Saturday, 15 March 2025

Beijing-Shanghai Day 1: Temple of Heaven & China World Hotel Horizon Club

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I'd been planning for this trip since 2019 but it was put on hold because of the pandemic. I've always felt that the March school holiday is the best time to visit China as it's off-peak and cold. When MOE finally announced the School Calendar for 2025, we booked our Singapore Airlines multi-city tickets (Singapore to Beijing, return to Singapore from Shanghai) the next day! By then, the price had already increased, from $585 on the day of the announcement to $650 per adult and $633 per child! 😮‍💨 (consolation: prices were even higher after that and tickets mostly sold out!) 😅

We travelled excitedly to Changi Airport Terminal 3 via a S$65 Maxi Cab the night before at 9.30pm.

Miffy decorations at Changi Airport this season

After dropping off our luggage and crossing customs, we had supper in the food court as we expected not to be served any meals until just before we landed.

Our SQ plane

We were mistaken! After boarding our plane at 12.30am, we were immediately served our meals after takeoff at 1.30am!!

The heavy meals we were served! The Littlest only ate a little before sleeping soundly with the help of her Jetkids Bedbox.

Obviously this meant a lot of food wastage and indigestion throughout the flight, especially for me as I normally do not eat after 9pm. 

My indigestion was so bad that by the time we landed in Beijing Daxing International Airport at 6.30am after flying for 6 hours, I was coiled up in pain! Thankfully it's my habit to travel with medication and I took some while queuing for immigration clearance. I finally felt better after taking my medication! Thank God for His healing! 🙏🏻 

Beijing Daxing International Airport

After clearing immigration, we headed to the taxi stand and took 2 regular taxis (average CN¥200 each) to our accommodation. The helpful staff at the taxi stand actually helped us to load the taxis when they saw that we needed help!

We took taxis from the Taxi Stand into town

Our accommodation was located in Beijing's World Trade Center where famous buildings such as the China Zun 中国尊 and the CCTV Headquarters were neighbours!

Right: China Zun 中国尊, the tallest building in Beijing;
 Left: CCTV Headquarters 

The journey from the airport to China World Hotel Beijing (under the Shangri-La Group) was about 1 hour and we arrived at 9.15am. We had a bit of difficulty learning to pay with WeChat and Alipay but thankfully we managed to! Once we were familiar with the e-payment process, it was a breeze! 

China World Hotel
Centrally located in Beijing's central business district
Beautiful lobby with a distinct Shangri-la fragrance

Check in was very smooth as the staff were very proactive in emailing me to check on our needs and arrival time prior to our arrival. As it was early and our rooms were not ready, we left our luggage with the concierge and explored the nearby China World Mall in search of breakfast.

There is a direct link from our hotel to the mall and Guomao 国贸 Station

We decided to have breakfast at Peet's Coffee.

Peet's Coffee at B1
We ordered tea, canele and bagel
Cheese baguette for the Boy

After breakfast, we booked a 6-seater premium car via DiDi at CN¥52 (slightly more expensive than 2 regular cars) to the Temple of Heaven 天坛公园, East Gate. We bought the basic entry tickets for just CN¥10 per adult, FREE for children 18 years old and below and seniors above 65 years old. We decided not to pay for the full tickets (cost only CN¥28) as we didn't have energy to walk through the whole park after a flight with little sleep.

The gardens in the Temple of Heaven were so beautiful!
The Long Corridor

The most famous structure was the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest! I managed to see a replica at Walt Disney World's EPCOT and was so excited to see the real thing! 😆

Photos with the Hall for Prayer of Good Harvest

It's too bad that we could not enter the main area and could only take pictures from the outside! We managed to capture some really nice photos though!

One of the halls
It was really cold and the Mum-in-law's jacket was too thin so I swapped with her
I
This is the 60-Year-Old Gate but the name does not refer to the age of the gate;
Rather, it refers to the age of Emperor Qianlong, who had to use this gate to shorten the distance he had to walk due to his advanced age!
An entrance to the Hall for Prayer of Good Harvest
On the Red Stairway Bridge aka Danbi Bridge
Chengzhen Gate (left) and the Imperial Vault of Heaven (right)

It was so cold that my foot was frozen and I nearly could not walk because I was not wearing my Ugg (they were in the luggage)! 

