Peter Danford’s Beijing Guide is, as its name suggests, an interactive guide to the city. Covering a city of this size is a monstrous undertaking and Danford delivers.
Click here to view The Beijing Guide.
It’s hard to know where to begin with a site this large in scope. Let me start by saying that if you’re planning a trip to Beijing, you should visit Beijing Guide. It contains practically all of the information you would expect to find in a guidebook: Beijing Sights, The Great Wall, Olympic Venues, Transportation, Practicalities such as Chinese currency and toilets, Language, Shopping, Culture, Food, Nightlife and a Shanghai Side Trip.
Ah, did I see Shopping? Let’s start there. The page opens with a pano of Wangfujing – Beijing’s modern shopping district, where hotspots open more pics of the massive department store and Culture Alley. Below the pano is a handy street map outlining the shopping and surrounding area – good to print out and take along your trip.
Wondering where to stay in the city? Virtual tours of about a dozen Beijing hotels are accessible from the homepage. A typical tour, like that of The Peninsula Palace Beijing, includes panos of all the suites, from the presidential to the deluxe, as well as the hotel’s facilities, and you can instantly check rates and availability online. All the panoramas are in Java.
The Beijing Guide uses 360° panoramas, original Chinese music, audio of Chinese phrases, video, photography and humor to show travelers aspects of Chinese culture, and encourage them to participate. Find out how to ride a bike with the masses, navigate the subway system, take a taxi without speaking Chinese and find your way to the (correct) toilet. It includes details on what to do after your airport arrival; forms needed for customs, basically all the information that a first time traveler needs to have on hand. Want to learn how to count in Chinese? The homepage has a little area where you can listen to audio while watching the accompanying hand gestures. And it’s all available in English, Chinese, French and German.
The website offers useful advice on what section of the Wall to visit, noting that the Badaling section, which is close to Beijing and relatively easy to climb, is also the most touristy and developed. Touristy is right; Kentucky Fried Chicken has opened a franchise at the wall and the accompanying pano shows a tourist who is, for some reason, sitting atop a double-humped camel. The site advises a visit to the Simatai section of the wall for a less touristy and more rugged experience. Blessedly, the Simatai pano shows nary a tourist, and is recommended for a good long walk along the wall.
The site is chock-a-block full of relevant information for the traveler. There is the historical: the Great Wall was built over more than two thousand year, with construction starting in the 7th century BC and completed between the 14th and 17th centuries; and the practical: The three to five hour picturesque walk from Jinshanling to Simatai is good exercise but not an easy stroll, so wear comfortable walking shoes and bring some snacks and water, although you can buy the latter along the way. Danford points out that he prefers Jinshanling as a starting point because it’s easier and faster to get up onto the wall, and you can sleep in a shop located in the watchtower after making arrangements with the shopkeeper. He even includes detailed instructions on hiring a taxi to get you there, what you can expect to pay, and faster routes to avoid traffic.
The tips on bargaining are terrific. The basic advice is that: “When quoting a price, you can expect people to get as much as they think you think its worth. Foreigners are susceptible to paying too much as they don't realize how low prices really are in China. You need to have a realistic idea in your head what something is worth - in China.“ It’s also humorous: “Shopkeepers may look annoyed if you bargain hard, but either (1) they are annoyed they cannot profit greatly from you, (2) looking annoyed is part of their bargaining act or (3) they were annoyed when you arrived.”
The Beijing Guide is the work of photographer and web developer Peter Danford, who has been creating VR panoramas since the technology became available in 1994. He now lives on a yacht in Australia with his wife and two children, and frequently travels to China to work on The Beijing Guide. In Australia he does local travel & tourism web sites through his company Outback Web & Photography.
