On 8 May 2015 08:58:48 GMT
Huge wrote:

The Hubin hotel in Xian - the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. We
slept in arm-chairs in the lobby, since the carpet in our room was
saturated with raw sewage.

In 1981, we stayed at the only foreign hotel in Xi'an, I think it was
called the Golden flower then. We were there for the Chinese New Year.
It was a good hotel, thankfully, and had a contingent of American
engineers staying there for a few months. The food was excellent, and
one evening there was a professional opera singer in the restaurant,
and he was great.
The highlight of the weekend was when the hotel put on a firework
display for the New Year. The staff pulled a load of tea chests filled
with fireworks out in front of the hotel, which had an extensive glass
frontage, but instead of taking individual fireworks out and lighting
them, they just threw some flaming spills into them and left quickly.
There followed a wonderful display of massive uncontrolled fireworks,
with rockets going off in all directions, roman candles that couldn't
escape, you name it. Great fun!

--
Davey.