scale of the city, with its population of 15 million, can initially be overwhelming, but even a short meander into one of Beijings remaining hutong districts brings you close to the realities of daily life and all of a sudden the city seems human again. While the vast number of construction sites, flyovers and mirrored skyscrapers can come as a shock to those hoping for a view of the years when Beijing was the emperors seat, a visit to any one of the principal imperial sights (the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven or the Summer Palaces) easily remedies this. However, the greatest of Beijings, if not the worlds, sights lies north of the city. The Great Wall never ceases to amaze and its worth spending a couple of days out of the city to fully appreciate its majesty. If you have enough time and want more imperial splendor, the rugged countryside around the capital holds Ming and Qing tombs, while, farther afield, the Mountain Resort at Chengde was long a popular emperors haunt and has some wild scenery along with its subdued palaces and grand temples. This a highly detailed guide to everything you need to know about Beijing and its surroundings - the places to stay, the restaurants, and what to see and do - along with an extensive introductory section on China as a whole. The author lives in China and has been a tour guide there full-time for close to 10 years. This guide is an excerpt from his much larger guide to all of China, also published by Hunter, which is 650 pages in the print edition.