Beijing boasts a variety of boutique hotels, but many of these are tucked away in hutongs (Beijing’s ancient neighborhoods) and remain secret oases from the frenzy of Beijing’s busiest streets where most of the larger hotel chains are situated.

So for those looking for something a bit more unique than a 5-star standard, here are a few boutique hotels that have piqued WildChina’s attention:

1. Want to experience a Beijing hutong on a limited budget? Shadow Art

Shadow Art Hotel proudly embraces the traditional shadow art culture by providing free shadow puppet shows every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights on their traditional shadow art performance stage (made by craftsmen who restore the Forbidden City and Summer Palace). The English-speaking staff, lovely interior decorations, and modern facilities add comfort to the culture. Shadow Art is also located within a five-minute walk from the beautiful Houhai Lake.

2. Looking for a more relaxed living style in Beijing accompanied by a traditional hutong experience? The Orchid Beijing

Though less culturally traditional than Shadow Art, at The Orchid Beijing the friendly, English-speaking staff, great service, and incredibly comfortable beds more than make up for the Beijing tradition the hotel may lack. The hotel is well designed, with a unique and inviting flair.

The Orchid Hotel

3.  Not on a tight budget and interested in feeling the traditional Zen culture in a hutong? Graceland-yard

Modeled after ZhenJue Temple, a Beijing temple with over 500 years of history, the Graceland-yard hotel presents an exquisite courtyard themed after the temple’s zen characteristics. Stroll the courtyard of the Graceland-yard on the way to your romantic room, where warm touches add to the personalized service the hotel offers.

The Graceland-yard Hotel

4. Need a romantic, environmentally-friendly hideaway in a hutong? Courtyard 7

Courtyard 7 has historically been home to imperial families, social celebrities, and high-ranking officials. Reopened in 2008 after intensive restoration and renovation, Courtyard 7 is the first courtyard hotel in Beijing to adopt a geothermal heating pump system, which allows for guests to appreciate the traditional culture while maintaining a comfortable and environmentally conscious atmosphere.

The Courtyard 7

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To learn more about these properties or to plan a journey to Beijing, please contact us at info@wildchina.com

Photos by The Orchid Hotel, Tripadvisor

Tiananmen Square has been a symbol of Chinese national power since the 15^th Century. Generally a tourist will approach from the South, passing Mao’s tomb and the People’s Heroes monument, briefly noticing the imposing buildings to either side of them as they approach and enter the Forbidden City.  One of these is the Chinese legislative building, and the other is the National Museum of China, which has recently been reopened to the public. It is well worth a visit, especially you are in Beijing during the summer season, where a hot day can demoralize a visit to the unforgiving Forbidden City.

The front of the National Museum

The museum, as much as the square itself, is a towering monument to Chinese national power. As a guest approaches it looms over them, and on joining waiting groups, enters the large security apparatus. Perhaps these are due to recent thefts from the Palace Museum or simply the recent opening of the museum but regardless they move quickly (TIP: You need some sort of ID to enter the museum, but almost anything will work.)

The inner lobby of the museum is as imposing as the outer colonnade. Barren except for a few snack stalls and signs pointing to the various exhibits, it is hard to determine what exactly the function of the museum is.

A few under-trafficked and unfinished looking sections are probably the most worth seeing. Exhibits by a few 20^th Century painters stand out. Particularly, Pan Tianshou’s work looks like an impressionist rendering of traditional Chinese themes, and Li Keran’s work uses western mediums to render Chinese scenes and Chinese mediums to render western scenes. Both interesting takes on the pervasive idea of maintaining Chinese culture in the face of foreign cultural inundation, those with an interest in Chinese art will very much appreciate these.

The history portion of the museum looks sparsely covered with display objects, reminding the reader that a lot of Chinese history has been lost. However sheer area means that many interesting artifacts are already contained within.  A jade burial suit, large Buddhas, and a huge portrait of the Qianlong emperor make up some of the highlights.

Close to the history section, a grab bag of visiting exhibits requires a special ticket for entry.  Not particularly enriching, a few are tantamount to advertising campaigns (e.g. the current  “Around the World with Louis Vuitton” exhibit.)

A small portion of the lobby, viewed from the second floor

In the northern wing, an area that used to contain the separate “Museum of the Revolution” before it merged with the National Museum, is more a tour of the Chinese psyche than a coherent display of historical material. However for this reason alone it is interesting, and certainly an informative experience to follow behind a tour group of policemen being instructed on government endorsed history from now until the present.

The museum, especially for tourists, has a lot of growing up to do. Exhibits are often spotty in providing English translations, and many areas are unfinished or still under construction.  However over the next few years as collections fill out and people realize it is now open, it will get traffic. A trip to this landmark in the future would not be amiss.

WildChina’s DC office will be closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and will reopen on Tuesday, January 18.  The Beijing office will remain open.

For emergencies, please e-mail info@wildchina.com.

Happy Holidays from all of us at WildChina Travel - We thank you for your support in 2010 and wish you all the best in 2011! Photography by WildChina

WildChina’s U.S. office will be closed from Thursday, December 23 to Monday, December 27. It will reopen on Tuesday, December 28, 2010.

Both the U.S. and Beijing office will be closed on Monday, January 3, 2011.

For emergencies or inquiries, please e-mail info@wildchina.com.

Seldom seen in the west, the numbing/tingling flavor of the Sichuan pepper is a hallmark of Sichuan cuisine.

When returning from a trip to China one doesn’t carry only the memory of the sights and sounds of a far-off land: a journey here is also an immersion in a world of exotic flavors and aromas.

Authentic Chinese food is as varied across the country as the cuisines of Europe. And from the sweet flavors of Shanghainese food to the spicy and numbing fare of Sichuan, the best of each region represents a careful marriage of flavors and textures–often executed with lightning speed and perfect control on the unforgiving surface of a 400-degree wok.

