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The recent political unrest in Thailand highlights the need to register yourself with the appropriate government department when going to an overseas country. In my case as an Australian I would go to the Smart Traveller website and register myself.

The reason you would want to do this is if a normal calm situation suddenly changes as has happened in Thailand and you need to be made aware of the situation or you may need assistance to return home. If you are registered the embassy in that country would be better able to serve you in your time of need.

Even when all is okay in the country you are visiting it is worthwhile registering as sometimes something may happen to loved ones at home and you may need to be contacted urgently.

Another highly reccommended thing to do when travelling overseas is to get travel insurance. A lot of people have the attitude that nothing will happen to them where they require travel insurance however you just never know what can go wrong. A recent example is where Australian journalist Matthew Hill fell critically ill in Beijing while covering the 2008 Olympics. He required a medical evacuation from Beijing. Without insurance this can be a costly exercise.

I recently returned from Beijing and was lucky enough to not need to call upon my travel insurance however I never considered going on vacation without first taking out a travel insurance policy.

I also recall another instance where I was working in Beijing. One of my colleagues fell ill and was in a serious condition that required hospitalisation. He was fit and strong and would have never expected this to happen. He had travel insurance and was well looked after in a western standard hospital. This was all thanks to travel insurance.

For people interested in travel registration you can learn more at the page I have on this website.

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The Xinqiao Novotel Beijing hotel is in a great location and is ideally located in the central district of Beijing. The great thing is that you have a subway station at your doorstep which gives you access to line 5 and line 2. With subway tickets at just 2rmb you have most of your Beijing attactions within easy reach via subway or bus. A bus ticket can be as low as 0.4rmb or around 6 cents US. So cheap if you want to go with the public transport option.

Staying at the Xinqiao Novotel Beijing you are also in walking distance to the Wangfujing shopping and business district and major tourist attractions such as the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City National Performing Arts Centre and the Temple of Heaven. The hotel is just 5 minutes drive to Beijing Railway Station and 30 km away from Beijing Capital International Airport. To get to the airport you can use the subway. It does not get much easier than that.

Even if you want to visit the Great Wall at Badaling it is within easy reach from the hotel for just around $5 US.

The Xinqiao Novotel Beijing features many different types of accommodation options such as deluxe suites, executive rooms and deluxe guest rooms. You will enjoy the good atmosphere of modern and traditional architecture. You every need can be taken care of in the xeotic restaurants or by using the business and recreation facilities which are provided by the hotel. This is all aimed at meeting the needs of the you the visitor.

Having seen this hotel for myself I have no hesitation in recommending your stay at the Xinqiao Novotel hotel in Beijing.

click here to make your booking or learn more

Hotel address: 2 Dongjiaominxiang Street Dongcheng District 100004

If you ask my wife, who is a Beijing native when the best time to visit Beijing her answer is April or September. Go in April to witness the flowers blooming in spring or September to enjoy more pleasant weather before winter sets in.

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I have just got back from my month vacation in Beijing, China. It was great to take in the Olympics and many other attractions in Beijing. The bad thing was not being able to access my site from over there. I thought I had the problem licked with a proxy service however this proved to difficult to worry about using.

Now that I am back at home base I will be busy writing about my adventures and adding pics and guides over the upcoming weeks about Beijing. Check back and see what you think.

I have been in Beijing for one week now. Since my arrival I have not been able to access my website to post articles. I also cannot connect via FTP.

Thanks to a proxy service I came across I can at least post articles. It is really slow so I don’t know how much I will get to do. It is at least good to get this post on so readers know why it is a bit quite around here recently.

Since I have been in Beijing I have been taking lots of photos and filming sights and other interesting things. I have been to some Olympic venues, enjoyed great food and have visited some interesting attractions.

Yesterday my family and I went to a dumpling restraurant not far from the Olympic stadium. They handmake the dumplings as you order. They were yummy. I will create a video with details when that is up and running. I brought the wrong video cable with me.

