| Hotels: |
| Beijing: |
Hotel
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Jing
Guang New World Hotel: The Jing Guang was located in a modern
high-rise building and offered very nice accommodations. Our only
complaint ... single beds instead of a king. The hotel was clean and
safe, the rooms were adequate in size and included telephone and satellite
TV. The lobby area was beautiful including a lobby bar and pastry
case. Altogether there were seven restaurants in the hotel offering
eastern and western foods. The food served was very good and the included
breakfast buffet was more than adequate to start the day. The hotel
staff was friendly and courteous, albeit the lines for the safe deposit
boxes were extremely slow. |
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Lobby
decorations |
Carol
and John at our Peking duck
reception dinner |
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Demonstration
on making Chinese dumplings |
Alicia
and the dumpling
she made |
Carving
the Peking Duck |
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| Shanghai |
Side
of the hotel |
Shanghai
Hilton: The
accommodations at the Shanghai Hilton were similar to those in Beijing.
The Hilton is in a modern high-rise building, has comfortable sized
rooms with telephone and satellite TV. I'm not sure as to the number
and type of restaurants as we did not eat in the hotel, nor did
we spend much time there at all. I do remember there was an Italian
restaurant that looked great and an area where you could buy all
types of pastries and cakes. The staff was friendly, courteous and
much quicker performing their tasks than in Beijing. The hotel is
conveniently located near the Bund with the major expressway and
subway right next door. The lobby area was much more active than
in Beijing, perhaps because it was smaller. There always seemed
to be people going in all different directions. A business office
was available for e-mail.
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| Xi'an |
Sorry
no picture
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Sheraton
Xi'an Hotel: Like Beijing and Shanghai, the Sheraton Xi'an was
a modern, high-rise building offering all the same services. I did
find their TV service to be lacking in English speaking channels though.
The one restaurant we had breakfast in was very good and they had
a nice gift shop. I'm not sure of the other restaurants in the hotel
as we spent very little time in the hotel. A business office was available
for e-mail. |
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| Guilin |
Sorry
no picture
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Guilin
Royal Garden Hotel: Of all the hotels we stayed in this one had
the lowest rating, but we found it to be almost as good as the others.
The hotel had a large lobby area with a restaurant, several gift shops,
business office and sitting areas. The food served for breakfast and
lunch was very good. Our room was large and included telephone and
satellite TV services. The only distraction was that our room overlooked
the roof of an adjacent apartment house whose residents used the roof
to raise chickens and other animals. Occasionally it was a bit noisy,
but it wasn't to disturbing. |
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Marco
Polo
Hong Kong Hotel |
Our room at the
Marco Polo Hong
Kong Hotels |
Marco
Polo Hong Kong Hotel: If you're visiting Hong Kong you could hardly
do better than staying at the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel. Located
right on the waterfront across from the Star Ferry terminal you had
excellent access to the ferry and all the shopping areas of Kowloon.
In fact, the hotel, was attached to a very large mall that would take
you days and days and days to fully cover. The lobby bar and restaurant
was excellent. Returning from a day of touring we enjoyed a hamburger
in the lobby restaurant and it was delicious! The room was large and
very nice with all the amenities one expects of this class of hotel. |
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| Bangkok
Hilton International |
Our
room at the
Bangkok Hilton International |
Bangkok
Hilton International: The Bangkok Hilton is located in a beautiful
park-like setting in the center of Bangkok. Unlike most of the other
hotels we stayed in it was not a high-rise with only 7 or 8 floors.
The lobby area was beautiful and overlooked the hotel's gardens
and pool area. There was a large restaurant downstairs with a very
pleasant view of the park also. An upscale Italian restaurant was
very good but pricey for Bangkok. Just outside the entrance to the
hotel (actually part of the hotel) there was a small pastry and
sandwich shop which Anne and I enjoyed lunch in several times. It
was reasonably priced and very good. During our stay there was an
art exhibition in area adjacent to our room which included a large
Koi pond.
The
hotel was located near a major shopping street and Bangkok's new
skytrain elevated railway, however, it was in the middle of a complex
one-way road system that took some negotiating to get around because
of the traffic in Bangkok. When leaving for the waterfront area
you had to be sure the driver left from the hotel's back entrance
or it would add up to an hour to your trip.
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Anne
at the desk with flowers from a friend |
One
of the paintings on exhibit |
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Air Travel Within China |
Deplaning
in Shanghai |
Air
travel throughout China was always on modern US or European made aircraft,
either Boeing or Airbus aircraft. Many of the airports appeared to
be as large as our airports here in the States, however, it was evident
that they didn't have the same amount of traffic. With the exception
of the one canceled flight (from Chongqing to Xi'an) all of our flights
left and arrived on time. Seating on board the aircraft was all coach
with no business or first class, but this wasn't a problem because
most of the flights were well under 3 hours. Service was good but,
like on US airlines today, limited to the sparse snack. |
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| Rail
Travel |
Modern train |
In
Shanghai we took a train from Shanghai to Suzhou, about an hour away,
our coach was modern and comfortable. As explained to us there were
two classes of service: hard or soft seat. We had the soft seats and
I didn't observe any cars with hard seats so it's impossible to comment
on the accommodations. It was a comfortable ride for the short time
we were on board and they served hot tea to make the journey go even
a bit quicker. |
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Carol
and John |
Anne
and I relaxing in the soft seats |
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| Subways |
Shanghai:
The subway system in Shanghai was modern, clean and fairly easy
to negotiate on your own with maps detailing the various routes
and stops. We took the subway twice, both times back to our hotel
from the Bund, and enjoyed the experience. The subway is much more
modern and cleaner than New York's subway system and doesn't serve
as a refuge for the homeless and alcoholic population of the city
as in New York.
Hong
Kong:
Hong Kong's subway system is much like that in Shanghai, but I believe
a bit older. However, it was modern compared to New York and much
cleaner. Sorry no pictures.
Bangkok:
Since
our last trip to Bangkok in 1994, the city has added a skytrain
service (an elevated subway). Anne and I tried it out one day and
did fairly well, however, we did get a lot of help from some other
friendly travelers and the different clerks at the entrances. It,
too, was modern and very clean. Sorry no pictures.
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Subway
station in Shanghai |
Subway
car in Shanghai |
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Now
that we've reviewed the hotels and air, rail and subway travel within
China it's time to move onto our next destination ... Hong Kong ... |
