Grand Epoch City
The city is situated 50 Km (about 30 miles) from downtown Beijing, in the golden triangle region on the border of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, adjacent to Beijing-Tianjin state highway. Grand Epoch City’s city walls are modeled on the old Beijing city walls during theMing and Qing dynasties. The hollow walls enveloping the property run 5 kilometers with 22 tower gates, 50 hectares in size. The wonderful Yuan Mingyuan and Prince’s residence and courtyard houses display the essence of ancient Chinese culture and unique Chinese architecture. It is an awesome location, with magnificent Golden Arts Hall, grandiose Buddhism Museum, charming Golf Garden, unique Indoor Water Park and abundant shopping places. It is the official “Olympic Orchestra Village” during our stay for Beijing 2008.
Fu’an Palace Hotel
Member of the 2008 Olympic Orchestra are housed in this hotel. Fu’an Palace Hotel is located at the south side of Yuanyingguan Grand Water Works (a fabulous spring) in the Old Summer Palace scenery spot, which is in the eastern part of outer city for the Grand Epoch City. The has 17 floors. Guest room area is from the third floor to the 15th floor with 1428 rooms and suits. The hotel is symmetry at four sides with an empty space in the center according to the Chinese traditional architecture philosophy formed a special Chinese character which means back.
There is a lobby bar and a cafe at the ground level of the hotel. Nationality Food Street is located at the east side of the first floor covering the area of 468 square meters, which possesses of more than 12 counters including dozens of special snacks such as Shanxi Food, Sichuan Spicy Food and barbecue etc.
Our room is quite spacious. There are two double size beds in the room. A rolling bed is added for our younger daughter to sleep on. The room is equipped with HD, flat screen TV. It has HBO, CNN, MTV programs that we can watch and understand. A mini fridge and safety deposit box are also available in the room. Wired internet connection is also provided for free for us. I’m not sure if it is actually free because it is part of the deal with the Orchestra group or it is always free for just general guests. The bathroom features a roomy, modern, western style fixtures and amenities. A hair dryer is a standard equipment in the bath room.
On the second floor of the hotel, there is a Banquet Dining Hall. That’s where breakfast is served for the group. This hall actually consists of one main banquet hall and 5 dining cabins with different styles. The food we had (I’ve only had one breakfast so far) was ‘below average’ in quality. I suppose that’s all you can expect from mass produced food to feed a thousand people at the same time!
Speaking about food, dinner for the group is served outside the hotel, in a building called Cocktail Garden. It is a big hall that is said to be able to accommodate 1,8oo people. There is a stage, mini-tea bar and spring. Ornamented with tall coco, palm, flourishing banyan and wooden bridges, the hall is full of exotic flavor. In addition, more than 180 national flags are on the ceiling.