The Xinqiao Novotel Beijing hotel is in a great location and is ideally located in the central district of Beijing. The great thing is that you have a subway station at your doorstep which gives you access to line 5 and line 2. With subway tickets at just 2rmb you have most of your Beijing attactions within easy reach via subway or bus. A bus ticket can be as low as 0.4rmb or around 6 cents US. So cheap if you want to go with the public transport option.

Staying at the Xinqiao Novotel Beijing you are also in walking distance to the Wangfujing shopping and business district and major tourist attractions such as the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City National Performing Arts Centre and the Temple of Heaven. The hotel is just 5 minutes drive to Beijing Railway Station and 30 km away from Beijing Capital International Airport. To get to the airport you can use the subway. It does not get much easier than that.

Even if you want to visit the Great Wall at Badaling it is within easy reach from the hotel for just around $5 US.

The Xinqiao Novotel Beijing features many different types of accommodation options such as deluxe suites, executive rooms and deluxe guest rooms. You will enjoy the good atmosphere of modern and traditional architecture. You every need can be taken care of in the xeotic restaurants or by using the business and recreation facilities which are provided by the hotel. This is all aimed at meeting the needs of the you the visitor.

Having seen this hotel for myself I have no hesitation in recommending your stay at the Xinqiao Novotel hotel in Beijing.

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Hotel address: 2 Dongjiaominxiang Street Dongcheng District 100004

If you ask my wife, who is a Beijing native when the best time to visit Beijing her answer is April or September. Go in April to witness the flowers blooming in spring or September to enjoy more pleasant weather before winter sets in.

At the end of June I wrote about how the expected hotel operator Olympic cash bonanza does not look like happening. More recent articles doing the rounds in the press are further pushing that point.

In what is good news for visitors to the China Olympics the prices for hotel rooms seem to be coming down as the opening ceremony approaches. Many hotels had more than tripled their normal rates hoping to cash in on the summer games tourist rush. It has obviously had a serious effect on numbers making their way to Beijing to watch the games.

Zhang Ting, sales manager for the Zhongyu Century Grand Hotel said “Bookings are so low that we have no choice but to cut prices”.

I wonder how this makes people feel that have booked through the official ticket and accommodation provider CoSport. About six months ago I was looking on that site at the price of packages including tickets and a hotel room and the prices seemed to be highly inflated.

Sports fans thinking about a last minute vacation in the Olympic city should be able to take advantage of the lower than expected hotel room rates in Beijing. Even if tickets are not available the atmosphere in the city should be worth the visit.

Beijing officials have said they expected around 450 000 to 500 000 foreign visitors during the games with an additional one million Chinese visitors heading to Beijing.

The higher hotel prices have been blamed for keeping the numbers down from what was predicted.

There has been a bit of press coverage recently about how visitor numbers are down for visits to Beijing. For the month of May visitor numbers to Beijing, China were down by 15 per cent. This was the first drop in three years.

The reason for the drop is said to be as a result of the fallout from the Tibet situation and also the earthquake in Sichuan in May. On top of that the new visa rules are said to be keeping people away.

I recently applied for visas for myself and my wife and daughter to travel to China in August and we had no problems. It took four business days to get the visas. We had to show our flight details. Accommodation details and provide a wedding certificate to show that we really are married. Nothing to difficult.

The reduction in visitors is also expected to flow over into the China Olympic period. This comes as bad news for hotel developers expecting an Olympic bonanza. The embarked on a huge building program to cash in on the Olympic rush and also the flow on tourists that visit in the out years.

Many hotels were hoping to charge up to 10 times their normal rates during the Olympic period. Due to the downturn these prices are less likely, at least for tourists who are yet to make bookings.

This might be bad news for the hotel owners however it is actually good news for the everyday tourist. Prices will be at more reasonable levels.

Earlier today I searched the HotelsCombined hotel booking website to see how room rates are looking for the China Olympics. Hotels Combined makes it easy to compare prices as they already have data from over 30 popular booking sites in their database.

