Beijing

In each hotel we stayed, there was a little Godzilla-scaled model of the property in its perfect future state. The entire country is under construction, so nothing now is how it will be next year.

We landed late in the afternoon and were greeted with grey skies and a bit of snow. Our hotel was an "airport hotel" only 1.5 miles from the airport. I figured no problem - we'll take the hotel shuttle. After 30 minutes of trying to find it, we gave up and tried to find a cab. As we were loading our bags into the trunk, the cabbie starting telling us something in Chinese. Another guy came up and explained that the cab we were getting into was only a long-distance cab. If we followed him, he would take us to the hotel. He produced something that looked like a cab license, so we followed him for 15 minutes down and around the front of the airport to what looked like a personal car. At that point, we were too tired to fight it, so we got in. 30 minutes later we made it to the hotel. I kept checking the GPS on my phone to make sure he wasn't driving us somewhere else. 1.5 miles took a solid 30 minutes and 480 Yuan ($80).

In the hotel lobby was a cute Santa's Helper, Christmas tree, and poinsettias. Christmas is becoming a big holiday there. No one gets the day off, but they like the thought of giving gifts. 

In China, you can't turn on the heat until November 15th. We arrived on the 7th. The hotel lobby was chilly and all the girls behind the front desk were wearing full-length coats. Apparently this was a record-early snowfall and the government gave the OK later that week for everyone to turn on their heat.

  

I enjoyed the food the whole time I was there. Usually we had so many dishes on the table, you could pick and choose what you wanted. However, in the hotel, we each only ordered one item. What should I get? Sauteed shredded pork and vegetable in spicy fish flavored sauce? or Braised duck blood curd with pork intestines in chili sauce? At least they are up front with the descriptions. I'd rather know before ordering rather than after eating and asking what it was that I consumed.