Our hotel in Beijing wasn't the best. Its not our tour guide's fault...actually Alicia wanted us to stay at her favorite place, Oriental Bay, but instead we were booked into the Crystal Business Hotel. Business Hotel implies you would have internet access and faxs...well...their business center was closed the whole time we were there, and I heard that their wireless internet was off and on. Rick tried to fax me a bunch of times and it never worked either. :( The front desk staff hardly spoke english....it just wasn't fun.
My door, when shut, would sound an alarm. Serious! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.... BEEP BEEP...non stop. I called the front desk. Some kid came up, didn't speak English and just looked at me strangely. I called the front desk again. I went down to the front desk (in the very slow elevators). Went back to my room. Went back down and finally found Tom and he told them what was wrong. A guy came up to my room, took the door handle apart and finally figured out that when shutting the door, you must hold the handle a certain way...and say the ABCS and do the hokey pokey. Oh and did I tell you that the carpet was stained and its a "new hotel"? Pretty much everyone was complaining.
Breakfast was a semi normal Euro style breakfast. We couldn't eat the cereal because the milk had ice cubes in it (can't drink the water in Beijing. Even for brushing your teeth...only use bottled water!). Oh and speaking of things you can't do...you can't throw your toilet paper in the toilet. So, where do you put it, you ask? Well, in the little garbage can next to the toilet...oh yeah, that is, IF there is toilet paper! HELLO! Drip dry is the thing I guess. Ick.
Evan convinced the Bar people during breakfast to give us the plastic container of OJ before they poured it into the pitchers containing ice. Yea for Evan! I enjoyed the yummy banana nut bread the buffet had. I never did eat the salad, rice or other Chinese Breakfast favorites. No fish heads or Tufu for me thanks. Watermellon and Banana Bread...Breakfast of Champions!
Oh by the way...I lost 5 lbs while in China.
Anyway...on to DAY 2.
We headed out for a day of shopping and site seeing. Our tour was called, "The China Shopping Tour"....and yes, we did a TON of shopping.
On day 2, we went to the Silk Factory, where we saw how they make silk. Then everyone went crazy buying silk comforters (like German Federdecke). As I was walking around, trying to decide if I should buy something, I saw someone from the tour with a glazed over look on his face. I asked if he was all shopped out and he told me no, but the prices had surprised him. I later found out, most people spent at least $500 buying bedding and such. OUCH!
I went upstairs and bought tons of gifts for friends and family. I won't mention everything because some of it is going to people who read this blog (Merry Christmas!!), but I did get Tanith a beautiful Chinese doll (I had a doll collection growing up that my dad bought me from all his travels, so I want to give those to Tanith as she gets older). I was the last one done buying and had to run to the bus, but no worries...the employees were still packing all those silk blankets and stuff into the bottom of the bus, so I didn't hold anyone up. Apparently, many people found Diet Coke up on the 4th floor...I didn't make it off the 3rd! lol
After this, we headed to lunch and on the way to lunch, we passed the Olympic village and park. Very very cool to see!! Our resturant was very nice inside. The wait staff wore gorgeous traditional clothes and Maddie got to try on one of the hats (which we later found out is called the Concubine Hat--Yes I bought one and as I walked through the Market wearing it, I regally called out "Ni Hao" to everyone as I did the Miss America parade wave!..i'm such a dork!). Outside the resturant, there was a game of Chinese hackey-sack going on. Evan and a few other guys got involved and did pretty good.
PHOTOS: 1st: Evan and Colton proudly showing the OJ container they got for us. YEA!!! 2nd: View from my room. 3rd: Group playing Hackey-sack 4th: My hotel room (I actually had a dining room table in my room too! It was a huge room...with dirty carpet. Oh well) 5th: Maddie wearing the Concubine Hat. Isn't she so cute!!! 6th: Alicia and Evan enjoying the meal. 7th: Me standing on the freeway near the Olympic Bird's nest--the stadium.
--Super Angie
1 comment:
I remember playing the hacky-sack game in kungfu class back in the day - it was like a tennis ball with feathers - a heavy badminton shuttlecock. We would make up rules like "left fist, right palm only" or whatever - the idea was to bean someone near or across from you - time to start picking on someone...
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