China

A few words about our first hotel in Beijing

Looking for and booking a hotel we already have pretty well mastered. We generally use Booking.com or Airbnb and always find something interesting online. With Beijing, however, it was a little different.

This was our first such a remote trip in an enlarged team, so our itinerary as well as the places where we stay overnight had to be well defined. Particularly important for us was the first hotel on site, because enough challenges will be along the way, so this time it must be a decent, clean hotel, with space for the behemoth and all our bundles.

Looking for accommodation, we initially wanted to stay overnight in traditional Chinese hutongs. So we scoured Booking and Airbnb in search of a suitable place for a family with a small child. And we even found something, we were almost booking, but we looked at the photos of the travelers and our hair went astray. Dirt, filth, cracks in doors and windows, not to mention the fungus on the wall. This is not what we were looking for.

We told ourselves that we would be happy to stay overnight in them, but maybe one or two nights, at the end of the trip. For starters, it’s supposed to be clean and warm. (We’ll be sure to write more about our other accommodations, as well as the pros and cons of various solutions.)

So what conditions did the hotel have to meet: clean, warm (heating), Wi-Fi, well connected (subway station in close proximity), the possibility of breakfast, good reviews, space to fit at leastzłstroller and backpacks in the room. Ideally, there should be a space where Olive can walk quietly on the carpet (okay, walk is a big word).

Are we being picky? Maybe a little, but this was our first such trip and we wanted to make sure we at least got a decent night’s sleep, after several hours on the road and several active days spent in and around Beijing.

While browsing the listings, we came across the Park Plaza Beijing Science Park Hotel, which may not have been in the center-center, but that made it a bit cheaper. On top of that, Beijing’s subway network itself is very well developed, so after a brief calculus of pros and cons, we decided on this option.

Why are we writing about this hotel? Because it’s an overnight stay in a place we hadn’t initially considered at all, and it turned out to be the best of all our overnight stays in China.

As we mentioned, we initially wanted a stylish, traditional, modest hotel, but reality verified our plans and, in sum, we ended up in a “standard” hotel. We got a spacious room with a bathroom, kettle, TV, desk, and on top of that there was plenty of space tozła blanket on the floor for Olive.

What was not standard at the hotel, however, was breakfast. We expected a standard continental breakfast, and got a real Asian feast. This is something that captivated us the most, which is why we decided to create this post.

Breakfast was full of standard omelets, scrambled eggs, bacon, bread, but most, however, were Asian dishes. It was a big salvation for us, for people who have barely arrived in China and can’t order anything to eat, and even when there are pictures, on average they know what it is. Breakfast helped us decipher Chinese cuisine ;)

We were able to try many kinds of dumplings and steamed noodles, eat noodles, fried fruit, breadsticks, local oatmeal and look at other strange-looking things. There was even a special table with an Asian breakfast.

After eating like that, we were smart – at least we knew what to expect when buying on the street or in restaurants ;)

It’s a good thing that we chose such a hotel and not another to begin with. We had less culture shock, we were able to spend our evenings in peace and quiet, and on top of that we could finally speak to someone in English without a problem, because that was really hard to do.