Beijing Journey Tours and Wangfujing Street

We have been adding more pages, with pictures, to our website. We would like to show our travelers some of the places they can visit, and give them a short introduction to the place. Beijing has so much to offer. It is not only an old, historical city, but it is also vibrant, modern city.

Wangfujing is the premier shopping street in Beijing. Because it is so close the many of the major historical sites, it is an ideal place for travelers to visit if they are interested in doing some shopping, eating or people-watching. New malls stand next to century-old, traditional shops and restaurants. It is a great place to visit during the day, but we would definitely recommend a visit here at night. The historical sites are closed, but Beijing life for the locals, as well as the tourists, is in high-gear on Wangfujing Street. Come and enjoy!

Beijing Journey Tours and Our Thoughts About Specialization, Value, and Cost

As we increase our knowledge about Internet marketing of our business, we have come across a multitude of information on how to get higher Google rankings. We now have a fair understanding of how to be seen when a potential client does a search.

However, a few other terms have shown up in our readings. We have come across a number of articles talking about making sure your travel company specializes in a particular type of travel. We do believe that we already meet that goal, as we specialize in tailor-made tours for corporations and independent travelers. Another two terms that were used were value and cost. These two terms are what are really giving us some thought in the current market. We truly believe we are giving our travelers a good value. We want to show them the best of Beijing. We want them to also experience Beijing, not just view it from a tour bus window. We have all heard of the tours that give you a photo opportunity in front of the Eiffel Tower, but you never get a chance to reach the top and view the entire city of Paris. We understand the first tour costs less, but we wonder about its value. In the current market, we wonder what future travelers are honestly looking for. We have found in the past that value is what has brought clients to us. Now we hear more and more tour companies saying that the bottom-line cost is driving more people. We find that sad and hope that is not really the case. Travel should be more than just saying you saw a place. It should leave you with memories that excite you. Your pictures should tell stories that you will never forget, and bring a smile to your face when you look at them. Here is hoping for better economic times, and the hope that people will not put off the adventures that travel can bring to them right now!

Beijing Journey and Cell Phone Rental, Support Services

Our most under-utilized service is our cell phone rental. This surprises us as so many more independent travelers are coming to Beijing. Our American friend really was the idea for the service being offered. She was working here temporarily, but wanted to be able to get around the city, see the sights, and meet friends on her own. Since her Chinese is limited to the bare-essentials, this desire became a problem. She, many times, had to stop people on the street to ask them if they would let her use their phone. Obviously that led to the telling of some very good stories. She found all the people she asked to be quite polite, and also, a bit amused by this. Since we were the people she was calling for help, we know this to be true.

We finally suggested she buy a cell phone. We still receive her phone calls, but now we recognize the number calling us! Which then gave us the idea of offering this service to other travelers who like independence. We know that travelers want to be able to use a taxi, find a good restaurant, call home, set-up the order of their day, meet a friend, and ask any number of other questions. We know they feel more comfortable being adventurous if they have a friend to call for help. It allows a traveler to be spontaneous, walk a different way if the suddenly decide to. We believe in serendipity, and we hope that our travelers do also.

We hope that more people in the future will see the value of renting a cell phone. We have found that most people visiting here think that they have to pay the extremely high prices that international companies charge their customers when they want to use their phone outside their home countries. We feel our support service and our rental cost is quite a good value. We haven't as yet offered this service to our corporate, MICE clients, but see that it could also be of value to them.

Beijing Journey Tours Visits the New Qianmen Market Street

Located on the south side of Tian'anmen Square, Beijing's Qianmen Dajie was the city's busiest and most famous street during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. In recent years it has remained a popular shopping street, but definitely needed renovation. Using research and photos from the 1920's and 30's, it has been undergoing a massive refurbishing for the past year. Although not yet totally completed, it opened days before the Olympics. We visited it in late August. Many of the oldest, and most famous stores and restaurants of Beijing have located here. The restaurants were filled with both tourists and local Beijingers wanting to try dumplings and roast duck. We really think that Qianmen Street will be a worthwhile place to visit for travelers and and locals alike. We wandered through the old silk stores and were surprised by the reasonable prices and quality of the goods. This looks like it will become a good place to shop in Beijing when more stores move back here. We thought we would like to try the old theater, showing movies from the 20's, at a later date. It might also be fun to ride the restored trolley.

A Visit to Confucius Temple by Beijing Journey Tours

We hadn't been to the Temple of Confucius since the renovation of the temple had been completed. Our American friend went there during the Olympics and was quite impressed. She had been there last year while it was being worked on and wanted to go back to see how it had all turned out. We were also impressed.


Amazingly, tourists have not found it. Which is surprising, considering its history. We visited the Confucius Museum on the grounds and thoroughly enjoyed it ourselves. It tells us about the life of Confucius, his beliefs, and how that fits into the history of China. We think travelers to Beijing would find it interesting.

Mainly though, we think travelers would especially like visiting the Temple of Confucius and the Imperial College because of the peacefulness of the place. It is a nice place to just stroll through; enjoying the atmosphere of old China, admiring the beautiful architecture, and learning a little history besides.

We have always included the Confucius Temple in tours for people who have a little more time in Beijing, but now we think we would like to recommend it to people who also want to get the feeling of old Beijing. The walk to the temple goes through a quiet hutong, and gives the traveler a look at the daily lives of many Beijingers. Since it is located near many of the most important, and therefore the most frequently visited places; it would be a good place to stop for a quiet, but interesting break.

Visiting the Real Beijing

In the not-so-long-ago past, people were content to visit another country and see its famous sights. Although seeing the must-see sights of Beijing is still apart of any trip here, more and more people are asking to experience Beijing; to have a more in-depth view of the city. They want to see the real Beijing, and they want to meet people and have the chance to talk with them. In Beijing, a hutong is one of those places.

Whether you take a stroll through the hutong areas of Beijing, or rent a bike or a pedicab, you will see another side the Chinese capitol. Real Beijingers live and work here. If you take the time, you will have the opportunity to see what daily life is like for the average Beijinger. Perhaps you will also have the opportunity to visit a home and have tea with the people who live there. We would be happy to arrange a trip through a hutong for those that would wish to do so.

The Olympics are now over, and many people from all over the world have visited Beijing. We, at Beijing Journey Travel, have seen more and more people interested in the Beijing of today. As we enter the fall of the year, we would like to explore more options for our travelers. We would like to provide them with authentic experiences that are ones they will remember always.

Beijing Journey Tours is a Destination Management Company

We have doing some research on search engine optimization; tags, RSS feeds, etc. There is so much to learn! Maybe we are old-fashioned, but it seems to us that working hard to make your business better; what you have to offer in terms of your products, service, reliability, etc. is still what a business is all about. As we look further into expanding our business through our web site, we still are looking for even better ways to provide our travelers with quality tours and outstanding service.

Our American friend brought us an article from United Hemispheres Magazine. In each edition of the magazine they have a feature article called Three Perfect Days. In August their feature article was Three Perfect Days Beijing. We were happy to see that many of the places that we take our travelers are ones that are recommended in the Hemispheres article. This is especially true for our MICE corporate event clients. (meeting, incentive convention exhibition) We also had to smile that our American friend had encouraged us to include the newly re-opened Prince Gong's Mansion on our If You Have More Time web page.

Whether you are an independent traveler or part of a group, and are interested in a tailor-made tour; check-out the article. It will give you some ideas, and we can give you many other exciting alternatives. One of our own favorite activities is having tea in the kitchen of the Forbidden City. Hoping to hear from you soon! We trust you will love your journey in Beijing!