Today I am taking it easy at home as my feet have been hammered with all the walking I have done recently. All going well I will get some more articles posted over the coming weeks.

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Next month Tianjin plays host to some Olympic soccer matches. Sports fans commuting from Beijing to Tianjin will be in for a treat as the new express train link is about to open. The railway will open next Friday just ahead of the Games.

The rail journey will be reduced by one hour to a easy 30 minute ride. The trains will zip along the tracks at a top speed of 350 kmph (220 mph). The trains interior are said to be more like aircraft cabins than trains.

The Tianjin - Beijing rail link is a huge leap forward in terms of ramping up the speed according to Railway Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping as he spoke to reporters in the huge new Beijing South railway station. Wang said it is the largest train station in Asia.

I will be sure to check it out when I am in Beijing in August 2008.

The fare for the new train is yet to be announced.

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At the end of June I wrote about how the expected hotel operator Olympic cash bonanza does not look like happening. More recent articles doing the rounds in the press are further pushing that point.

In what is good news for visitors to the China Olympics the prices for hotel rooms seem to be coming down as the opening ceremony approaches. Many hotels had more than tripled their normal rates hoping to cash in on the summer games tourist rush. It has obviously had a serious effect on numbers making their way to Beijing to watch the games.

Zhang Ting, sales manager for the Zhongyu Century Grand Hotel said “Bookings are so low that we have no choice but to cut prices”.

I wonder how this makes people feel that have booked through the official ticket and accommodation provider CoSport. About six months ago I was looking on that site at the price of packages including tickets and a hotel room and the prices seemed to be highly inflated.

Sports fans thinking about a last minute vacation in the Olympic city should be able to take advantage of the lower than expected hotel room rates in Beijing. Even if tickets are not available the atmosphere in the city should be worth the visit.

Beijing officials have said they expected around 450 000 to 500 000 foreign visitors during the games with an additional one million Chinese visitors heading to Beijing.

The higher hotel prices have been blamed for keeping the numbers down from what was predicted.

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Most tourists visiting Beijing will first arrive at Beijing Capital Airport. Once they have passed through immigration and customs the next requirement is normally finding transport options to take them into the city of Beijing.

If you have gone on a package tour this will most likely have been taken care of for you. You just need to find the tour guide and follow them onto the tour bus and then to the hotel. For the rest of the tourists it means using public transport. Following the recent opening of the Airport line subway here are the transport options available to the Beijing tourist.

For 25RMB or around USD3.70 you can take the subway from Beijing Capital Airport to Sanyuanqiao or Dongzhimen stations. The Sanyuanqiao station allows transfers to line 10. At the airport end of the line there are stops at Terminal 2 and 3.

The first train departs from Terminal 3 at 6:21.
The last train departs from Terminal 3 at 22:51.
The first train departs from Terminal 2 at 6:35.
The last train departs from Terminal 2 at 23:10.

Trains going to the airport from

The first train departs from Dongzhimen Station at 6:00.
The last train departs from Dongzhimen Station at 22:30.

Map of the Beijing Subway system including

If you are not catching a train from the airport you could use a taxi. The cost for a taxi is 2.0 yuan per kilometer. It is around 28km from the airport to the center of the city. Once you travel 15km the rate per kilometer attracts an additional 50%. You would expect the taxi fare to be around 75 to 80 RMB depending on your destination.

When catching a taxi it is best to line up at the official taxi rank. Try to avoid the hawkers who go to the terminal and try to attract your business.

The third transport option from Beijing Capital Airport to the city is the shuttle bus. The fare is 16 yuan and buses leave every 15 minutes on some lines or every 30 minutes on others.

Go here for more information regarding routes and service times.

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Tourists flying into Beijing airport now have the choice of taking the subway from the airport into the city. This comes about following the opening of three new subway lines on 19 July 2008.

