Beijing Hotels

We have our visas, and our tickets from Delhi to Beijing. Today, my task was to book our hotels for the Beijing portion of our trip. I decided on 3 different hotels for the 6 nights we will be there.

First is.... Capital Hotel. I chose this location because it is central to all the typical Beijing stuff, as well as it's proximity to the subway line and my FAVORITE shopping center-- Xidan! It's the most expensive hotel that we will stay at, with a rate of $100/night.

Next, we will spend a lovely evening in Wudaokou for $63/night, where I went to college back in the glorious day. Back when Beijing was still pretty ghetto-- the Beijing that I love and miss. We're going to stay at the Xijiao Bingguan, which also carries a lot of memories for me. We will eat at Banri (shuang ma canting) which I can't believe is STILL there after at least 12 years. They would deliver to my dorm on the reg, which is why I gained like 20 lbs. when I went to college there. Awesome katsu curry over their tasty yellow rice with raisins.

Finally, we will stay at Traveler Inn Huaqiao. This is located a little more to the eastern part of the city. My main objective was to get close to Sanlitun... but not TOO close. It's a part of the city I am less familiar with and looked pretty cool. At $54/night, we shall see...

What's fun/irritating/smelly about staying in lower-end hotels in China...is what the place is actually like. If you take the pictures they show online, shut off 2/3 of the lights, add a brown layer of dusty streaks, add a bunch of crap like a broken-down refrigerator and some buckets, and an occasional waft of open sewage.... THERE YA GO.