Friday 7th November 2014
The Double Happiness Hotel – Ghost Street
We landed at about 2pm and we were pleasantly surprised how quickly we got through immigration, collected luggage and cleared customs. Our guide Li Biao was waiting for us not with a flag (as we had seen on all China Link’s adverts) but with a scruffy piece of paper, which read Linda Rudd x 4.
Li Biao told us that his English name is Terry. Apparently when he started to learn English at school, he and his classmates were told to pick a name out of a bag and he has used this name when speaking with English speaking people ever since. I think I will stick to calling him Li Biao.
Wherever possible we had chosen traditional Chinese and Tibetan hotels as opposed to modern skyscrapers. The first hotel was located in one of the rapidly disappearing hutongs of Beijing. The hutongs are narrow alleyways with traditional one-storey houses; a courtyard giving additional privacy and security usually surrounds the dwellings. As we drove down the narrow hutong where our hotel was situated, I noticed the bags of rubbish, the public toilets and my first impression was that it was grotty and dirty.
The Double Happiness Hotel however was fabulous. It was built in traditional hutong style, the beautifully decorated rooms all opened into a courtyard. The rooms were traditionally furnished and decorated. The delicately painted chest of drawers was a disguise for a computer desk and computer. Although traditional, this room had everything one could possibly hope for in a modern 5* hotel including bathrobes, slippers, a hairdryer and an array of complimentary toiletries. The beautiful porcelain washbasin had an intricate blue dragon pattern on it and the antique brass tap was in the shape of a piece of bamboo.
Unfortunately we do not have time to visit the Lama Temple as was originally planned due to the late arrival of our flight. We decide instead to walk to Ghost Street, a street lined with restaurants. It was a Friday evening and the atmosphere was good, many people were enjoying their evening. Lots of the eateries were lit up with bright neon lights; one or two others appeared to be very old and traditional buildings. Men in greatcoats stood shivering outside offering menus, trying to tempt people inside. The majority of menus were written in Chinese and therefore indecipherable to us. The few we could understand offered bullfrog, baby bullfrog, turtle and duck head among other equally unappealing dishes to our western appetites. There were also lots of hot and spicy dishes available, these are okay for Anne and Pete but are not to Dave’s or my taste. Eventually we came across one restaurant with not only a menu in English but also tiny pictures of peppers, which were an indication of how hot and spicy the dish was. We ordered, what turned out to be a delicious meal of sweet & sour pork, fried beef and green peppers, hot spicy beef, mange tout, chicken and nuts, and green beans. All this was washed down with beers and the cost was just 275 Yuan, which equates to about £27.50, not bad for 4 people!
We weren’t at all sure what to do regarding a tip as we had read conflicting information
in the guidebooks. Some advice said not to tip and mentioned stories of waitresses chasing after customers to return their money, other articles reported that it was the acceptable thing to do nowadays. We finally decided to leave a tip and I am pleased to say no one chased after us so it must have been okay.
We returned to our hotel and went to the bar for a nightcap.
Hey its Friday evening and we haven’t been to bed since Wednesday there’s no wonder that we’re finding it difficult to recall where a particular temple is… We’ve done amazingly well. And its now 10.10pm so Good Night!
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