Beijing Beijing

It's been almost a year since I landed back in New York from my whirlwind 55-day tour, but I am at it again (albeit for only 2 weeks this time)...

After being seduced by the fantasy-architecture of the Olympics,

Clockwise from Top Left: Herzog & De Meuron's National Stadium ("Bird's Nest"), PTW Architects' National Aquatics Center ("Water Cube"), Pei Zhu's Digital Beijing Buildng, and Paul Andreu's National Theatre ("Egg")

More information:

Essay by Paul Goldberger in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2008/06/02/080602crsk_skyline_goldberger

Beijing architecture blog: http://beijing08082008.blogspot.com/

Archinect article: http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=78771_0_24_0_C17

...I've decided to travel to China from October 3 to 15 to see the avante garde in person. I applied for my visa and should be picking it up next Friday, September 5 barring any last minute snafus. I'm looking into flight options, and it seems that a nonstop to Beijing on Continental is the cheapest, coming in at just under $1000 (a steep discount on the $2200 prices during the Olympics).

Now to the rest of the planning. I need to figure out:

1) My budget.

2) What to do in Beijing. I am thinking 1 day each for a) Olympic architecture, b) historical sites-center city, c) historical sites-outer city, d) Great Wall, e) puttering around.

3) Where to go for a side trip. I'd like somewhere green and non-urban to contrast with the side of China I will see in Beijing. Or maybe arrange a stopover in Korea (fly via Asiana with a stop in Seoul).

4) Where to stay each place I go