Advantages: Frenzied energy of chaotic city, many worldclass tourist attractions, delicious food, incredibly safe & ridiculously cheap. Disadvantages: Gruesome pollution, occasional racism targeting foreigners & lack of freedom for those who take an organised tour (not recommmended).
...is desperately simple. Book air tickets (I would recommend www.cheapflights.com as the ultimate booking resource), choose a hostel or hotel with an address from a guide book (I would recommend the Lonely Planet as usual, but the Rough Guide’s Beijing specific guide has some good day trips detailed that the Lonely Planet does not have) and saunter along to the Chinese embassy at 49-51 Portland Place, London W1N 4JL. There is also a consulate of some kind in Manchester where you can apply for visas. The new visa is a decent full-page affair with a print of the Great Wall. If you get a long term or working visa you’ll also get a rather fancy hologram. It should cost 30 pounds I think.
A note on money before anything else. The Chinese currency is the RMB and there’s about 13 RMB to the pound. Given how cheap China is, and the fact the prices you...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
...Wow, what an amazing hotel - and a true bargain at that. It is actually now owned by Raffles with one part of the hotel being Raffles and the other BeijingHotel.
We visited Beijing in January this year staying for six nights in the Raffles section of the hotel.
You know that you are arriving somewhere nice when your taxi door is opened as soon as you get there and friendly men smile at you and welcome you to the hotel. They grabbed our cases and brought them inside for us.
The reception is clean and warm (a must as it was minus five outside!!!). The staff welcomed us to the hotel and could not have been more friendly and helpful. An added bonus was that we had booked through Expedia (therefore only paying £60 per night) and been told that we were not getting breakfast included. The reception staff said that as it was low...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: very clean & comfortable, useful facilities, resonable price Disadvantages: doesnt really give you a chinese experience
...by - although i think thats how beijing is, a bit sprawly with no real centre or heart (go to xian instead!). The main block of the hotel has a money exchange (& the good thing about china / communism is you get exactly the same rate where ever you go) & gift shops - there is also at least 1 pharmacy & 1 mini supermarket on site. Breakfast was great - fantastic selection & for those who cant do sweet & sour chicken with noodles at 08.00 then there's stil plentty of other (more european) choices. Would i stay here again - YES, the only thing is I wouldnt bother going to beijing again, notg my sort of china....
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
I found that the hotel was pretty modernized with several amenities readily available. There is a money exchange counter on site along with several shops through out the whole premises. The hotel complex is really huge, being made up of four buildings;... more
a good hotel in beijing i think ,the charge is not very expensive ,good service and it is convienent to get many famous place from hotel,very capacious and bright room,good service facilities,the workers can give you a excellent help and they are... more
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07.09.2002
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