O perfil de guybtaylor

Dies ist ein deutlich mittelmäßiges B&B (Zimmer mit Frühstück). Es fuehlt sich so an als ob man eine Zeitreise in das Jahr 1970 gemacht haette, weil ich denke dann wurde das letzte Mal die Dekoration erneuert. Alles ist schäbig / Pink. Es gibt komische alte Bilder in verstaubten Rahmen - hierherzukommen ist wie eine Bizarre Geschichtsstunde. Als wir ankammen gab uns der Besitzer ein 15 Minuetige Einleitung der Hausordnung - Es fuehlte sich wie der erste Tag in Gefängnis an oder so aehnlich. Wie auch immer, es ist verhaeltnismaessig guenstig, jedoch nicht so Guenstig wie es sein sollte und der Standpunkt ist OK, aber abgesehen davon hat es nicht viel zu bieten.

Questo bed and breakfast è assolutamente mediocre. Vi sembrerà di essere tornati negli anni 70, visto che sembra che l'arredamento sia stato acquistato allora. Tutto è sciatto/rosa/con pizzi e lacchere, incluse cornici con foto sbiadite...venire qui è come una bizzarra lezione di storia. Inoltre, quando siamo arrivati, il proprietario ci ha messo 15 minuti per spiegarci tutte le regole, sembrava il primo giorno in prigione!! In ogni caso, questo posto è ragionevolmente poco costoso, anche se dovrebbe costare di meno, e la location è abbastanza buona, ma non aspettatevi altro.

Éste es un B&B particularmente mediocre. Parece que hayas hecho un viaje a los años 70, porque creo que ésa fue la última vez que se cambió la decoración. Todo está raído, con colores rosas y hay un montón de rarísimas fotos desgastadas en marcos polvorientos. Ir ahí es como una especie de extraña clase de historia. Cuando llegamos, el dueño se pasó unos quince minutos explicándonos las reglas y normativas, aquello parecía el primer día en prisión o algo así. En cualquier caso, el lugar es razonablemente barato, aunque no tan barato como debería, y la situación es razonable, pero aparte de eso, no hay muchas razones por las que uno debería ir.

C'est un B&B clairement médiocre. On a l'impression de retourner dans les années 1970 : je crois en effet que c'est la dernière fois que la plupart de la déco a été changée. Tout est miteux/rose/avec de le dentelle, il y a d'étranges vieux tableaux fânés dans des cadres poussiéreux - venir ici est vraiment comme une sorte de leçon d'histoire bizarre. Et puis, quand on est arrivé, le propriétaire a passé environ 15 minutes à détailler les règles et consignes - ça donnait un peu l'impression d'un premier jour en prison, ou un truc dans le genre. Enfin, l'endroit est raisonnablement bon marché, même si pas autant qu'il le devrait, et les alentours ne sont pas si mal, mais à part ça, ce n'est pas spécialement recommandable.

The Shanghai Marriott is, as you would expect, a very nice hotel, although you would be worried if it wasn't, given the very expensive room rates.

As soon as the lift doors open at the lobby on the 38th floor, your eyes will be dazzled by a spectacular panoramic view of Shanghai, and your nostrils will be assailed by the aroma of some unidentified, but not altogether unpleasant, fragrance.

The rooms are excellent - like little suites, with an extremely comfortable big bed, big bathroom with a high tech shower and big bath, with view over shanghai. The soaps are very nice, very big, and replaced twice daily, allowing you to accumulate up to 8 soaps in a two night stay.

The breakfast is usually over 200 kuai a head. This may be worth it if you are planning on having a monster breakfast - the selection is huge, with a professional egg chef, many types of juices, cold meats, cereals, cheeses, breads, patisseries, etc. However, if you just want to pop in for some croissants and a coffee, it may not be the most economical option.

Reasons I wouldn't give this hotel 5 star:

1. They do not have free wireless broadband in the rooms. I find it ridiculous that in this day and age, when most decent coffee shops offer free broadband, a FIVE STAR hotel does not. Instead, guests who want to get broadband in their room have to first connect to the hotel's internet using a CABLE, pay ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY RMB for 24 hours, and then finally get online wirelessly. Come on Marriott, this is the 21st century.

2. The general feeling you get that everything is set up to wrench money out of you. Of course, this is the same in most major hotels, (and in most places in Shanghai) but I think it is a bit extreme to charge something like 14 RMB for a photocopy which you could get outside for 0.1 RMB, just because you can.

3. The waitress who looked at me like an idiot when I asked if we could have 2 pots of green tea with 3 cups. Apparently this is against Marriott hotel policy, and every tea drinker must have their own individual pot....

It has been almost a month since I went to the Khyber Pass Indian Mess House and I can still taste the chicken makhni. In fact, I sometimes dream I am sailing through a huge sea of it on a garlic naan - heaven.

Unless you read this review, or a local recommends this place to you, you would probably never find it. The Chunking Mansions is like a rabbit’s warren of small, dilapidated hostels and restaurants and business of questionable legality, and as you enter the building, you will be set upon by a host of touts trying to get you to their hostel/restaurant. Persevere though - walk to block E, get in the odd floors lift, and head up to the 7th floor, and you will find a true gem of Hong Kong.

The Khyber Pass Indian Mess House is a Pakistani restaurant, with perhaps the best curry I have ever had in my life. While I’ve never been to India or Pakistan, I have lived in London, and on Manchester’s curry mile, so do have quite a lot of curry experience.

I would EMPHATICALLY recommend the chicken Makhni and the amazing mango lassis.

