My language school is in an area of Beijing called AnJiaLou, it's quite a trek from where I am staying now. To get there I have to walk for 25 minutes from my hotel to a bus stop, then I hop on the bus. In total it takes me about 45 minutes. I used to live in the student accommodation behind the language school but it was cold, dark and furnished with wobbly, flat pack furniture. My new hotel is in a side alley (called a HuTong) closer to the centre of Beijing (it's warm, bright and has sturdy flat pack furniture).
There is not much to the hotel really, no bar, no restaurant and only a small reception/lounge area. The only time I've ever seen anyone sitting in the lounge was to use the free internet. I found the hotel by just wandering around the first weekend that I was in Beijing, it's not ideally located for my language school but they were open to negotiation on price. That was the clincher really. It meant that I was able to get the price down to less than the depressing student dormitory. Now, instead of a perpetually tired, disinterested and fat Chinese woman at reception I have two slim, early 20s-ish Chinese girls to talk to. As a bonus they don't mind me asking idiotic questions and basically wasting their time. I think they find it quite funny. Consequently I get to try out my Mandarin before I've even left the hotel. I really confused them both the other night when they actually thought I wanted something. I was just practicing how to say different items of clothing, it probably sounded a bit odd. This is my shirt. I have one pair of shoes on. How many pairs of socks are you wearing? I have one pair of eyes and two pairs of glasses (eyes and glasses sound almost the same in Mandarin).
My room is accessed from the attractive rear courtyard. Click here to have a look at the photos.
