This is a report from a trip I made to Beijing in at the end of October 2009. That sounds so easy when just typing it out as a sentence. This trip came about as it had always been an ambition of mine to visit China, and with China coming a much more noticeable player on the theme parking world map in recent years it offers a great opportunity to combine my love of theme parks and travel.

Is it something I'd recommend? From a theme parking point of view Beijing still has a way to go before it's a better place to spend your money than one than a lot of other places in the world. You could argue that doing several major cities in China would be a good theme park trip, but if your willing to go to that trouble chances are your know enough not to need my recommendations. As a mixed trip, doing some theme parks, and some sightseeing it has a lot going for it. Be warned though this will mean travelling independently of a tour company. In China this will take a lot of preparation and research before you visit. Not just reading a few guide books, but making sure you have all the information you need, such as how to navigate the metro, and maps of where your going, including the names of places in Chinese. Google Maps is good for this. Also unless you can afford the cost of your own local guide and driver each day, it will also be a physically demanding holiday. I am pretty fit, and used to doing a lot of walking, but even still the amount of walking and climbing stairs, plus the radically different eating habits took some getting used to.

Overall though it's a trip I enjoyed, and would hope to repeat again some day. Travelling to Beijing independently isn't for the inexperienced traveller, or for someone not willing to make the effort before or during the holiday, but if your willing to make the effort it is a very rewarding experience.