We landed late in Beijing. We got our own taxi as the airport help wanted to charge us twice what it was if we did it on our own. Because they have strict traffic laws with strict punishments, we knew we didn’t want to rent a car here.
We had heard there was a travel visa for visitors with long lay overs but couldn’t get anyone to verify it for us. Fortunately, what we heard was right and once we found the right line, they stamped our passports and off we went.

The hotel showed in multiple places online so we had printed the address out for our taxi driver before we left the US. He dropped us off in an alley and we managed to find the small hotel we were staying in. Then we set off to find some Beijing Duck for dinner. We felt dumb not really knowing how to eat it, but it was delicious!

If you ever find your self in Beijing, we highly recommend Johnny Yellow Car. Our driver picked us up early the next morning right on time. He drove us around Beijing, as the Forbidden City – we opted for the Wall over seeing inside the City – to the Temple of Heaven, a pearl market, Tiananmen Square and then up to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, and then back to the airport for less than $200 US. WELL WORTH IT! We had a great day site seeing!

One thing we didn’t even really think of was the air quality. It was so bad during our visit that our original driver couldn’t take us because the number ending on his license plate, odd or even, wasn’t allowed to drive that day to help air quality. A day after we left a friend couldn’t even land in Beijing because all air traffic was diverted due to the terrible air quality!