Kempinsksi Hotel
This is the beautiful hotel where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There were 12 of us from school who checked in here, so it was a lot of fun. The only not-so-fun thing was that upon check-in, we realized that we didn't have our passports, an essential for hotels stays anywhere here. So poor Rick had to spend 3 hours by train and taxi to go back home to get them. Gail had the tough job of waiting in the executive lounge with free drinks and food, waiting for his return.
For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more 
