In the Hotel

**WARNING**

This is not a “We have Ray" post, but a ketchup on trip stuff post !

Hello friends and family...stretching from China to Hawaii to Maryland,

…While in Harbin City we are staying in Zheng Ming Jin Jiang Hotel.

Our dear friends Jim and Angel Bellante suggested it, as it’s where they stayed with Angel's dad when coming to bring home their sweet Mario back in June. Their recommendation has been great!

The hotel seems large. The lobby is spacious; there’s an exercise room, a billiards room, and a chess room, not that I've seen any of those last three. It is odd, however, just to have two elevators; they are Slow with a capital S for Shesy Pesy They Are!


Our humble home is up on the 25th floor (Rm 2508), and there are more floors above us. It’s your basic two-double bed set up, with a bathroom and some chairs. I took the bed against the wall. The plan at the moment is to have Ray sleep in the bed with me, though we’ve heard about children wanting to sleep on the floor. As with a ton of stuff beginning tomorrow, we shall see!

The rooms are not smoke free, but - how nice! - the beds are. (Gosh, those new Fire Marshalls sure are bringing a lot of "change" to China!)

One other noteworthy item as far as the room is concerned is the way the Chinese conserve electricity. After coming into the room, you have to place your room card-key into a little slot on the wall to power the room. If it’s not in, you’re not getting any juice, be it for a light, the TV, your computer, your anything. Naturally, then, back to the conservation part, when you leave you take the key with you of course…and all turns off within the room.

The price of the hotel is very attractive at around $400-and-something RMB, which equates to roughly 60 bucks a night. AND that includes breakfast which is out of this world. It's basically dinner, and three times better-fresher-lower-sodium Chinese food than we'd eat at home.

It’s buffet style in the morning with two rows of a variety of dishes line the table in the middle of the large room, including Harbin Ham, which is supposed to be Big Shot food. Plus there are side stations for eggs, deserts, and cereal items. The milk is essentially table cream it is so rich.

The servers are super pleasant and helpful - really more a wait-on-you-hand-and-foot-and-goat-tee situation. Huh, what was that last slide in? On Saturday when we finished we went to the elevator to wait for the ride up (food's on the 13th Floor, woo spooky). A server came over to my father and gave him a napkin, pointing to his face. Apparently he had some egg stuck in the goat-tee. Very helpful! And that extends to the doormen, bell hops, and receptionist folks.

That's about it for the inside. Oh, the restaurants do not serve Dog, but that's a another thing for another day. I just need to find the bed now.

Peace and Less Than 11 Hours 'Til Gotcha.

Demian