Using the Hotels Combined site I compared the room rates for the 8th-16 July with 12-16 August. That is Tuesday to Friday nights at the Beijing hotels.

I found that for the July period there are rooms available from an unbelievably low USD9 a night staying at the 9 Dragons House. I have not seen that hotel in person so I cannot vouch for its quality.

One hotel that I have stayed at in the past is the Landmark Hotel Beijing. It is located in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. The recently refurbished Hard Rock Cafe is in the same building. The price for July is USD100 per night and the availability status is “instant confirmation”. In August the site says there are rooms for USD141 per night which considering this is the Olympic period, is quite reasonable. The availability is “on request (24 hours)”. This may mean you actually do not get a room.

As another comparison for a Beijing hotel that I am familiar with I looked at Swissotel Hotel Beijing. It is a nice hotel located on the second ring road. In the July period the room rate was USD124 per night. This compares with the August period where the price is showing as USD160 per night. Once again this is reasonable.

If you are thinking of going to Beijing for the Olympics it is still not too late to at least experience the Olympic buzz associated with staying in a city as it hosts the Olympics. I am not sure how you will go with getting tickets into the events but you will still be able to find reasonably priced accommodation.

If you are thinking about it take action now. There are 40 day to go at the time of this post.

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Now imagine you have just arrived at the Beijing airport. You have started to walk off the airplane, what can you expect?

You first need to collect your baggage and complete the immigration process. I remember the first time I did this it was quite intimidating. These guys were not the most friendly I have come across, they are however business like and process your entry into China quickly.

Once you have made it through the airport if you are not on a group tour you need to find a taxi to take you to your hotel. I remember the first time I had to do this. I had the hotel name written in Chinese on a piece of paper. I then walked out to the taxi queue and lined up.

Not knowing what to expect as my turn arrived I hopped in the car and showed the taxi driver my address. Off we went. I have to point out my chinese is limited to “thank you”, “hello” and “I don’t know what you are saying”. I am now working on this by learning from cd’s.

As we drove along the airport freeway towards the city I was thinking what have I got myself into. There were so many people just starting to appear on all the streets.

As we got closer to the Landmark Hotel I was staying at there were so many people. Having come from a relatively small town this was an amazing site for me. It was chaos.

I got to the hotel ok and paid the taxi driver. The fare was around 100 rmb. I then checked in. The room was comfortable but not that large. The hotel is on the third ring road and was around 25km from the airport.

The Hard Rock cafe is in the hotel so I did not have far to go for a western meal. Next door to the Landmark hotel is the Great Wall Sheraton hotel on one side and a large department store on the other.

The part of Beijing I was staying in is near one of the embassy districts. You will find the Australian Embassy, Canadian Embassy and German Embassy about 15 minutes walk away.

About the same distance is the San Li Tun bar district. This at the time was a good place to go and enjoy a drink or two. It is some time since I went there but I will check it out again in August 2008.

Looking back on this visit to Beijing I remember that seeing so many people was the most amazing thing. I did all the tourist things like going to the great wall, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I also enjoyed the shopping.

Can you see yourself visiting this exciting city of Beijing? China will of course play host to the Olympics in August 2008.

Built in a courtyard style, the Beijing Xi Jiao Hotel is a 3-star hotel providing quiet surroundings. Offering good service facilities, the Xi Jiao Hotel provides you with excellent services in all aspects of business, etiquette and travelling.

The hotel boasts 365 various guestrooms including standard rooms, single rooms and suite rooms to meet the requirements for business, conference and travelling accommodations. Each guestroom offers free use of broad-band internet access.

With complete facilities, the Conference Center can hold 1,200 guests. As an appointed conference-hosting place of central government institutions, it has hosted many large-scale domestic and international conferences, such as the CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), the Fourth World Women Conference and the Chinese Minority Sports Games.

