This is just a hotel report. Well maybe a bit more, but not too much...

Before I flew to PEK, I was a bit concerned about making my way to the new Intercontinental Beijing. I had heard that very few taxi drivers in Beijing knew about this hotel. Since I was staying at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford in Hong Kong, I thought I would ask the concierge there to write out a taxi card for me. It shouldn’t be hard, right? They are Chinese and they work for an Intercontinental hotel, right? Then and there I learned that I know more about China than a Chinese concierge. He wrote the card out in Traditional Chinese. Even a gweilo like me knows that Beijing taxi drivers don’t know much Traditional Chinese so I asked him to do it again in Simple Chinese. They fretted about this for a while so I went out to dinner and told them I would come back later to pick it up.

I went to Lan Kwai Fong, which as any local or regular visitor knows, is party central for HKG. After a nice dinner at WoolooRooloo (guess what kind of place that is!), I went around the corner to find no less than a thousand hard drinking Brits and Aussies packing the pubs and the street itself. Mingling with these folks were the requisite number of hookers. I parked myself at a table at La Bodega was just outside the bar on the sidewalk. I caught the eye of a bunch of the Filipino hookers, six of them to be exact. Well actually only one of them turned out to be an experienced hooker. The rest were, shall we say, apprentices. Naturally I took them under my wing and began (after lots of drinks) to teach them the trade. In the meantime, two large guys who looked like stereotypical doormen brought out a red rope and began to do their thing in front of the door right next to me. I mean within a few inches next to me. So I thought "this is going to be a great behavioral experiment". Little did I know.

While I was educating the future hookers of the Philippines, the pre-eminent Football Club of the whole world, Manchester United, was beginning to file into the club next door. It seems they are on an Asian tour of Hong Kong, Beijing (more later) and Japan. Oh boy this is going to be great, I thought. Watching all the groupies, the fans, the lounge lizards and the just plain down-trodden trying to get into this bar, not to mention the Mannie players, officials, trainers and towel boys shouting out their names to the hulking doormen. It was a psychology students dream. Characterization were played to the hilt at the door, all live and without committed acting. I used to be a doorman long ago so I took special appreciation of this glorious event.

While I had fun watching all this, I was thinking about how the Mannies would get pasted in their game against the Hong Kong national team in about 12 hours, considering the hang-overs they were likely to have. Little did I know that the second squad, who hadn’t partied the night before, would win the match for the Red Devils. I won’t name names, but the biggest stars were the most plastered at 1am and no wonder they didn’t play well the next day. They retired after the first half and the rookies, including a Chinese national who scored the winning goal, came on in the second half to get the win. Almost script-written you could say.

Later I went back to the I-C to the concierge. She said that they had labored on the Internet for quite a while to get the right characters in Simple Chinese to direct a taxi driver to the I-C Beijing. Ah, China.

So the next day I took the train to Chep Lap Kok. I stopped at the official Disney Hong Kong store for the requisite gifts for the little people back home and made my way to the excellent Pier Lounge at gate 65. CX rules! I visited the Noodle Bar, the Long Bar, and generally enjoyed myself for a couple of hours. What other airport do you make a point of arriving extra early to, just for the sheer enjoyment? Later I boarded CX 312 to PEK in J. Excellent service, but not quite SQ level service. We were delayed about 30 minutes due to ATC, but that is not too bad in China these days. Air traffic congestion is horrible.

I went to the taxi queue and jumped into a cab and gave him my destination in pinyin “zhou ji jiu dian” or “The Intercontinental Financial Street”. The taxi handler stopped the cab as he was sure I couldn’t give the driver my destination all by myself. Humph! The driver got me to within a few hundred meters, but the last bit was a challenge as we had to ask some cops for directions.

I had learned on the I-C forum here that the hotel is very empty in these early days. So I wasn’t surprised to find that there were no check in agents at the front desk at 9pm. But someone called someone and I was escorted up to my Club Room, 2101 for an in-room check in. I had booked a Club King and as far as I can tell that is what I got. I’m a Royal Ambassador so I had expected some kind of upgrade. But perhaps the -01 rooms are larger than normal? My bathroom was definitely large. Bigger than some studio apartments I've been in. And of course I got free min-bar, even for the food! The alcohol and wine bottles were much larger than normal. Also the Club lounge (6th floor) is open 24 hours! Drinks anytime you want them. I went down at 11pm and there were a couple of guests down there having some coffee.

My room was very, very nice, large and ultra-modern. Flat screen and a DVD player, however the picture quality was poor and I suspect bad cabling. This hotel wins the Stimpy award for the Best Practical Bathroom Innovation in the Hotel Industry. The bathroom waste baskets are thin and almost 4 feet tall! You have to see it to understand what a great revolution this is in the hotel industry. I rejoiced as I threw away my Kleenex, just a couple inches away from my hand. No bending over to open a lid or search under the counter for the basket.

My floor Butler unpacked my bag and took my cleaning to the laundry (free service for Club level guests), brought me a drink and shined my shoes. It’s good to be the King.

