moondog

Made in China, for sure. In addition to duck, they do a nice beggar's chicken, and their Hainan chicken rice is also great. But, I think the main reason I prefer it to Da Dong, Duck de Chine, etc, is the ambiance.

UA_Flyer

I personally prefer Da Dong over Made in China.

Made in China is an excellent restaurant and wonderful services, but it feels like one of those Chinese restaurants back home in the US that the menu offers everything under the sun. The dishes are excellent but lack of a signature dish.

I like Da Dong for its duck. Although it offers other excellent dishes, duck is its signature dish.

I don't ever bother with Quan Ju De. It is just not that good for my taste.

moondog

I went to Da Dong (Changhong Qiao) last night for the first time in a few months, and actually looked at the menu (usually, we just order duck); it was like a phone book. I also noticed that many of the non-duck dishes are mind blowingly expensive.

Anyway, I'll concede that Made in China has a bit of a PF Chang's feel to it, but I feel remarkably calm/relaxed when I'm there (a temporary escape from the traffic/pollution/bustle that define BJ these days). I like the soft lighting and the stylish furniture. Da Dong, by contrast, looks like any other random Chinese restaurant (bright lights, lazy Susans, noisy).

Just my two cents.

calvinoeh

Glad I started the debate on the best duck in Beijing Out of the 3, I personally like Da Dong the best. My mum-in-law was turned off by the prices on the other dishes at Da Dong. Agree with moondog that the prices can be mindblowing expensive.

Don't even bother with Quan Ju De!

Did not try Made in China but will definitely make it a point to try it the next time I'm in Beijing.

calvinoeh

Beijing to Harbin on Air China

Beijing to Harbin on Air China

Air China operates only 2 class cabins on most domestic flights in China with the front of the plane tagged as first. There is no business class. Since our BMI redemption was for business class, we were relegated to the back of the plane for the flight to Harbin.

We arrived at the airport around 5.30 am for our early 7.30 am flight. I'm surprised that there's such a lack of Star Alliance related signage at Beijing Airport!We didn't see any signs for Star Gold check in and the lines for economy counters were already long. We tried checking in at one of the automated machines but failed. We eventually were able to check-in at the Air China First Class domestic counters after showing my Star Gold card.

After passing through security, we made our way to the Air China business class lounge. The lounge is pretty big which adequate seating although the furniture was somewhat drab. Instant noodles and packaged snacks were the only food available when we arrived. Soon after, breakfast was offered at the dining area which consisted of only Chinese choices like rice porridge and pastries.

Read more..

calvinoeh

Here's the part most were interested in. I do apologize that I just realized that I didn't take as many pictures of the food as I should have in advance!

Food in Harbin.

Similar Beijing, there's a TON of food to try in Harbin. However, we did leave Harbin somewhat disappointed with the food quality. Most of the food here was even oilier and saltier than the food in Beijing.


There are multiple food courts in the shopping malls around town and the food courts would be the easiest way to sample a multitude of choices. I personally liked the food court at the "new 100" shopping mall. I enjoyed the meat wrapped pancakes and wok fried Sichuan style dish where you can choose the meats and vege to be wok fried similar to a Mongolian style grill. There's also a pretty good dessert stall where I liked the red-bean yogurt dessert. Yum..

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moondog

While you might have started the latest round, we've done this drill several times in the past.

SFflyer123

Good to know that you thought the food in Harbin was not that great. Certainly, Bourdain's show made it look like it was wonderful. Perhaps he was just happy to get out of the cold. I don't think I'll make a special trip to Harbin any time soon for the food. I assume that you went for the ice sculptures, is that right? It's very interesting in the Russian restaurant too to see your opinions. It sounded like from Bourdain that the Russian food was very authentic. Thanks.

calvinoeh

I won't go to Harbin just for the food. For the ice sculptures, yes.. for the food no. There might have been authentic Russian food. We just tried one restaurant so I won't want to make a generalization that all Russian food in Harbin is not authentic.

SFflyer123

One request, Calvin. I think your trip reports are excellent. Your text and description is simply fantastic.

I only have one request: more photos! Your photos are awesome, but there are so few in your TR. You take such good photos, and it would be great to see more. We want more of a good thing!

calvinoeh

Thanks again for those kind words. Appreciate that they are actually people reading and enjoying reading my TRs. Makes the effort into it worthwhile.

Will definitely try to take and post more pics in the future. Sometimes they are few pictures just cause I was too lazy to take more pictures or only a few turned out good

calvinoeh

Ibis Harbin

We decided to stay at Ibis Harbin primarily because the hotel was really cheap (~$20USD/night) for a room thanks to the Accor supersale rate. The normal going rate is about ~$50 USD per night and the check-in agent helping us even made a comment on how cheap our rate was. We would have paid more to stay at the Sofitel which had additional facilities but the location seemed too inconvenient as it was out of the city. The Ibis was located right smack in the city which provide easy access to plenty of shopping, restaurants and other attractions like Zhou Yang Street, Zhao Ling park and the river.

Read more....

UA_Flyer

I agree with the food part. Nothing earth-shattering about the food based on my limited experince.

The Ice sculptures are must see. I went when it was minus 20 degress celsius (based on what locals told me) at night, and it was so cold that I was only able to stay in the ice sculpture park for 40 minutes....the floor of the bus was covered in ice, and I had problem walking in and out of the bus.

It was a fantastic experience, but please dress warm and make sure the camera works in such a cold weather.

toyotaboy95

Not sure why you couldn't find the *G check-in desks, because I'm pretty sure they the same ones as the Business Class/First Class desks for domestic. For International flight check-in, the Business Class desk screens have the STAR ALLIANCE | GOLD bar at the bottom and on the carpet.

calvinoeh

I don't think there are Business Class desks for domestic since domestic planes are primarily first and economy. The First Class desk didn't have any *G signs on them so I wasn't sure if I could check in there or not.

You're probably right that for international flights, *G counters are correctly shown.