Since my only previous overseas travel has been to, from, and around Vietnam, as an impoverished sailor, in the late 1960s and 1970s, almost all of my Asian memories are of the kinds of places such a person was able to visit. I can remember Japan when it was still a developing nation. So, I was skeptical when I heard that most if not all of the hotels we would be staying at were modern and upscale.We start our trip with a pre-trip to Shanghai, and we don't know yet what hotel we will be staying at while there, but our hotel for 4 nights in Beijing is the Ning Xia Hotel, pictured here. I will now explore what else I can find out about the Ning Xia Hotel:
Trip Advisor has a few reviews. Let me summarize: It seems to be a large, new hotel in an older area of Beijing, but not far from things most people visit in the center of town. It is in the Fensiting Hutong area of Beijing. Ning Xia is a Chinese province with a large Muslim population, so the hotel has Muslim theme and appearance to it. I also found it references in a Mulsim tour of Beijing promotional advertisement. The lobby seems quite elegant.
In the map at left (click on it for a larger view), the street that the hotel is on is the very northernmost street, running east to west at the top of the image for about 2/3 of the breadth of this map.One reviewer had the following recommendation for what to do in a four day visit to Beijing, which I am going to capture here for later reference:
Day 1: sunrise flag-raising at Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, hutong tour, Wangfujing, Donghuamen snacks market, Qianhai/Houhai nightlifeActually, I liked these recommendations so much that I am going to record here that they were made by Ellyse, who is listed as a local expert on Shanghai. I'll be contacting her inside Trip Advisor as we plan the free time in Shanghai on our tour.
Day 2: Jinshanling-Simatai Great Wall, foot massage
Day 3: Panjiayuan market, Temple of Heaven, Hongqiao market, Yonghegong Lamasery, dinner at Gui Jie (Ghost Street)
Day 4: Summer Palace, Peking duck dinner, acrobat/kungfu performance
Day 3 should be on a weekend and Day 2 should ideally be on a weekday.
Here's some more formal information on our hotel, consolidated from a number of sites. (And here is a Google Images search results page for it.)
The Ning Xia Hotel Beijing (****) is located on Anding-men Avenue and only five-minutes stroll from the Lama and Guozjian and Confucius Temple. The hotel is also easy to access to the Tian'anmen Square and Beihai Park. Its name in Chinese is 北京宁夏大厦.Room
The hotel has 160 Big Suites, Suites and Standard Rooms. Each room has air-conditioning, satellite TV, domestic long-distance access, international long-distance access, broadband access, room safe, and mini fridge. Hotel has three restaurants serving traditional Chinese and Muslim favorites for every guest. The suites look great, but somehow I think that the image here is more like what we will be staying in.
Addr:13 Fensiting Hutong, AndingMen Ave, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Tel:86-10-64009999
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