Beijing (Peking) Hotel Tip

If you're planning to visit China's capital city (Beijing / Peking), and are on a tight budget, or are simply interested in a more authentic experience than luxury 4 and 5 star hotels can offer, you should contact Renny Wei (rennywei@yahoo.com) and make reservations at the Beijing Kai Hua Hotel (aka Beijing Yongdingmen Hotel).

Renny is the super friendy, super helpful manager of the Yongdingmen. He will pick you up at the airport in his private car and set you up with everything you need in order to enjoy beautiful, exotic Beijing. Rates are very reasonable. The rooms are a bit spartan, but the hotel is near the center of the city (Tiananmen Square). There is an authentic (and pretty dirty) Chinese Internet cafe in the hotel - populated 24 hours a day with young Beijing residents playing various online games and chatting.

We spent close to a week in the Yongdingmen hotel. Renny set us up with maps, directions, a crash course in Han Yuan (Mandarin). He will drive you out to a well-maintained, almost tourist-free section of the Great Wall  for a very reasonable price, with an authentic lunch along the way.

Renny will also help you arrange transport out of Beijing. Just tell him where you're headed -- he will drive you to the train station and help you arrange tickets. Renny recommended that we travel 2nd class on the trains. It's cheaper, and you get to mingle with lots of Chinese citizens, who are genuinely happy and intrigued to have foreigners travelling with them (in my experience, anyway).