Beijing's Awesome. Never Again. (Seriously.)
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I'm just wondering, if you're heading east, where exactly? How on earth could they detour via the West Third Ring Road…?
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My destination was near Wangfujing. The navigation showed the route: Daxing Airport Expressway - South Fifth Ring Road - Dexian Road - Tiantan East Road - Dongdan Santiao - Xiaowei Hutong, with an estimated travel time of about 1 hour and 7 minutes, and no traffic. When we reached the interchange of Daxing Airport Expressway and the South Fifth Ring Road, it was raining heavily. The driver said, for safety reasons, taking an extra 2-3 km detour would be faster and safer. Then she drove west. I thought we were going to take the Jingkai Expressway, but to my surprise, she continued west, past the Jingkai Expressway. When I realized something was wrong, I immediately asked the driver to return to the original navigation route. Not only did this back-and-forth add over ten kilometers, but more importantly, the heavy rain caused traffic jams, wasting a lot of time!
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On my very first day in Beijing, I had a meal at the entrance of Hongshan Residential Area in Panjiayuan. I didn't order many dishes, yet it cost 179 yuan, and the food was cold. I was so mad.
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That's such a rip-off! Luckily, I haven't been scammed with food myself, but I still can't get used to Beijing cuisine. On the third day, I switched back to chain restaurants.
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I just got back yesterday. We used the subway for all our travel, and it was very convenient. Ride-hailing drivers tend to drive quite aggressively; I don't know if it's because of the fast pace of life. Staying near a subway entrance, without chartering a car or joining a tour group, makes independent travel very convenient and enjoyable. The only thing is, when you're with elderly people and children, you can't use shared bikes after exiting the subway, so all the walking is quite tiring.
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I'm planning to take the subway to the airport for my return trip as well.
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For Mutianyu, no matter how you get there, everyone has to take their official shuttle bus to reach the foot of the Great Wall. Then you can choose your way up, whether it's hiking or taking a cable car. A private car genuinely can't take you all the way, so that part alone isn't a scam.
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I didn't use the company in the picture. I just want to point out that many car charter services on Xiaohongshu and Taobao explicitly advertise 'skip the shuttle bus line.' Isn't that deceptive? Besides, many chartered cars can indeed take you directly to the cable car entrance.
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Actually, it's not a Beijing problem, nor is it an issue with any particular region. It's a people problem! You really find such individuals everywhere. All one can do is sigh. I'm from Chongqing, and we have people like that there too, alas...
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In my personal experience, this situation is much better in Shenzhen. Maybe it's because most people there are migrants, so they don't try to rip off newcomers.