Lobby of China World Hotel, Beijing

Lobby of China World Hotel, Beijing

Lobby of China World Hotel, Beijing

This is my first stay at a Shangri-La hotel, and I’m reasonably impressed.  Nice room, great service, and seemingly the biggest employer in town.  Definitely an Asian-feeling hotel, both in design and in terms of service.

 I’ve never seen quite so many people whose job is basically “standing by something”.  Thailand comes close, but it’s really a phenomenon here.

There’s one guy whose only job is to press the ‘up’ button on the elevator.  Actually, there are three of these guys, each working an eight-hour shift.

A chamber group plays in the lobby of the hotel

There are countless people who are paid to stand by things – signs, doors, plants, pillars, hallways, lobbies…  There’s live music in the lobby around the clock – everything from a pianist in the morning to a full chamber orchestra in the evenings. 

Still, in a country of 1.3 billion people, I guess you have to do what you can to create employment opportunities.

Tiananmen Square, with Mao Zedong looking on from the background

Less than 24 hours after arriving at home, I’m off again.  Barely time to kiss the cats, do the laundry, and repack my bag.

Took off on a short hop from Basel to Munich, then onwards to Beijing.  I managed to get nearly nine hours of sleep on the plane, so arrived in Beijing feeling reasonably fresh.  Someone at the office had arranged a VIP meeting, so we were met at the gate and escorted through the airport and into a car from the hotel.

After a bite of lunch and a quick shower, jumped into a taxi to head to Tiananmen Square to do a little sight-seeing.  Tip: this sort of activity is more enjoyable when it’s not -3C outside.  I made the same mistake in Berlin.

Beijing actually feels a lot like Berlin, with wide open vistas and monuments dotted throughout the city.  For all the population density in China, the city feels relatively empty.  And it’s definitely the most modern, cleanest city I’ve been to in Asia, besides Singapore.  I was expecting something more along the lines of the infrastructure in Bangkok, but was pleasantly surprised.

Off tonight for a quiet dinner someplace closeby, then probably straight to bed.  Which means that I’ll almost certainly be awake by 4am.  No matter how many times I travel, the jetlag always gets me…

No pictures from our final day of skiing as I managed to leave the camera at the apartment, but we headed back to the Flégère side of the Brévent-Flégère area, determined to ski the rest of the mountain after our disappointing day on Wednesday.  The weather in the morning was perfect, with good snow conditions on the ground, temperatures just above freezing, and light cloud that burned off as the morning went on. 

We spent a little more time looking at the piste maps and made our way over to two slopes on the far edge of the mountain.  The two slopes, a red run called Crochues and parallel black run, Floria, have to qualify as some of the best skiing I’ve ever done.  It takes three lifts to reach the top, but it’s worth it.  Stunning views, challenging pistes, and almost no one else around.  Top to bottom is about 25 minutes at a reasonable pace.  Definitely on my list of slopes that I’d like to ski again…

Such a shame I didn’t remember my camera!

By mid-afternoon, the clouds and snow had rolled in.  At about 3pm we called it a day and headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up for our last night in Chamonix.

Hurray! Some sun at last!

Hurray! Some sun at last!

Day four of skiing took us through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and onto Courmayeur, on the Italian side of the border.  The weather conditions were much better, and for most of the morning we had sunshine and temperatures just above freezing.  We skied a few runs on the front of the mountain, then headed over to the back of the mountain to seek out some more interesting stuff.

Matthew in Courmayeur. With some big mountains in the background.

Aude in Courmayeur

A number of people had recommended that we try Courmayeur, and suggested that it was the best of the mountains in Chamonix.  We came away feeling a little disappointed.  The runs are much shorter than the other areas of Chamonix, and nearly the entire mountain is groomed pistes – which means that there isn’t much variety to the slopes.  The lift system isn’t well thought out, so you always have to ski across to one set of lifts or another.  Throw in the Italian ineptitude for queuing and you end up with a frustrating skiing experience. 

Like Eve with her apple, Aude seduces Matthew onto the expert runs...

At some point in every man's life, there comes a time when he must venture off the bunny slopes...

The Italians also seem to grade on a curve.  The red slopes on the Italian side were like the blue slopes on the French side, and even the black slopes weren’t overly-challenging.  There were lots of slopes, I guess, but the lack of variety meant that after a day skiing Courmayeur, I was done.

Tucking into some good food in the Italian Alps

Tucking into some good food in the Italian Alps

One thing did live up to its promise, though: the food.  The dining options on the Italian mountain were much better than on the French side.  Aude had homemade polenta with mushrooms, I had a veal steak with ham and cheese, and we shared an incredible charcuterie.

If only we could match the Italian cooking with the French slopes, I’d be in heaven.

A well-deserved glass of vin chaud at the end of the day.

Day two of skiing was great – warm, sunny weather all day long.  If anything, it was a little too warm, with temperatures near 10C.  By mid-morning the snow was soft and heavy, making it tough to ski.

We skied the Brévent-Flégère area, plenty of variety and lots of southern sunshine to keep us warm.  The gondola on the Flégère side was closed, so we headed back to the centre of Chamonix and caught the lift from Brévent.  Lots of beginners on the slopes, so we caught the connecting lift over to Flégère and basically had the mountain to ourselves (as access from the base of the mountain was closed).

Aside from sore feet, a perfect day of skiing!