:eek: A Bogus Moondog loose in Beijing?! Wow. Just wow that somebody would try this stunt. And what lucky timing you happened to show up when this roomjacking attempt was being perpetrated. I take it the guy masquerading as you was another foreigner, not Chinese. (If a Chinese, I could see why the desk clerk might have been suspicious if the reservation was in your name.) :D

He was from some Mid East country. It wouldn't have mattered if he was Chinese though because one of my guests was a Chinese guy.

moondog,

thanks for your generous offer, but that's still about $50 by my calculation for Yo Yo, so will probably opt to stay on points. But will take a look at other options you suggested as well.

Hard to pay even fifty dollars when paying less than thirty in Thailand ;) Using points kind of eases me back to the real world.

EmailKid

Well, maybe third time the charm - internet cafe computer first shut down Mozilla Firefox browser and then Windows Vista crashed while trying to post this reply :mad: :rolleyes: :td:

So found what appears to be a rather promising property in a good location that I can book on Expedia for about $27 US, but I cannot figure out how to print out the address in Mandarin, and am a little wary about trying to find it with only an English map.

Beijing City Courtyard Hotel

14 Liulisi Xiang, Baochao Hutong East Gulou Street, Dongcheng Dist. Beijing, 118305 China (not sure if this long web address will work) has good review. Close to Clock tower and reasonably close to metro lines.

Any thoughts before I chicken out go back to Holiday Inn Express, which I found before so will most likely find again @:-)

EmailKid

Go for it.... lots to explore in that area.

I'd go for it. This is not that hard to find. Assuming you are coming from airport by light rail on Airport Express, you want to go all the way to Dongzhimen transport hub, then follow signs to subway Line 2. Then go northbound to Guloudajie stop (3rd stop). You want a south exit. Walk south on Guloudajie until you can't go any further, that's Gulou West Street. Turn left and within a minute or so you'll see the Drum Tower, you can't miss it--it's the big red one with solid walls at the bottom. Do NOT turn off before Guloudajie if you happen to see another lighter color tower earlier--that is the Bell Tower (google maps has the inaccurate "Clock Tower" name.) You want the Drum Tower, which is further south. You will be on the west side of the Drum Tower and you want to walk around to the east side. Face east and that's Gulou DONG Dajie which runs east-west. It's lined with trees all the way down but they'll be no leaves on the trees right now! Stay on the north side of Gulou Dong Dajie and walk a few minutes to Baochao Hutong, turn left. You should see Liulisi Xiang pretty soon after turning. ("xiang" indicates it may be on a little side alley off Baochao Hutong. Take the hotel's phone number in case you get lost, which I suspect you won't. The Drum Tower is the key to getting oriented, and that's easy to find. I estimate from the subway exit, you've got a 20 minute walk. Beijing streets at intersections in this area are well signed in both characters and the English pinyin, so you should be able to follow along even with an English map.

Or catch a cab from the Dongzhimen hub. Take hotel number with you, and (assuming you have a mobile phone that works locally) dial it as you get in cab and hand to cabbie to talk to hotel. All cabbies known the Drum Tower and Gulou Dong Dajie.

A colleague from Denmark stayed there this summer for a few nights and told me that the place was good - but hard to find ....

Assuming that the address as given in the booking is correct (14 liulisi hutong) it should be about here:
(39.94469084981864, 116.40091359615326) {enter into search bar on Google maps}

There is something marked as "citycourt hotel" - but this might not be the exact location. It should be close though.

If you can do a screen print you here is a link to a map in Chinese that you can use to show people if you get in trouble finding the place:

Baidu map centered at liulisi hutong

ADDED NOTE: The directions given above by jiejie are the safest way to find the place - if you are feeling confident though you can follow those instructions as far as getting to the Gulou subway stop and walking south. Then take the first hutong on the east side just after all the construction chaos ("zhangwang hutong" - you know it will be the right one if you immediately see a small sign for a restaurant called Cafe Sambal on the corner of the hutong and the main road) and then keep walking east. This eventually becomes liulisi hutong.

CORRECTION: Cafe Sambal is on the corner of the first hutong to the south of zhangwang hutong ("Bed bar" is along zhangwang hutong and can be used to confirm you are on the right path).
In this case taking a taxi and calling the hotel could also be a good option ....

By this point in the thread, we should all realize that our boy is anti-taxi, and try our best to accommodate.

OK, thanks again for all the useful replies. Just booked it at 26.20 with Expedia service fees. Several review say it's a good "Chinese experience" so looking forward to this on my short layover.

Well, hopefully I can follow jiejie's instructions.

While I try to avoid taxis, I'm not above using them to get to my final destination from the metro, especially if otherwise I may not find what I'm looking for. In fact I was about to try to grab a taxi from the metro when I could not get anyone to help me with directins on my first layover.

My flight arrives after 4 p.m. and next one leaves at 1:40 the next day, so not much time to explore.

EmailKid

I suggest you use a combination of jiejie's and my directions (a plan A and a plan B in jiejie parlance...).

If you can can easily find the entrance to zhangwang hutong as you walk south from the Gulou metro station then take this route (you will save more than 1 km walk according to the Baidu map). If not then continue with jiejie's directions and they will get you there smoothly.

I have a hunch that you'll surprise yourself (Gulou is far more interesting than your previous BJ locale).

If you search this forum using "time out", you should stumble upon a thread I started about a Time Out feature on the area several months back. I'm almost tempted to suggest a meet up tomorrow night, but this whole snow thing (worry not; it's not that bad) has given me second thoughts.

ETA: I could be persuaded to go to Hutong Pizza if others are in agreement.

Will do. Printed out your map as well as the small one from the web site.

With temps overnight at -4 C I can certainly see where it could snow. Suppose better than cold rain ....

I didn't actually hang around the area by my hotel, but walked to Tienanmen Square and further north to see the hutongs as from what I read they seem to be on the endangered list.

And I'm certainly up for a little meetup with my fellow FTers, since it will be dark by the time I make it to the hotel (as long as the directions are decent).

<edited to add> My flight leaves BKK around 10 a.m., so should be able to check messages before leaving, though probably won't be able to do so before leaving for the airport.

EmailKid

Wish we had all this help available a week ago ;)

Same here. ^ ... However luckily our randomly picked hotel was right around the corner of T'square and so provided us with an amazing experience right at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning.
I still marvel about it ....

I've read this forum for a little while, and found some excellent advice to all who ask, not just the advice I received ^

This is truly one of the best and most useful forums that I've come across here on FT, though I suspect that country specific fora that don't receive as much traffic as the big airline ones tend to be friendlier.

Way too often you get "did you do a search" or more nasty replies to newbies in the large forums.

EmailKid, in Thai Silk Lounge at BKK waiting to board PEK flight (aaah, *A Gold benefits :) )