Day 2 – March 21st – Beijing

Beijing – The Happy Dragon Alley Hotel

Day two is really an extension of yesterday as our flight from London Heathrow landed on time at 12:20 into Beijing Capital International Airport.

After the usual immigration checks which were pretty quick there is a short automated train ride to the baggage reclaim area. Within a couple of minutes we had our suitcases and were at the taxi pickup area in the basement level.

The “Happy Dragon Alley Hotel“ had messaged me yesterday with the hotel name and address in Chinese which was so useful and made the whole process so easy.

Their message

💕Hello, we are very excited to meet you soon. Before that, I will send you the address of our hotel again just in case.
Hotel Name: 春天映向酒店(北京王府井南锣鼓巷店)
📍Address: 78 Dongsijiutiao ,Dongcheng District
📍Chinese address: 东城区东四九条78号 or 炒豆合作社(东四总社)
Metro line 5 Zhangzizhonglu（ExitC）follow the pic direction we sent to u.
‼️ It is recommended that you can search “Happy Dragon Alley Hotel” for it on the Amap! Google maps doesn’t work so well in China and the address is inaccurate. You will probably go to the wrong way.
If u prefer taxi please show driver the Chinese address. If u use Didi search : 78 Dongsijiutiao
Remember to ask for a public one with meter,don’t be scamed too much.normally from the Pek airport is around 100~120rmb .Pkx is around 200-220rmb,depends on traffic.
By the way,may I know what time you will arrive hotel?
Anyway we wish you have a good day 😊
Happy Dragon Team

The half hour taxi ride at the normal furious speed cost £9 and were soon checking in.

The hotel is situated in one of Beijings Hutongs, narrow alleys built in past and mostly gone, having been re-developed in recent years as the city has been modernised.

I wanted to stay here rather than a large modern hotel to feel some of the vibe of old Beijing.

The hotel appears to be run be 2 charming young women and after checking us in , the first girl said she would show us to our room and grabbed 2 of our suitcases, “that’s ok , I can carry them, I am big strong man” I said,

“So am I” she replied” and strode off leading the way, cases in hand.

She had given us a map of the area and highlighted the places of interest to us.

And so we set off to explore and after a couple of hours we realised the long journey and 30 hours without sleep had caught up with us and we returned to the hotel with a bottle of wine from the 7-11 store,

Whilst chatting in my room there was a quiet knock on the door and the young woman from reception handed me a small card and a container of fruit pieces,

“ we just wanted to welcome you to our hotel and hope you have a lovely time” she said to me with a charming smile.

I should have taken the last photo when the fruit container was full!

What a charming to greet their guests and made us feel so welcome.

I am confident that with this level of thoughtfulness this hotel will surely be a great success!

And so this hotel will always be in my memory as a lovely place to stay, certainly not a luxury 5 star hotel but without doubt the most welcoming in all my travels.

TTFN

Bibbley