Notes From Beijing: Togetherness

Beijing is not a city for people traveling alone. In fact, let's go one better: China is not a country for people traveling alone. You want to hit the town, you'd better have some friends with you or you'll be sorry.

I found that out the hard way when I tried to find a restaurant. After several fruitless cab stops (FUN FACT: Beijing cabbies can find any street in the city, but not restaurants), I decided on a place near the hotel. I was turned away with the explanation that, due to the crowd, they were not seating individuals. Basically, if you're going to a busy restaurant (and in Beijing, that's all of them), bring a small army.

Probably the easiest fix to this little problem is to find some Chinese tourists or locals to help you out. If you went to Tiananmen, this won't be hard - wander around and eventually someone will strike up a conversation. The trick here is distinguishing between the actual interested parties and the really clever hawkers. It's not as hard as it seems - if they're steering you towards a business, then you are dealing with the latter.

This is a good way to see parts of the city that you'd otherwise likely miss. It's also a good way to go broke. As I mentioned before, Beijing is an expensive city, and it can be very easy to lose track of time and funds.