Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Best Vegetarian Restaurants in Beijing

Beijing, the capital of China is city whose importance on the world stage grows daily thanks to the buoyant Chinese economy.  The city as result receives a constant influx of visitors who either head to Beijing for work or for tourism wherein they take in its several historic sites like the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and the Summer Palace and now the various Olympic sites like the Olympic Park, the National Stadium (also known as the Bird’s Nest) and the Water Cube, all of which played a vital role in the successful hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games which firmly entrenched Beijing on the tourist map.

If  you have always desired to visit China and are considering a visit to Beijing anytime soon then you should be aware that  your journey to Beijing from the US is likely to be an extremely long haul one which could extend over sixteen hours. Moreover if you have only a limited vacation time and want to make maximum use of it you might want to consider investing in business airline tickets to Beijing for your journey.

Business class travel to Beijing will afford you certain luxuries like convertible seats that morph into fully flat beds so that you can rest for the entire trans-continental journey to Beijing. This amenity can thus help you arrive at your destination well rested and ready to take in the sights. This facility actually goes a long way in enhancing the quality of your vacation as you would probably be spared any jet lag or fatigues which are the byproducts of such a lengthy journey. The regular price of business class seats to Beijing may scare you into abandoning the idea but you should not give up so quickly for cheap business flights to Beijing do exist and once you track them down they can considerably improve the quality of your trip.

The best way for your to locate these discount airfares to Beijing is to partner with a well respected airfares consolidator as he almost always has a wide assortment of business class deals  to various destinations due to exclusive consolidator contracts with airlines. A consolidator can help you procure a cheap business class seat to Beijing which may in all probability cost 70% less than a normal business class ticket to Beijing. However these cheap business class airfares to Beijing are not lacking in any way as they have all the various amenities of regular business class fares along with additional facilities like mileage accrual and pre-flight selection.

Travelers often worry about their dietary needs when they travel to foreign cities and if you are a vegan or even a vegetarian, you might have concerns about the availability of appropriate food on your vacation to Beijing since Chinese cuisine is predominantly known to consist of meat and seafood dishes. However you need not fear for Beijing is equipped with several excellent restaurants that serve both vegan and vegetarian fare.

Some of the most highly rated vegetarian restaurants in Beijing include:-

Samadhi Vegetarian Restaurant and Tea House
Second Floor, Shifanghaoting, 16 Xinyuan Nanlu
Corner of Xindong Lu and Xinyuan Nanlu
Sanlitun Area
Phone: +861084531644

This restaurant which is located on the second floor of ordinary office building has the appearance of a tea house and sports a minimalist look. Samadhi offers a menu that features pure vegetarian food and is devoid of the faux meats which are so popular at other vegetarian joints in Beijing. Samadhi’s menu in fact features many innovative vegetarian preparations like braised tofu skin with mixed mushrooms and Tian Mu Shan hand-stripped bamboo shoots which are prepared from locally sourced ingredients.

Bodhi- Sake
10-16 Heiyaochang Jie
Xuanwu District
Phone:+861063542889

Bodhi-Sake restaurant has an interesting location housed as it is in the courtyard of a Buddhist temple. The restaurant has a peaceful ambience which is accentuated with mood lighting and meditative music. Bodhi-Sake is known for its delectable faux-meat preparations like Peking duck. Do make sure you visit the temple, library, and art studio which are located behind the restaurant when you dine here.

Still Thoughts
18-4 Dafosi Dongjie, Yuqun Hutong,
Wangfujing
Phome:+861064008941

This restaurant is located in an indigenous Hutong in Beijing and it is especially popular with the expats in Beijing who enjoy its ‘show and tell’ picture album-like extensive menu which makes it easy to indicate the dishes that you want to order if you don’t speak Mandarin. Still Thoughts also happens to be extremely easy on the wallet as it is considered to be one of the cheapest vegetarian restaurants in Beijing.

Aside from these above mentioned restaurants Beijing also has several outlets of the noted international vegan chain, Loving Hut which was founded by the followers of Supreme Master Ching Hai, an advocate for vegetarian living and the city is also home to another fast expanding vegetarian fast food chain, Tianchu Miaoxiang Vegetarian which currently has two branches in Beijing.