Later I went down to the X-Change bar. This was about the slickest looking bar I have ever been in. Four beautiful hostesses, three bartenders, all dressed perfectly in black, great music, baby-grand on the stage behind the bar, neat visuals, two-for-one drinks, and NO OTHER CUSTOMERS! It was pretty strange, but I obviously got great service. It was here I learned that this hotel ISN’T REALLY OPEN YET!. They are predicting that the grand opening will be in October. For now the only guests are a few Flyertalkers, I-C groupies, and perhaps the local gossip crowd checking out the new hotel. It is an awesome hotel and the only thing it is lacking is guests. I’m sure that will change soon.

The next morning I went off to work. But first I scrounged around the min-bar and found a Red Bull. Not any normal Red Bull mind you, but Chinese Red Bull. Check out http://www.redbull.com.cn for more info if you dare. There wasn’t any English on the can to give the ingredients. It certainly didn’t taste like the Red Bull I’m used to. I don't think I got the same buzz either.

Returning from work around 5:30pm. I was welcomed in the lobby by name (of course, I’m almost the only guest in the hotel), and someone pushing the UP button on the elevator for me (that happened a lot). After he pushed it he literally ran off. Normally I would have no clue why he ran. But here I was sure he ran to call the 21st floor Butler to let him know I was on my way up. Sure enough as the elevator door opened, a breathless Butler awaited me to see if there was anything I needed.

Shortly after I went back down to the Club Lounge. Lots of great free food, shrimp, quiche, and a variety of Chinese appetizers and desserts. I poured myself a glass of Bordeaux Blanc and read the paper. Then I got up for seconds and poured myself a Jack and Coke. I noticed the bottle of Jack was half-empty which is always a good sign. Then I got up for thirds (small plates don’t you know) and this time the butler intercepted me and poured me a rather healthy shot. I sat back down to my appetizers and newspaper. After a while the butler came to refresh my drink, giving me a VERY healthy shot. Not very long after he offered to add some ice to my drink, followed my more Jack. He then laughingly showed me the bottle of Jack Daniels THAT I HAD EMPTIED! That SOB!!! So I was well on my way to an enjoyable evening in PEK.

It was about then that I noticed some of the other people in the lounge. They were rather large young men of a variety of different races. They were laughing and joking about in a variety of different accents. Some English, some Spanish, some Italian, etc. In fact if I didn’t know any better they looked just like those blokes who were fighting their way into the club in Hong Kong a couple of nights ago. Wait a minute! The Mannies are in my hotel! Those Red Devils are eating up all my appetizers! I knew they were playing a Friendly here this week, but what a coincidence! So naturally we opened another bottle of Jack and started trading war stories. We were at the end of the room tucked in a corner when I noticed Sir Alex walk in. I pushed Rooney (not his real name) behind a post and walked up to Sir Alex and said “shelshshed by admashed, she gonnagasgesh” or something like that. He looked at me very calmly, then looked at the room (he couldn’t see the lads hiding behind the pillars) and then he walked out. I walked out to see him get into his elevator then ran back to re-start the party.

Afterwards in my room with my head spinning, I realized that I hadn’t yet visited the Spa or fitness center. So I grabbed my swimsuit and went back down to level 6. I was warmly welcomed and given a locker key. In the very nice locker room, I changed into my swimsuit. The pool was very nice, I’d say 25 meters long. After about a dozen or so laps I felt much better. I went back to the locker room to do a Fat Man's Triathlon: Jacuzzi, sauna and steam. I really felt good now. To good to just go back to my room, so I went again to the X-Change bar.

All my friends from the night before were there to greet me. Again I was the only customer. However, shortly after a Korean gentleman came in. He apparently had been staying at this hotel for 4 weeks, so he was clearly starved for conversation. We talked about all sorts of things. It was fascinating to talk with a Korean person who is old enough to know much about the history of the two Korean states and who is enough of a traveler to have a good world perspective. We discussed the DPRK and Kim Jong Il quite a bit. I knew from a previous visit to SEL that the older generation loves and respects the USA, but the younger generation hates it. This gentlemen reaffirmed my notion. Later two other couples arrived so the crew got very excited. 6 people in the bar! A new record!

I woke early the next morning, and went down to the Club for my breakfast. I was the only one there. I had to go down to the lobby to check out as the Club wasn’t staffed for check out at this time. Check out wasn’t very good. In my reservation it said free internet. Many I-C’s have this as either a Royal Ambassador benefit or a Club level benefit. So I obviously thought my Internet was free. But no, they charged me 120 yuan per night. I showed them my reservation where it said free internet and they read it for a while, but still said no. They said I could use free wifi in the Club, but not in the room. They weren’t going to budge. This was a first for me as all other I-C’s and most other decent hotels always give their elite members the benefit of the doubt. But the manager said I already got some free mini-bar. This was another first. A hotel begrudging a RA the free mini-bar. So I gave in and I resolve to call I-C when I get home.

If you like upscale modern hotels with awesome service and the ability to earn lots of points, and you are doing business in the financial district of Beijing, I heartily recommend the I-C Beijing.