Qian Men hostel

The train arrived at the main railway station in Beijing in the heat of the afternoon. Shouldering our bags, we got off and walked down into an underpass to leave the station. As we moved towards the exit, the crowd grew thicker and progress slower, until we found ourselves part of a shuffling mass of humanity moving slowly forward towards the exits. And one by one through the exits we came forth into the bright sunshine on a wide and open square. The heat was baleful; the crowds swirled around. Our bags were heavy, and

A man walks down the street, 

It's a street in a strange world. 

Maybe it's the Third World. 

Maybe it's his first time around. 

He doesn't speak the language, 

He holds no currency...

In the heat, we cached our bags in a heap, and the girls watched them whilst I crossed a nearby road via a footbridge, having spotted a bank with an ATM on the other side. We needed cash. Thus armed, I returned to the girls, and we found the entrance to the metro. The queue for the cash ticket machines was legendary - many hundreds of yards long, making the long and unwieldy queues seen for tube tickets at London terminii seem short by comparison. The queue  for taxis was the same - hundreds of yards long. We had been approached by a tout offering illegal taxis, and we went back to him. We bargained with him and had him down from Y240 to Y150, though we might have been able to go further if I had kept my mouth shut and let my daughters do the bargaining. Haggling does not come naturally to me. But we bought that ride 'cos I felt we should cut our losses - we were tired, hot, thirsty and hungry and at least 2km from our hostel through streets we knew nothing about, carrying heavy bags.

Qian Men Hostel was cool and dark, an ensemble of several different buildings, linked by funky little courtyards with tables and benches for sitting and relaxing. It felt very much like a caravanserai. We had an adequate room with good beds; check-in was harmless (simply a matter of a few passport checks), and the showers were clean and ran hot. Can you ask for more?