The Rainbow Hotel, Beijing

When I first heard that we will be staying at the Rainbow Hotel in Beijing, I checked out the hotel on the net. There wasn't much that I could find about it. What I found were mostly negative reviews by disgruntled tourists who had stayed there! We were told by the tour agency that the hotel was rated 4 star; however, we were also warned that we have to deduct oneor two stars if compared to the standard in Malaysia. This hotel was rated 2 star by tourists on www.virtualtourist.com! That really filled me with dread!

But what we found surprised us indeed. I guess when you go with low or no expectations, one can be pleasantly surprised. We found the hotel clean, well managed and charming in a rustic kind of way. True it may not really reflect it's '4 star' status (in Malaysia, it would probably be rated 3 stars) but I have no complaints. I will let the pics speak for themselves.

Been a long time since I saw one of these thermos! Reminds me of the hotels in Malaysia when I was young where the porter brings you hot water every morning. The milo and Nescafe were mine of course!

The view outside my hotel room. Not really a pretty sight but it really didn't matter.

Outside the hotel in front of another guardian 'lion'. Actually there are no lions per se in china. It's a mythical animal believed by the chinese to ward off evil. Feng shui is big business in China.

As I said earlier, in almost every place in beijing, you will find young chinese boys (yes, I call them boys as they are so...well, young!) dressed in oversize uniforms standing guard; and freezing their behinds off! This hotel is no different. Within there was even a young chinese girl in traditional cheong sam who greets you with "ni hao" (or "I wish you well" or something like that, not being an authority in the chinese language). That's a nice touch.