The subway line running from Beijing Capital Airport is 28km long with 4 stations stretching from Dongzhimen to the airport. The maximum running speed of the train is 110km/h. Despite being more than ten times the normal subway fare the ride from the airport is still reasonably priced at 25 yuan. With the exchange rate of 1 USD = 6.82848 CNY as at 21 July that equals USD3.66

Subway Line 10 (Phase I) and the Olympic Extension have also opened. The three new lines have a combined rail distance of 58km. This now brings the total track length in the Beijing subway system to 200km of tracks with 8 rail lines.

As an important subway line connecting the north and the east of Beijing, the Phase I Project of Subway Line 10 extends 25km long with 22 stops, and includes six interchange stations with connections to the No. 13 line, the Olympic extension, No.5 line, the Airport Express Line, No.1 line, and No. 4 line. As such, Subway Line 10 can reach Beijing’s new development area Zhongguancun, the Beijing Olympic Center, the Asia Games Village and the CBD zone, as well as other key functional areas.

The Phase I Project of Subway Line 10 is important as it connects the north and the east of Beijing. Line 10 runs for 25km and includes 22 stops. The line is also an interchange for several lines and connects to no. 13 line, no. 5 line, the Olympic extension, the Airport Express Line, no 4 line and no. 1 line. Line 10 is an important line that has coverage of the new development area Zhongguancun, the Olympic Center and the CBD.

The new Olympic Extension line is 4.5km long in total with 4 stops. The starting stop, Beitucheng Station, is connected to the Olympic Green and the Olympic Central Zone. From 20 July only Olympic ticket holders for that day and and holders of registered certificates for the Beijing Olympics Games will be able to use the extension line.

The normal subway lines cost 2 yuan which with the exchange rate of 1 USD = 6.83386 as at 21 July is 29 US cents.

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The city of Sydney has hosted some big events. The 2000 Olympics come to mind as one. Also APEC was hosted in Sydney last year. The latest event that is big on the world stage is the World Youth Day. This is a gathering of young catholics from around the globe.

About 100 000 pilgrims are said to be in the harbour city for the event. Many of the visitors are staying in schools or are hosted by families. When such events are on it is probably best not to visit Sydney as many streets are closed and it is difficult to get around.

Today in Sydney the largest ever mass in Australia took place. An estimated 150,000 pilgrims made their way to Barangaroo, near Sydney’s Darling Harbour. If you were not aware of this as a tourist you were in for a surprise.

World Youth Day continues for the next few day in Sydney. The highlight for pilgrims will be the service to be held by the Pope who came to Sydney for the event.

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In August 2008 Qingdao, China will play host to the Olympic sailing regatta. Qingdao is located on the southeast section of the Shandong Peninsula. Across the Yellow Sea lies the Republic of Korea and Japan. This city is 882km by train from Beijing and the journey takes just under six hours on bullet trains. If you are flying it is one hour from Beijing and Shanghai.

Thanks to its colonial past, Qingdao has many european style buildings and is a pretty city. Germany and Japan colonised the city for the around thirty years in the first half of last century. The time I spent in Qingdao made me feel I was in the Vaucluse area of Sydney. There were twisting streets with large walls and interesting buildings.

The city of Qingdao has a population of around 2 million and when including surrounding cities it is in the 7 million range. The unique blend of mountains and sea ensure that the climate is pleasant.

The beaches and the nearby Laoshan Mountain make Qingdao an ideal tourist destination. The beaches are not the nicest I have seen however they are pleasant enough for some time at the beach. There are many european style buildings for sightseeing. The former residence of the German governor is one I recommend.

The Qingdao Olympic sailing center is located in the newer eastern part of Qingdao. The sailing center was built on the site of the old Behai shipyard at Qingdao’s Fushan Bay.

If you are going to be in Qingdao in August 2008 the sailing regatta starts on August 9 and unless some days are resceduled it is due to end on 21 August. Why not take in some sailing and also try the famous Qingdao (Tsingtao) beer.

If you are looking for a Qingdao hotel there is a wide range of hotels available for your stay. After having done a search a few moments ago on Qingdao hotels there are still rooms available during the Olympics sailing event. Hotels rooms range from USD104-418 per night.

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