There are 21-restaurants in the Xi Jiao Hotel where over 800 people can have dinner at the same time. We provide you seafood, Cantonese cuisine, Chuan & Lu series, as well as Japanese and Korean flavor. The hotel has a large indoor recreation center with a Continental-style pool, 12 AMF bowling lanes, a fitness hall, arcade, gymnasium and sauna.

If you are wanting to visit the Summer Palace the Xijiao Hotel in Beijing is all ideal choice as it is about 10 minutes away. The hotel is also 5 kms from the Shangdi Hi Tech Area. Other popular attractions such as Yuanmingyuan, Fragrant Mountain, Beijing Plant Garden, Haidian Park and China National Park are ones you may visit.

The hotel is also near well known entertainment centers like Wudaokou Cinema and Haidian Theater. Well known universities like Peking University and Tsinghua University are not far from the hotel.

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Hotel address: No.18 Wangzhuang Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China

The address for this Beijing Hotel is 1 Sanlihe Road. It is also known as Xiyuan Hotel. The hotel is ideally located 1km from the Beijing Exibition Centre and is the same distance from the Beijing Observatory. The Beijing Zoo is also nearby.

Amenities/services: Conference room with 150 capacity: 2 ballrooms to 250 people. Xiyuan hotel has 94 suites, 24-hour room service, turndown service, 11 restaurants and lounges, including rooftop restaurant, business centre, steam bath, massage, snooker, concierge, shops.

The hotel is located 7km from central Beijing and is approx 36km from the Beijing International Airport.

click here to learn more about this Beijing Hotel

Country: China

The Beijing Olympics are now 457 days away. You may think that is a long time away and you would not need to start making travel plans just yet.

You may think differently when I tell you that the tickets are now available for registration. From now until early July you can register your ticket requests at the CoSport website. CoSport are the official ticketing agent for people from the US, Australia, Canada and a few other countries. You can look through the schedule and select up to 48 event tickets per order.

Once you are ready to make you selection you fill in the order form and submit your order. At this stage you are charged $1 to verify your credit card. I selected some opening ceremony tickets which at the lower end cost USD256. For the A tickets they will set you back USD773.

Some other examples include Athletics from USD9 if you want to attend a morning session sitting in the C class seats. If you prefer to be a bit closer to the action it is USD137 for an A class ticket during a night session. For swimming the price range is USD17 to 107.

If you need a hotel in Beijing you can select accommodation packages from the CoSport website. They have a choice of four Beijing hotels that are all four star. You can choose accommodation only or select an option that includes tickets. Prices range from USD2085 all the way up to USD 9581 for a five night package that includes tickets to Gymnastics – Rhythmic, Beach Volleyball (M Finals), Table Tennis (W Finals), Diving(M Semis), Athletics M&W Finals), Basketball (M Finals) and the Closing Ceremony.

The Beijing Hotels that CoSport have selected are Minzu Hotel, Jianguo Hotel, Novotel Peace Hotel Beijing and Landmark Hotel Beijing. I have personally stayed in the the Landmark Hotel and can recommend it. If you prefer to go it alone with accommodation you could start searching the Hotels Combined website around August this year.

The one thing that remains is to find a flight to Beijing. This is also something you would probably need to wait until around August before you start your search to make flight reservations to Beijing. The main thing at this stage is to secure some tickets to your favourite sporting events.

In my opinion April and May are the best months to visit Beijing. It is a great time of year for several reasons. Number one is that the heat of summer has not arrived. Also the huge tourist crowds have not made their way to the capital. I also love the fact that the blossoms are in full bloom at this time of year.

A visit to Jingshan Park is highly recommended, first for the views and second to see flowers. This park is located directly north of the Forbidden City Shenwu Gate. The park has a long history going back 800 years. To the west of Jingshan Park is Beihei Park, another great park to visit. What I like most about this Jingshan Park is that it is the highest point in Beijing and is a good photo vantage point. The hill in the park is 48 metres high. It is hard to imagine at only 48 metres that is the highest place in Beijing. The great thing about going to the park is that the hill overlooks the Forbidden City on one side and looks north to the Drum and Bell Tower which are located at the end of Di An Men Da Jie. You also get great panoramic views of Beijing.