Eating Chinese food in China is one of the greatest pleasures of a trip to the “Middle Kingdom.” And as interest increases around the world in Chinese food culture and the health benefits offered by diets high in vegetables and low in processed sugars, we thought we would offer WildChina clients the opportunity to do more than just take home the memory of the flavors of traditional Chinese food.

Hiking in tea tree forests, watching rare local festivals, and meeting locals of the fabled Ancient Tea Horse Road: our press trip participants have been on the road in Guizhou and Yunnan for 9 days in a whirlwind of adventure.

(Photo: Kathy Dragon)

Wish you were here? The next best thing is following our journey. Here’s how:

– Read the WildChina blog for first-hand accounts of the trip

– Follow us on Twitter @WildChina to read to-the-minute tales from our adventure

– Check out our Guizhou and Yunnan Flickr albums with photos from the road

If you are interested in a future press trip, please send us an email to info [at] wildchina [dot] com with the subject line “Press Trips.”

WildChina’s Beijing office will be closed on Friday, October 1 for China’s National Day holiday.

Please call 1-888-902-8808 or email info@wildchina.com for assistance at this time. The US office will be open as usual.

Happy birthday China!

WildChina prides itself in taking its clients to unspoiled, unseen corners of the country, but we also recognize that we wouldn’t know about these places had it not been for the efforts of the old-school explorers that came before us.

One of those explorers is Joseph F. Rock, an Austrian-born American botanist who worked at different times for the US Department of Agriculture, Harvard University and National Geographic magazine from the 1920s through the 1940s while based in western China, primarily Lijiang.

We were reminded of Rock today when we stumbled upon a review of the book Joseph F. Rock and His Shangri-La by Jim Goodman. We read the book a couple years ago and found it fascinating, despite already having been familiar with Rock’s story.

Rock’s story is the stuff of movies. He traveled in a large caravan of men and mules across rugged inhospitable terrain and was often the first white man who had set foot in many of the places he visited. Rock hobnobbed with the local elite wherever he went, but preferred to dine alone, eating European food prepared especially for him by his private chef.

Rock wrote extensively in his diary about his adventures in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Tibet, and Goodman adds good background to his story with his thorough knowledge of the people and places of western China. Rock’s photos of these regions are an invaluable archive of this area as it once was.

One of our favorite parts of the book is when Rock first comes across Minya Konka the spectacular mountain in western Sichuan known in Chinese as Mount Gongga. Astounded by its massive size, Rock miscalculates the mountain’s height and reports to his editors at National Geographic that it is higher than Everest.

His doubtful editors prove him wrong, and the proud explorer and scientist is humbled, never again to let his emotions get the best of him in his work.

It may not be taller than Everest, but Minya Konka – and nearby places such as Kangding, Yading and Shangri-La – are awe-inspiring nonetheless. Our Western Sichuan to Yunnan journey takes in all of these unforgettable destinations. As the seasons prepare to change, this part of China is at its most spellbinding.

To find out how to find your own Shangri-La in Western Sichuan and Yunnan, contact us today.

The Wuyi Mountains, located in northwest Fujian Province, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. According to UNESCO, “Mount Wuyi is the most outstanding area for biodiversity conservation in southeast China and a refuge for a large number of ancient, relict species, many of them endemic to China.” Home to the “most representative example of a largely intact forest encompassing the diversity of the Chinese Subtropical Forest and the South Chinese Rainforest,” the Wuyi Mountains are also one of the world’s most ideal locations for the cultivation of camellia sinensis, the tea plant.

The tea grown on Mount Wuyi is unique to all other tea in the world. It is called cliff tea because it grows on the sides and bottoms of mineral-rich cliffs, coddled and protected by steep gorges.

Camellia sinensis is a very sensitive plant. Every element of nature from soil to water to sunlight strongly impacts the final outcome of the tea that we drink. When Luyu, the great Tang Dynasty tea sage, wrote the Classic of Tea (Chajing), he described the perfect conditions for cultivating it—Wuyi contains all of them.

Wuyi’s high cliffs protect its old tea trees from natural hazards and balance the level of sunlight, ensuring that the tea trees don’t receive too much. Wuyi Cliff Tea is highly sensitive, and when I tasted two versions of the same varietal grown on the same mountain, one on the north side and one on the south side, the difference in flavor and qi was unmistakable. The tea growing on the north face had received a more balanced level of sunlight and so its energy, flavor, and fragrance were rounder, smoother, and more even.

The cliffs also help to regulate the temperature in the region. During the day the cliffs absorb heat from the sun, and, at night, when the air cools off, they release heat, keeping the temperature in the valley relatively constant.

Water is crucial to all plants. Each morning the Wuyi gorges guide mist through their humble openings, covering their tea trees in a nutrient-rich veil of moisture. The waterfalls here also seem endless. Even days after the last rainfall, water pours from cliff tops, ensuring that the tea trees are always vitalized.

As I moved along a high mountain pass, weaving in and out of waterfalls and walking alongside fluttering butterflies, it was impossible to ignore the power of the mountains before me. As I took a rest by a water-covered cliff next to a group of old tea trees, I inhaled deeply. The smell of the wet, mineral-rich cliffs and the sweet oolong tea trees intermingled, merging into one great spirit; that’s the taste of true Wuyi Cliff Tea.

In the Song Dynasty, the father of Neo-Confucianism—Zhu Xi—chose the Wuyi Mountains as the setting to revive Confucian thought. It was here that he proclaimed, “The Wuyi Mountains stand like the high pillars at the gates of heaven, supporting all the East. To live is to know the infinite universe, though its creative forces remain forever a mystery.”