Winter in Beijing 19th - 27th Nov 2011

Flight
This will be the major part of total travelling expenses.Traveled by Airasia.
Return ticket price at RM683/person, which is RM200 more expensive than promo price due to weekend.
There are four of us, hence additional
-RM240 for 2-ways 40KG luggage
-RM78 for pre-booked in-flight meal.

 Thus all-in flight fare at RM762.50/ pax

Accommodation
9D8N trip, seven nights in Beijing and the last night in TianJin.
Booked
1. Beijing Traditional View Hotel - 2 nights in Triple room at RM153.78/night
                                                 - 3 nights in Traditional View Room A at RM202.34/night

Reason of choice : 
- Experience the authentic Hutong life, 200m to Beijing oldest hutong, 南锣鼓巷
- Traditional bed and room setting.
Cons : 
-Dirty. You lived amid the Hutonger, they spat everywhere, spoke loudly. Walked along narrow and small back alley. Not everyone can tolerate their living habits.
-Closet MRT was 20minutes walk away to 安定门站, two nearest bus stop,宝钞胡同 and 交道口南 are 3 minutes and 8 minutes away from our hotel. Hence we depended heavily on the local buses.

2. Beijing Ariva Beijing West Hotel & Service Apartment  - 2 nights in Loft Apartment at RM233.82/night

3. Jinjiang Inn Tianjin ZhongSan Road - 1 night (2 double rooms) at RM178.88/night

All the bookings were made via expedia.com
Tips for online hotel booking:
1. Compare the prices (final price, some displayed price exclude service charges) from a few established booking sites such as i) agoda.com  ii)hotelclub.com  iii)expedia.com  etc which ever you can find.

2.For booking at expedia.com, they allowed cancellation at 72 hours before check in date with full refund.
The refund will be credited into your credit card account. Take advantage on this feature to save on fluctuating forex. (I cancelled my initial booking at Traditional View Hotel and re-booked when I saw a lower price. This can be done by calling Expedia.com at their toll-free number. Helpful staff helped me to save RM30/night)

Local transportation
Its advisable to get a public transportation card, hereafter known as 一卡通, which gave up to 60% discount

80% of our trip was by local buses, charged at merely RMB0.40/trip (w 一卡通), or RMB1 (w/o 一卡通)
15% of out trip was by subway, charged at RMB2/trip (with or without 一卡通)
5% of our trip by taxi.
Reason of depending heavily on bus
1. cheap
2. Complete coverage to most attraction spots.
3. Frequent.
4. Gives access to "remote" areas accessible via taxi only.

Here is the link to beijing bus route map, bjbus.com
http://www.bjbus.com/map/index.php?uSec=00000005&uSub=00000010#c=12956000,4824875,10&hb=0,1

Android has a few free softwares such as 北京地铁 Beijing Subway by RGuide Metro and 北京公交查询（离线）by John Li.
Combine with the link above, it creates marvel and convenience for traveling using local buses.

How to use these program and the bjbus.com:

1. Check the bus number that travels between 2 locations
ie: I am staying near 交道口南(起点），going to wangfuJing 王府井路口北（终点）,the routes showed in bjbus.com are 特11, 104快，108. (you may search the detail of each bus route desired at bjbus.com)

2. Verify the bus route using android 北京公交查询（离线）. You will see the list of bus stops that the respective bus pass by.

3. Wait at the bus station with the respective bus number, verify whether the current bus is following your desired routes using  Android 北京公交查询（离线）

GPS navigation

The availability of GPS revolutionize backpacker's travelling experience. Be sure you have GPS that was connected using satellites signal, or you will have to pay the hefty data charges using China Mobile.

I had my Garmin Asus A50, which was a hybrid- garmin GPS android mobile phone.
I got the latest China map at the link below, or you can subscribe from www.garmin.com at few hundred bucks.
http://www.noeman.org/gsm/garmin-maps/226839-city-navigator-china-2011-20-chs-nt17-original-venus-version-up-2011-20-chs-nt17-g4-5-a.html

Here is the few screenshots captured from my phone.

鸟巢和水立方9:38pm,25/11/2011

和谐号惊人的时速 - 266km/h

和谐号惊人的时速 - 289km/h

如此详尽的gps地图-天坛公园祈年殿

天坛公园

国子监，孔庙

慕田峪长城，怀柔县

毛主席纪念堂，天安门

Food
The must-try cuisine in Beijing are:
1.  Beijing Roasted Duck, 北京烤鸭
2.  Beijing mutton dip, 刷羊肉
3. Beijing noodle, 北京炸酱面
4. Other local specialty such as 文宇奶酪，馄饨侯，etc.

便宜坊北京烤鸭

宏源刷羊肉

文宇奶酪

Currency
RMB is pegged to USD, our exchange rate is expensive at MYR /RMB = 1.99 which means we exchanged RM5000 for RMB9950 due to europe crisis.

Weather
Weather forecast is easily available online. My two favourite sites are :
1. http://www.bjmb.gov.cn/ : official websites that shows the exact time of flag rising ceremony at Tian An Men 天安门广场
2.http://php.weather.sina.com.cn/whd.php?city=%B1%B1%BE%A9&m=11&dpc=1 : recorded all the historical temperature (max and min) in Beijing.