Beijing Travel Tips
Beijing's Neighboring Areas: Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province
Resident Population: 19.612 million
Area: 16,410 square kilometers (6336 square miles)
Area Code: 010
Tourist Complaint: (010) 65275315 (010) 65130828
Visa & Embassy
Since December 17th, 2024, the 240-hour visa-free transit has been implemented in 24 provinces, municipalities and regions for nationals of 54 countries and regions.
Visitors from other countries still have to obtain a visa before entering the city. You can apply for the visa in the Consulate of P. R. China in your country. Alternatively, you can obtain the visa through a travel agency. Special fast applications can be generally completed with 24 hours.
There are about 140 countries and regions having their embassies set in Beijing. The embassies are mainly distributed at the Sanlilun Area and Jianguomen Area to the east of the city center. If you have encounter problems on visa, passport or some other emergencies during your stay in the city, you can find your embassy for help.
Money & Bank
Bank of China
Wangfujing Branch: 1, Chang' an Street, Dongcheng District
Qianmen Branch: 17, Xijiaominxiang, Xicheng District
Xidan Branch: 130, Xidan North Street, Xicheng District
Dongzhimen Branch: 35, Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng District
Xindongan Mall Branch: 130, Wangfujing Street, Dongcheng District
Foreign Exchange
Great Britain Pound, Euro, U.S. Dollar, Swiss Franc, Singapore Dollar, Swedish Crown, Danish Crown, Norwegian Crown, Japanese Yen, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, Philippine Peso, Thai Baht are all exchangeable. Foreign currency and checks with the face value of Eurodollar and Spanish Peseta are also exchangeable at the Bank of China, other authorized banks offer foreign exchange service, some hotels, restaurants and shops will also accept foreign exchange business in order to provide convenience for foreign tourists.
Credit Card
It is very convenient for tourists to use credit cards in star hotels and the large emporiums. At present main credit cards accepted in China, are Master card, Visa, American Express, JCB and Diners.
Communication
elephone:
Phone booths can be easily found along the roads. The fees of such public phones are as follow:
IC card phones: local call - 0.5 Yuan for the first 3 minutes and then 0.2 Yuan per minute. The charge for DDD is 0.8 Yuan per minute and the charge for IDD is 8.2 Yuan per minute.
Post Office:
Letters posted within the city need a stamp of CNY 0.6 and letters posted within the country need to stick a stamp of CNY 0.8. According to the different region and weight every international airmail letter costs more than CNY 5.4. Letters posted to Hong Kong or Taiwan needs about CNY 2.5. The International Post Office located on the east side of Jianguomen North Street, operates a receiving and posting international and domestic letters, parcels and express mails, making out invoice, cash draft and telegram drafts, domestic and international telegram etc.
Yong' an Road Post Office: 173, Yongan Road, Xicheng District
Fangzhuang Post Office: 22, Pufang Road, Fengtai District
Huashi Post Office: 67, Huashi Street, Dongcheng District
Internet:
Surfing the internet is not an adventure any more, for internet cafes' can be easily found on the streets. If you come to the city by yourself and want to do business via the internet, chat with family or friends, there are plenty of venues to choose from.
Education
Beijing boasts the classic and most education resource in the country. There are over 100 universities and institutes, including many famous ones like Peking University and Tsinghua University. The campuses are mainly located in Haidian District and Xicheng District.