We bought souvenirs from the souvenir store before exiting via the South Gate as it was the closest to where we were.

Map of the Temple of Heaven grounds (it's really huge!)

We took a Premium 6-seater car via DiDi back to the hotel (cost CN¥74) and arrived at 1.30pm. Even though it was still earlier than the usual check in time, our rooms were ready and we collected our key cards. We had booked 2 Horizon Deluxe King Rooms via the Shangri-la website at CN¥1781 per room per night, which included breakfast (more details in the next post), afternoon tea and evening canapés!

Since it was time for Afternoon Tea, we headed to the Horizon Lounge to grab a bite before heading to our rooms.

Horizon Club Lounge
Comfortable seating for dining
Fresh juice and small bites
The selection was small but enough for a light snack

We proceeded to our room, where our luggage were waiting for us! Shangri-la also acceded to our request for connecting rooms.

Extravagant lifts!
One room with twin beds and comfortable sofa
Our luggage lined neatly next to the luggage rack
Comfortable twin beds
Bathroom sink and toilet
Bathtub!
The bathroom in the adjoining room with king bed does not have a bathtub
Room with king bed
Nice view of the city from our rooms
Complimentary fruits, Nespresso coffee machine, very chio (pretty) kettle and ample stationery!

The hotel also had other facilities such as a good size gym and indoor pool but we did not have time to utilise them.

The gym had many machines, including a climbing tread wall! 

The rest of the family were tired so only the Mum-in-law and I ventured out to explore China World Mall and buy groceries from the supermarket. The mall was so huge that you can easily get lost in it! 

Cool lighting inside the mall!
There were many stores but my eyes were particularly drawn to Venchi and Mvuke Tokyo as the desserts were so colourful and pretty!

Our hotel was located at one end of the mall while the supermarket was at the other end so we ended up walking at least 3000 steps to get to Ole' Supermarket! 😓

Ole' Supermarket

When we were done buying groceries, we found out from the husband that it was snowing outside! 

Although it was wet snow because of the warm temperature and nothing like the beautiful snow in Hokkaido, at least the Mum-in-law can say she has experienced snow at least once!

We returned to the hotel just in time for evening canapés and let me say that it had the most variety of all the canapés we've had so far!

Good spread of both Asian dishes to cater to the majority Asian guests
Love the spread of food, which was more than enough such that we did not need dinner!
Snacks, soup and alcohol (the Hubby's favourite!)
Traditional Beijing snacks
Beautifully decorated desserts!
Love the spicy food! Tasted so good!

After canepe, the Hubby wanted to explore the neighbourhood so the Eldest, Hubby and I walked on the streets surrounding the hotel. We stumbled onto this authentic restaurant selling noodles and decided to buy some for the Littlest, as she did not eat much from the buffet table (my Littlest is very picky about the quality and taste of her food!).

Yu Man Tian restaurant
Display of the items in their menu

The food was good! We would definitely eat it again if we were in the area!

By the time we returned to the hotel, I was dead tired because I had clocked more than 22,000 steps!😅 I couldn't wait to soak in the bathtub and enjoy a good night's rest!

We converted both sofas into beds for the younger kids by asking the staff for extra bedsheets, blankets and pillows! The sofas were really comfortable!

I made a special request for a contour pillow when booking and surprisingly, the hotel remembered my request! This was one of only 2 hotels that have provided contour pillows for me (the other being Gevora Hotel)! I had such a good sleep that night! 😴💤

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P.S: We're proud Shangri-la Circle members; read about our Shangri-La experiences around the world:


Continue to >> Beijing-Shanghai Day 2: Forbidden City & Wangfujing

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Beijing & Shanghai, China 
as well as other travel itineraries!


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