Beijing

We left Kunming late this morning and landed in Beijing later this afternoon. After relatively roughing it in hostels so far, we've checked into a 5-star hotel - "When else are we going to get the chance to experience this so cheaply?" was my mom's standpoint. I'm not complaining, though it is quite a bit different than what I'm used to. When we got out of our taxi, the porter actually made me put down my luggage and walk on so he could take care of it. No lugging it all up five flights of stairs this time!

Also, since Beijing is north of the Yangtze River, they're allowed to have central heating - which means no relying on electric blankets as your sole source of warmth during the night anymore! Since Chengdu and Kunming are both south of the Yangtze, neither cities are allowed central heating. This is fine during the summer I'm sure, but in the early spring it's still pretty cold. But yes, our hotel room even has a thermostat! Or so I thought. After playing with the temperature control unit for about two hours to reduce the sweltering heat in the room, I realized that it's only meant as a heater and not for air conditioning in general. I've since turned the danged thing off completely and opened the window. Windows are much simpler to understand.

Everything is quite expensive here so far (in this hotel at least) - breakfast cost literally 10 times as much as it did in the hostel, and you don't even get bacon with this meal! Instant failure in my books. It'll be nice to relax in this fancy hotel for a bit, but perhaps it's a little too fancy for the likes of me. I prefer five skewers of roasted lamb from a street vendor for 10 RMB.