Nikko New Century Beijing Hotel, Beijing

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... Read review

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Advantages: Lots to see and do, the great wall, Forbidden City
Disadvantages: Pollution, not the best weather in March, people spitting everywhere

...and we wanted to go to China before the preparations for the Olympics in 2008 ”ruin” the city of Beijing. We also wanted to see the Terra-Cotta Warriors in Xi’an and we have also always wanted to see Hong Kong and that is how we came up with our travel plan. The tickets for the trip were bought through Kinareiser in Norway which included the flight (to Beijing and back from Hong Kong) and 6 nights at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Beijing. Apart from this it was up to us. We paid about 7500 Norwegian Kroner pr. person for the tickets (about ��, 1€=7.8 Kroner). We planned the trip by firstly buying a couple of books: CADOGAN book about Beijing written by Peter Neville-Hadley and Lonely Planet’s guide to Hong Kong & Macau. Mr. Neville-Hadley seems to be quite an authority of sorts when it comes to China because his name pops up... Read review

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Advantages: Raffles! Friendly staff, immaculate rooms
Disadvantages: Expensive bowling alley

...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 Beijing Hotel. 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... Read review

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