Beijing and Seoul

[rottie102]

Just about to leave for the airport, yay

I needed a quick holiday so I have 2.5days in Beijing and 3 days in Seoul.

Just few questions:

- what's the good way to get from the airport to centre of Beijing (near forbidden palace)? Saturday midday
- I want to book a day trip to Great Wall on Sun, any recommendations? No shops and "museums" on the way please
- I'm arriving in Seoul after midnight (00.30), need to get to the centre, any alternatives to cabs?
- what's interesting to do and see in and around Seoul?

Thank you muchly!

[Reginaldo]

Not sure if this is too late (imagine PH is blocked in Beijing) but I spent a few days in Seoul earlier this year and am going back again next year. Which airport are you arriving at? Assumed it's Incheon. If it's Gimpo ignore the below advice - taxi shouldn't be too bad.

In term of getting from the airport, the usual advice is use the buses/coaches (league apart from buses over here), but at 00:30 I think they'll probably have stopped for the night. There's a late night service by the looks of it but not used myself:
http://www.airport.kr/iiacms/pageWork.iia?_scode=C...

Other option might be the train but again not sure if they'll still be running at that time. I'd say taxi should really be last resort as it's a big old journey from Incheon to Seoul.

Couple of things I did in Seoul, which I enjoyed:
- Palaces are nice if that's your thing.
- Dongdaemun design plaza ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongdaemun_Design_Pla... ) is a beautiful building. And there's a pizzeria type place downstairs which has a ridiculous number of draught beers.
- Best thing we did in Seoul was the night dining tour from here: http://www.ongofood.com - you generally need to book in advance but if you phone/email them they may have a tour one day that you can join. Seriously worth it if you can manage it. Met some great people too.
- Try some fried chicken. It's leagues ahead of the crap you get over here. We went to a place called Brew 3.14 ( https://www.facebook.com/brew314 ) and their fried chicken was insanely good. The beer was decent too. Having said that, it's a tiny place and was closed one night so I'd only make a special trip if you're nearby. Would be disappointed with it if I'd trawled across the city.

Hope that's of some use - good to actually post something useful rather than my usual lurking! Be interested to see what you think to both places. I've not been to China but booked 4 nights in Beijing next year so good to get some ideas!

Edited by Reginaldo on Monday 27th October 00:40

[scorp]

rottie102 said:

- I'm arriving in Seoul after midnight (00.30), need to get to the centre, any alternatives to cabs?

There is an airport-express type line from Incheon airport directly to Seoul. I wouldn't like to imagine how much a Taxi would cost.

http://english.arex.or.kr/jsp/eng/main.jsp

Edit: Last train 23:00, first at 5:00.

Edited by scorp on Monday 27th October 02:27

[fieldl]

Taxi from Incheon is normally around 75,00 Won depending on where in Seoul you are staying.
Go to dongdaemun shopping at night, Korean fashion is pretty good and very sensibly priced. The stores don't open until late in the day and remain open till 5AM ish. Cosmetics are also very good/cheap. Gyeongbokgung Palace is a good day out and worth seeing the surrounding area. The best and most interesting musuem in Seoul is by far the War Museum really really interesting and lots of exhibits inc tanks, planes, boats the lot. Very good and very moving too. Go to Itaewon one night if you have a spare worth seeing the size and impact the US army has. Of course there is also the DMZ and the walk up to the Seoul Tower.

Eat: Ginseng chicken and korean BBQ especially the beef and chicken, along with lots of kimchi.
Drink: Hite and Chum Churrum (Soju) normally in the same glass, and Makgeolli. It looks terrible but after the first bottle tastes great.