Attacking by oblique means and stealthy feints since 2007
The owner of Bed Bar opens a hutong hotel with four rooms, charges US$200 and up per night, and gets a gushing review in the New York Times. Really?
I’m not really bothered by the gentrification of “Old Beijing”, and I don’t know how hotels get chosen for reviews in the NYT Travel section, but this seems like an odd choice.
Here’s a sample picture of the iPod-inspired design:
A jetliner crashes less than 24 hours ago and the lets-move-on news story is "flying safer than ever"
From Xinhuanet: China hopes Mexico understands its necessary precautions against influenza A/H1N1 include uncerremoniously booting a bunch of Mexicans out of the country.
From Ma Zhaoxu, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman: “The measures concerned are not targeted at Mexican citizens and there is no discrimination”
From Truth From Facts: Happy Cinco de Mayo! Are the tequilla specials still on tonight?
Just added this informative blog on Beijing’s subway system, Beijing A to B, to our blogroll. Enjoy!
There is a sister site devoted to Beijing’s roads. That one seems much less interesting. What can they say besides “They’re all jammed”? I’d recommend Beijing’s traffic station instead.
Both sites are related to the folks at Beijingology.
I’m a big fan of David Cross, mostly from his work in Mr. Show, and was surprised to find several videos of his travels through China for VBS.tv. The series is called “The Vice Guide to Travel – China”, and Cross is joined by Gavin McInnes. I found three episodes: China, Day in Shanghai, and All American Pies. All are worth checking out. In one episode they watch part of Super Bowl XL between the Steelers and Seahawks, which would mean the trip was filmed in early 2006.
It’s always interesting to see well-known personalities reacting to things the rest of us notice here in China. (I remember seeing a short video of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone on a similar trip a few years back but can’t find any clips online.)
Home Inn has become my budget hotel of choice when traveling around China. I own a Home Inn member card (40 RMB), which gets me a discount of about 7.5% at any of their hotels. They have an excellent reservation system: When I call from my mobile, they have my name and other reservation information already pulled up on the computer. As soon as I hang up the phone, I get a text message with the price, reservation dates and hotel address.
The Jiaodaokou Branch in Beijing is also the place I recommend to visiting friends and family who are paying their own way and just need a clean, quiet room and nothing fancy. I’m signed up there for a company discount of 10% – anyone I make the reservation for simply shows the front desk my business card and gets the discount.
Occasionally the staff will walk over to our office and hand deliver a brochure with special offers. Today they brought me one with special “discounts” for the Olympics. Below are the various prices for a standard room (with two beds, each one somewhere between a twin and a double in size):
And here are the “company discount” prices around the Olympics:
When I asked why the “discount” prices were so much higher than the regular prices, I was told that the normal price during this period is 900 RMB.
One reason I like Home Inn is that, unlike almost all other Chinese hotels, they don’t artificially inflate their prices and force every single guest to bargain. But it looks like Olympic fever has led them to succumb to temptation and jack up their rates–then turn around and immediately offer half off to their regular customers.
I wasn’t surprised when the stories started coming out a few months back about how Beijing’s hotels weren’t filling up as quickly as expected. But Home Inns often fill up during normal times, I assumed that they would have no problems in August 2008. It was therefore was a bit surprising to get a flyer offering discounts for the entire month and for several different room types. The opening ceremonies are just three weeks away! Makes one wonder about the hordes of Chinese tourists that are expected to descend upon Beijing. Maybe they’re all going to crowd into friends’ and relatives’ apartments–or maybe they, like many foreign tourists, are simply going to stay home.
I haven’t taken to twitter yet. Anyway, I’m sitting in the “Axis” Lounge & Bar in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Singapore. The girl who greeted me at the entrance is Japanese, so I’m slightly wondering what’s up with the name of this place. But more interesting than that are Singapore’s F-15 fighters that are flying outside the window over the Singapore Harbour at this moment. Damn those things are fast, loud and amazing. And they’re pretty good assurances that the Malaysians and Indonesians won’t get any funny ideas.
On April 6 the South China Morning Post offered the most solid confirmation to date (subscription required) of the recent rumors that China visas are going to be harder to obtain until after the Olympics:
Beijing has stopped issuing multiple-entry visas, risking major inconvenience to foreigners who travel to the mainland regularly, especially on business. Hong Kong travel agents say the ban will stay in place until after the Olympic Games.
Travellers are now restricted to single- or double-entry visas valid for 30 days. Multiple-entry visas that have not expired are still valid. . . . Read the rest of this entry »
Mul’s recent post on pollution got me thinking a bit. It’s pretty obvious to anyone who comes to Beijing, or any number of places in China, that the air is terrible. A few weeks ago, Steve Andrews released a study, apparently done on his own, claiming that the government had been playing with the pollution numbers:
The study, written by an American environmental consultant, found flaws in Beijing’s “Blue Sky” system of air quality monitoring stations and noted that the city changed its method for measuring pollution in 2006. In particular, officials stopped including readings from two stations in polluted areas and began using readings in three other stations in less polluted locales…
“Irregularities in the monitoring of air quality account for all reported improvements over the last nine years,” said Steven Q. Andrews, the author of the study, in a telephone interview.
I have met Steve once or twice here in Beijing; he seems like a smart and honest guy, and I don’t doubt the veracity of his findings. What’s fascinating to me is how the debate on this topic, especially in the run-up to the Olympics, is focused on the government’s goals of “blue sky days”, the pollution index, etc.
When the pollution here gets bad, you can see it. You can smell it. So why are so many people caught up arguing over numbers with the government? Even by winning this argument, what has been proven, other than that there were a lower number of “blue sky days”? As Steve’s report shows, the numbers were likely fudged to begin with. I can’t see how the government lets pollution stop the Games, and I can’t see any real solution to the pollution problem in the coming years. Beijing alone isn’t the problem; you can find horribly dirty air in many rural areas far from big cities. China’s in trouble, and it’s going to be many years before things get better.
UPDATE: Here’s Steve’s original editorial in the Wall Street Journal.
A subject of debate for over 20 years, the Chinese government finally kicked off construction on a multi-billion dollar, multi-year project to build a high speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai. Expect to cost a whopping $21 billion, the project is scheduled for completion by 2013. Traveling at a speed of 350 km/h, the approximately 1300 km journey will be cut from the current 10 hours to about five hours.
I’m not opposed to the project, but I am curious what argument was most persuasive to the decision-makers to justify the cost. Green considerations, like reducing carbon emissions with fewer flights? Increase passenger capacity on a crowded route? It strikes me as a large amount that could perhaps be directed elsewhere.