Beijing vs Hohhot - a world apart

After our misadventures in Boston and en route - and the bonus of seeing Sheena, Philippa, Aileen and family - we finally made it to Beijing on Thursday. From the moment we touched down there was a world of difference between Beijing and Inner Mongolia. There were many other foreign flag-carrying big planes at Beijing; there were many full-size luggage conveyor systems; there was clarity about what we were doing and where we should go; there were many people who spoke English with varying degrees of fluency; we weren't pinned into small areas and long confused queues; and (hurrah!) there was not one but several ATMs in the terminal. The first thing I did was get some cash!

Our hotel was also a world apart... When we opened the door to our room we were a little apprehensive after our experience in Hohhot, only to be bowled over by the incredible luxury of a recently refurbished western-style 5 star hotel. The king-size bed is soft! The hotel in Hohhot had Chinese-style small single beds that felt as though they were literally made of a stack of bricks with a thin sheet laid over the top. Sleeping on the carpet would have been more comfortable, but the carpet was so scary that we were afraid to walk barefoot from the bed to the bathroom - at least ten years old, much spat and spilled-upon and *never* been cleaned. The towels in our Beijing hotel are luxuriantly plush and sensually pleasing vs half-size, threadbare and literally full of fist-sized holes in Hohhot. The staff in Beijing speak English - right down to the guy who runs errands for housekeeping. Not a single person in the Hohhot hotel spoke English - not even "hello" from the front desk staff. The Beijing hotel has a full-size bath tub and a separate shower instead of just a tiny shower cubicle that inevitably leaked all over the floor. We were given a key for our hotel room in Beijing, whereas in Hohhot each time we went out we just shut the door, and when we came back had to go to the front desk, write down our room number and explain via pointing that we wanted Housekeeping to open the door for us. To be fair the hotel in Hohhot was relatively clean (other than the carpet) and adequate (other than the bed), but it is a pleasure to be in the lap of luxury for a few days. It's the week of the Lunar New Year so hotels in China are largely empty, and we got a great deal on the Beijing hotel - and we needed a place to sleep in Hohhot. The rest of our hotels on this trip will probably fall between the two extremes.