Day 2 - 6th August

Morning: Visited Minzu Hotel (National hotel) with great history which could be traced back to Chairman Mao, and Premier Zhou Enlai's time in the 1950s. They had visited and stayed there before. It is in a wonderful location, near the City (financial and commercial centre), near Tianan men Square, walking distance about 15 minutes in between. It is one of the greatest buildings in Beijing. During this Olympics period, it serves important officers from all around the world. This morning, Beijing streets were clear, the college taxis drove comfortably from Changping to the hotel within 40 minutes。 I slept well, my eyes could not be off the traditional but newly decorated buildings, much more beautiful than in 2004 when I was there…two students in the car fell in sleep- they were tired as they could not sleep well due to the room conditioning handling matter…(they said they ate Chinese take-way until 2.30am in the room! Faith was reading a book outside the place at 7.30am, too warm to sleep...)

Our students visited the hotel aiming to learn service methods, eg, reception greetings, (Cerise was so impressed by the Chinese girl's’ national dress who worked at the front desk in front of a Chinese restaurant. She politely asked permission to take a photo with her - photo to be added here). We also visited coffee shop, Anna and Agata tasted the coffee, ￥45 per cup （around￡4.00). They have not only learned coffee serving, but also perhaps some hotel room management skills , I think.

We could only stay there for 30 minutes, as the Beijing Mayor came to inspect nearly at the same time when we were there…

TBC :0)