Fairmont Makes Exploring Beijing's Ancient Hutongs as Easy as Riding a Bike

Fairmont Beijing is encouraging guests to trade in four wheels for two, and explore the city in a time-honored tradition – by bicycle. 

Located in the hub of Beijing’s downtown core, the hotel is cycling distance from such well known landmarks as Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City as well as a myriad of bicycle routes guaranteed to keep guests gridlock-free and enjoying the sites. 

For exploratory-types who continually seek the path less travelled, Fairmont Beijing has partnered with the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center to develop a complimentary self-guided excursion into one of the city’s famed and fast-disappearing hutongs, located just a short distance from the hotel.

The Heritage Biking Tour equips guests for a half day of exploration with an easy to follow map of the narrow alleys and passageways that continue to form the heart of Old Beijing and turn the hutong communities into an integral part of the city’s past.  Mountain bicycles are provided by the hotel on a complimentary first come basis with plans already in place to enhance the tour with an iPod audio narrative in both English and Chinese that speaks in more detail to the history of these architecturally significant neighbourhoods.

The hotel’s approach to celebrating their heritage through the use of bicycles over automobiles encourages guests to think in terms of reducing their carbon footprint while at the same time discovering first-hand, the city’s unique and less visible landmarks.