Marriott Beijing Northeast 北京海航大厦万豪酒店 & Red Theater 红剧场
It was time to bid farewell to Holiday Inn Downtown and say hello to Marriott Beijing Northeast! We checked out of the hotel and hopped in a taxi to go from the first ring to the third ring, where Marriott was located.
Our view from the room.
Complimentary welcome gift from Marriott includes fruits, fresh water, and two brownies. Mm.
Pros:
Super clean
Spacious room
Welcome gift
Cable TV
Free WiFi
Helpful staff
Cons:
Location
Amar and I decided to take it easy today since we spent the whole afternoon moving hotels. After consulting with my trusty advisor (TripAdvisor) and my consultant (Google), I called up this place through http://www.redtheatre.cn/. It turns out it is not the actual Red Theatre's website but a travel agent's. (Oh China.. everything is so confusing.) Anyways, I called them to see if there were any tickets for that night and surprise surprise, they did! We booked balcony tickets for RMB$125 per person for the Kung Fu show. Therefore, we decided to go out around the hotel area for an early dinner before heading to the show by 7PM to meet the guy who has our discounted tickets (sounds so sketchy).
Amar wanted to try this Korean restaurant, which turned out to be a franchise.
I learned not to use their wet napkins cause they charge you like five bucks for it.
Our view from our table.
HUGE portions of banchan (◑‿◐)
Amar's Grilled Rib Eye Steak
I ordered the Spicy Fish Tofu Soup and I was SO excited to get it.
Hence my smiling face. BUT. After this picture was taken, I dug in with my spoon and there were INTESTINES. ((((゜д゜;)))) I can never trust the English translation of some items. I checked the menu again and it says Spicy Fish Tofu Soup but it actually said Spicy Fish Insides Tofu Soup. （￣へ￣) I ended up drinking the soup and eating everything around all the spiral-y unknown inside parts of a fish.
We took a little walk and found our tapioca stop!! First tapioca stop in Beijing and it was delicious! Definitely cheered me up from eating soup that was cooked with intestines.
After dropping our things back at the hotel, we hopped in a taxi for the Red Theater! It's my second time seeing the show but I did not remember any of it. Once we arrived, there was a guy standing by the front entrance with my name on it. When we approached him and gave him money RMB$250, he went to go get the tickets (which is smart because if someone reserves tickets and don't show up, it's their loss).
We bought tickets for The Legend of Kung Fu, produced by China's Leading Performance Art Production Company (ranked #25 of attractions on TripAdvisor). The show was mediocre for me with some good moments, but I think Amar enjoyed it seeing it for the first time with all the Kung Fu moves, dance, and acrobatics. Definitely a unique show.
The balcony seats were the cheapest in the house but I thought we had the best view. Because you can literally see everything up here! Their most expensive tickets were right in the front for RMB$500 but the stage was big with everything happening, I think we got the most out of our buck.
After the show, I wanted to check out the Donghuamen Night Market, also known as the snack street. Thanks to Google Map, who failed us this time, we walked for 25 minutes in the cold and in complete darkness to a nonexistent market. We did however end up on a busy street with big malls on both side of the street. We walked closer because there were so many people crowding the entrance of the mall.
It turns out that there was free dumpling tasting on the street as some kind of promotion for either Chinese New Years or some kind of event.. I'm not really sure. Amar did not want to go at all.
So we didn't end up getting free dumplings in the freezing cold. But we did get McDonald's (again) as a midnight snack before heading back to our hotel. This time we tried the weird pies. Sweet Taro Pie and Pineapple Pie. Strangely good! It has such a yummy, crispy, fatty, artery clogging crust and it's always hot!