There is only one negative point about this restaurant - because the owners are muslims, beer is strictly off the menu. However, this is ALMOST compensated for by the perfection of the mango lassis, although the ideal solution would be to have a mango lassi in one hand, and a big cool fresh beer in the other.

Chaoyang Park, located in the East of Beijing, not too far from the embassy district and sanlitun, came as a nice surprise when I first visited it. It is very large, quite well maintained, has some small lakes and water areas, and you are allowed to sit on the grass!! :O:O:O (This is quite unusual for Chinese parks).

While I wouldn’t really recommend Chaoyang Park if you are just visiting Beijing for a holiday (unless you will be in Beijing for more than a week and have already seen the summer palace, beihai park, jingshan park, etc.) I would recommend it to people living in Beijing like myself. It is the kind of park where you can go at the weekend with your friends and play some frisbee or fly a kite, or just relax under a tree and read a book. It’s also great for running as there are lots of nice paths and routes and some small hills to vary the terrain a little bit.

The one downside is the overdeveloped nature of the southern end of the park, where you will find some faded roller coasters, pedalos etc. I would recommend keeping to the north end if you are there for the park side of things and not the theme park side of things.

The park is not that close to any subway station, so probably best to ride or drive there, or take a taxi. It’s not too hard to find as it’s very large and any taxi driver or indeed human in Beijing will know where it is.

“Le Parc Beihai”, Beihai Park, or 北海公园 is an oasis of green freshness in the heart of Beijing. Part of the complex of parks surrounding the forbidden city, Beihai park contains several pavillions and a beautifully landscaped hill with shady walkways and traditional buildings reminiscent of those you see in the forbidden city.

One of the best things about Beihai is the people. If you want to people watch in beijing, this is the place to do it. If you can, get there early in the morning - before 9 - at around 8 if possible - and you will see thousands of old people engaged in different activities. Some will be doing Tai Ji, some playing this traditional chinese game where you kick a bunch of feathers around a circle of people, some doing communal exercises or stretches, some playing badminton, and so on, and so on. Chinese old people really know how to enjoy themselves - they don’t just sit at home feeling miserable, they get out there and socialise and exercise and enjoy themselves. When I went there the other day there was a speech competition in full swing as well as a singing competition, and loads of people were in groups doing ballroom dancing. Great fun.

The park is also a good place to go for a run - you can notch up a few k’s running right round the enormous lake in the centre of the park, and if you want to do some hill/steps training, the hill is a good place to do this. Make sure you don’t come on a public holiday or in the middle of a sunny saturday/sunday however, as it will probably be quite busy and running could be difficult.

The Great Wall Marathon is the emperor of marathons. Its 42.2km include two stretches over the Great Wall, with almost 4000 steps to conquer before you reach the finish. The scenery is amazing - as well as the fantastic views from the Great Wall you can get a taste of semi-rural Chinese life as you pass through villages and fields along the course.

As accurately as I can remember it, the marathon course breaks down like this:

The first 5km are on semi-hilly roads leading from the start point to the foot of the great wall. After this you you walk up very steep steps onto the great wall and continue along a precipitous course along the wall for about 5km. You can’t really run on the wall because 1) there are lots of people at the start and there are several bottlenecks and 2) it’s bloody steep. After you get off the wall, you run along a long road for around 5 more kilometres until you reach a village. You pass through the village and then on some rough paths through some fields. At around 21km you hit a long hill, which goes upwards for several kilometres, taking you into another small village. This is quite tough and is followed by a long descent around the hill down to the start of the hill climb. From here it is relatively flat from around 27km to around 34, where you hit the first wall section again to cross it in the opposite direction.

This is where it starts to get seriously hard. The climb back up the wall is a total killer, and each time you think you’ve reached the highest point, you round a corner and see the wall snaking upwards for another several hundred metres, with seemingly interminable numbers of steps. People here were literally crawling on their hands and knees, or using their hands to pull themselves up the steps using the guard ropes. I saw some people who looked like they were having nervous breakdowns and many people just sitting down having a 5 minute rest.

After you finally get to the end of the wall, you are back on the road you ran up at the start - a 5km gentle descent. By this time, no running is easy (for me anyway) and the last 5km were very tough. Once you slog through those 5km, which seemed more like 50km to me, you re-enter the huangyaguan village, and finally round the corner into the courtyard to see the finish line.

I was too drained of energy to feel too excited when i crossed the finishing line, but after i’d had a banana and a drink it started to feel good, and the medal they give you is really nice.

Overall a fantastic marathon, but you must follow the golden rule of marathons even more strictly: PACE YOURSELF. If you don’t, you will find the final wall section a total killer. Training by running up and down steps is probably a good idea as well, as those quads will be needing to work very hard for a long time. I wore knee supports and I think this probably helped a lot to protect my knees. The fastest finisher this year (2009) completed the marathon in 3.40, which gives you an idea of how much harder it is in comparison to a normal marathon, where winning times are usually just above 2 hours.

I hope I can do it again next year!

Are you in need of fresh basil? Some mackerel? A whole edam cheese just off the plane from Holland perhaps? Then Sanyuanli Market is for you.

The market is not enormous - just a kind of long walkway with shops on either side, but you can buy almost anything there - plus it’s all fresh, top quality and very very reasonably priced.

If you need any imported sauces, spices, herbs, unusual fruits or vegetables that you can’t find anywhere else, very good quality meats, fish, seafoods, tofu products, cheeses, etc., you will find them here.

The people who work here generally know their products very well too - most of the stall holders will know the names of their products, cuts of meat, spices, etc. in English. I asked one stall holder if she had Garam Massala once, as unsurprisingly, I didn’t know how to say it in Chinese, and amazingly, she pulled out a packet straight away - impressive.