I’m hoping that SES China in Xiamen is going to be at the same venue as last year, the Xianglu Grand Hotel.  This hotel looks fantastic and elegant with beautiful rooms and several restaurants.    Food is one of the things I’m really looking forward to in China and I’m sure the Xianglu Grand Hotel won’t disappoint in this area.    I am a little concerned that it’s bad form not to try everything offered by a guest, so if I’m eating with folks who offer me fried canaries or something like that I better be sure to have the pepto bismol tablets handy.    The Xianglu Grand website still suffers from almost bizarre optimizing problems, but the hotel is splendid and I’m really looking forward to the stay.  Current special rates appear to be very low so I’m tempted to book very soon because the rack rates are more than double.   About $80 vs $200 per night with the nice garden suites at an especially large discount.

I missed that conference but this year I will be in Xiamen for SES China April 18-19.     The current plan is to fly in and out of Hong Kong, which is somewhat south of Xiamen, and then make our way up from Hong Kong to Xiamen to Beijing and possibly also Shanghai.

Hong Kong is on the sea in the South, Shanghai on the sea hundreds of miles north, and Beijing inland and somewhat north of Shanghai.    Another very popular destination we’ll probably miss this trip is X’ian, home to the amazing ancient Terra Cotta army – hundreds  of life sized clay soldier statues.