on my fourth business trip to china (second that included the sichuan province), the government agency hosting our higher education group went out of their way to make us feel like honored guests. no doubt, putting us up at the himalaya was intended to be a "four star" experience. but like so many "four star" hotels in urban china, things are a bit ragged around the edges. starting with the what i am now convinced is the standard nationwide, get used to the hard beds and the interesting toilet paper rolls that have more roll and less paper and are never accompanied by a back up. if you need an iron, there may be one but it'll be for the whole hotel. there was a tv with cable but, there's only one english channel on CCTV (channel 9) and the promised english language "china daily" was never available. staff at the himalaya were friendly but only one front desk person per shift appeared to be able to speak english and not much beyond hello, goodbye and a... more