We arrived in hot, filthy Beijing and got a car to the China World Hotel, the Island Shangri-La's sister property in Beijing. It is even more soulless than its Hong Kong counterpart, which benefited for years from being the only luxury property in the city. Now new hotels sprout up every week and China World has struggled to keep up. They're easy to pick off, because they're stuck with a positively ugly building, a huge glass box that screams out two star, package tour. It's staffed with unfriendly, non-English speaking people, which used to be your only choice, but the newer hotels like the Hyatt and St. Regis have managed to find much more capable staff. And the huge size of the place, sitting in the middle of one of the world's most crowded cities, ensures that the lobby will be throbbing like a rave party 24/7, except the ravers will be Chinese businessmen rather than high teenagers. When we stayed there for this trip, the place hadn't been modernised at all, so the ugliness of the exterior permeated the interior as well. I continue to stay there for business, so I'm happy to report that the place has been modernised and is much fresher looking, though the staff is still miserable and the lobby still chaotic. China World (Room-4, Facilities-7, Service-1) The photos of the interior are post-renovation; I have no idea how they managed to clear the lobby for the photo.