Tips for Travelers with Disabilities

For a city that recently hosted the Paralympics, Beijing remains shockingly inaccessible for travelers with disabilities. If you do choose to come here, travel with a specialist group (although such tours to Beijing and China are rare) or with someone fully familiar with your particular needs. The Chinese hide people with disabilities, who are rarely seen unless reduced to begging, when they may even be subjected to taunting (although this won't happen to foreigners).

Beijing is difficult for those with limited mobility. The sidewalks are very uneven, and public buildings, sights, and hotels almost always have stairs with no alternative ramps. There are tactile guided paths in certain areas of the city, but they are often blocked by parked cars or simply unfinished. Accessibility in metro stations is a mixed bag (some stations have wheelchair rail staircases, others do not); any escalators usually run up only; and elevators are few and far between. Wheelchair-accessible cabs hit Beijing's roads during the 2008 Paralympic Games, but they are extremely scarce these days.

In theory, some major hotels in the largest cities have wheelchair-accessible rooms, but rarely are they properly executed.