Travel Maven Blog ...... David Molyneaux posts from TheTravelMavens.com

Extremes in Beijing at China's luxurious Opposite House

With a name like Opposite House, you wouldn't expect the ordinary.

The 98-room hotel, which opened in Beijing last year in the Sanlitun neighborhood, fits the image of a hip urban inn fancied by young adults and by monied travelers who are looking for contemporary design and style.  Service is casual, yet quick and thorough.

From the outdoors to your room, The Opposite House challenges expectation.

Scrunching toward Beijing's Forbidden City

A year after the summer Olympic Games, folks living in Beijing still seem to be on their best behavior.

"We are better because of the Olympics," said an employee at Opposite House, a new hotel in the sprawling city. "We are cleaner, more sophisticated," she said.

I didn't see any spitting on the sidewalks, a habit that was called to the attention of the Chinese and diminished significantly while the world watched the Olympic Games in the summer of 2008. 

A cheeseburger in China, shopping for cloisonne

If you must eat a cheeseburger in the country of Mao Zedong, I highly recommend a sandwich at the School House, near the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, north of Beijing.

The restaurant, which serves western-style food on a sunny patio, makes a burger that is big and juicy, accompanied not only by French fries, but also a great view of the Great Wall. It's a fine place to unwind after a wall walk. My lunch was about $12.

Then, for a detour from modern munchies to the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644), make a short stop at the cloisonne factory nearby. It is on the road back to Beijing from Mutianyu.

China's Great Wall fits the bucket list

Gleeful Morgan Freeman and sidekick Jack Nicholson zipping along the Great Wall of China on a motorcycle: The image was playing, rewinding, and playing again in my mind as a tour guide and I headed by car northeast through the suburbs of Beijing toward the mountains and world's largest cemetery.

Like Freeman and Nicholson in the movie, "The Bucket List," I planned to check off the Great Wall from my long itinerary of the world's special places.

No motorcycle for me. I would walk the wall as far as I could go. 

Top 10 tips for better vacation pictures

With digital cameras, it has never been easier or cheaper to take top quality vacation photos, says Bea Broda, a broadcast travel journalist. “However, there are still some things that travelers can do to help them come back with stunning images of their vacation.” 

Writers and photographers from the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) offer their tips on how to take great vacation photos,

Read about their top 10 photo tips at 

TheTravelMavens.com

Travel Maven chats on line at Poynter

David Molyneaux, editor of TheTravelMavens.com, is the featured guest today on the Poynter Institute's weekly media career chat with Colleen Eddy. 

The title: How a Veteran Reporter Became Editor of a Travel Web Site.

The live chat begins at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 14 at:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=77&aid=166595