Check-in to The Great Wall last Sunday - checked-out again on Wednesday. The main reason was that the hotel is in NE Beijing while my office is in SW. This meant a 50-60 minute journey each morning. The second reason was the prices. When working overseas my company gives us a fixed rate Per Diem out of which we are expected to pay for breaksfast, dinner, laundry, etc. I found that my per diem was disappearing fast. The buffet breakfast (which was magnificient) was USD21 and a draught beer was USD7 plus 15% service charge. Ouch! One of the local supermarkets was selling complete cases of beer for that! The journey each morning I could have put up with, but the high prices were the trigger to make me move. I do wish Starwood would follow Hilton in giving SPG Gold free breakfast.

I moved to the Holiday Inn Downtown which is a five minute taxi ride from my office. Breakfast was incuded in the rate (and hence does not come out of my per diem!!) plus a beer was far more reasonable at around USD3.20.