The last time I visited Jingshan Park one of the many flower shows that are held in the park was in full bloom to make a spectacular addition to the already impressive park. Most notable were the beautiful peonies flowers for which the Park is well known. April to mid-May is the best time for seeing the large variety of more than 200 peonies you can find in the park. I highly recommend a visit to the park but don’t forget your digital camera.

The park is open from 6.00 am to 9.30 pm year round. The admission price is 5 RMB November through to the end of March and 10 RMB from April to the end of October. Buses that service the park are no’s 5, 13, 103, 105, 107, 109, 118, 121.

If you are considering a visit to Beijing you can start your journey by reading the information on the cheapflightscruises.com website which has tips for booking a flight to Beijing. Just in case you don’t know the Olympics will be held in Beijing starting on August 8 at 8.08 pm in 2008. If you are looking for a hotel in Beijing I suggest checking out HotelsCombined.com. This website allows you to search multiple hotel booking sites with one search.

A flight to Beijing from Washington DC takes around 14 hours. From the west coast of the USA it takes about 12 hours 50 minutes. Air China flights direct to Beijing from Los Angeles every Wednesday and Friday. United airlines provide the service from Washington to Beijing.

Yesterday I wrote about a bargain priced hotel in Beijing I had found during an internet search. It was $9 a night during August, unfortunately I found out today it was August 2007.

As I have relatives in Beijing I did not go ahead and book the hotel yesterday. Today I was just too curious to find out if this price was for real so I decided I would actually complete the booking process. It was so damn cheap I could not hold back.

I went ahead and performed the same search I tried yesterday and got the same result. I had entered August 2008 using the calender application the hotelscombined site provided. I was careful to check that I had entered 2008 dates. I then went ahead and clicked on search. As mentioned earlier I got the same result as yesterday.

This time I got out my credit card and started the actual booking process. Unfortunately when I got further into the booking process I found that the dates the booking was for was actually 2007 not 2008. The first stage of the results did not actually show the year. It was not until I went ahead and selected a room and moved to step three of the booking process that the date was shown with the year displayed.

I have learnt something from this exercise. Even though I definitely entered August 2008 in my search criteria the hotel booking site returned dates for 2007. From this it seems you cannot always trust the booking sites.

The price is still a bargain. I will have to send my father-in-law over to the hotel to see what it is actually like. Wangfujing is a great location to stay in Beijing. If the place is half decent who can go past $9 per night. If you are going to Beijing sometime this year this hotel is somewhere to consider. The hotel is listed as a 3 star accommodation option.

Maybe sometime in the future I will do a bit more research into this Beijing hotel and see if the prices are always so cheap and if the standard of the hotel makes it somewhere a tourist would want to stay when visiting Beijing.

Today I was searching some hotel booking websites to see what the prices would be for a hotel during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. I came across a price that seems to be just too amazing to believe.

From my HotelsCombined link I performed a search that requested hotels in Beijing for 5 August through to 16 August 2008. This covers a period that takes in most of the games. The result was astounding. If I did not have relatives that I am staying with when visiting Beijing I would be looking into this further. Anyway the price I got was $9.33 per night staying at a 3 star hotel called the Wangfujing Dawan Hotel Beijing.

Wangfujing is a prime location in Beijing. It is probably the premier shopping district in Beijing and also is not that far from the Forbidden City and Tiananamen Square.

If anyone out there is considering going to the games I suggest you give this search a try and see what you come up with. Maybe it was just a computer glitch at the time but who knows.

If this Beijing hotel room bargain is not a mistake all you need now for that truly bargain summer games holiday is a cheap flight to Beijing. You can check out the tips for a flight to Beijing at the cheapflightcruises.com website.