Weekend in Fuzhou

I just got back from Fuzhou. Ryan came to Hong Kong for my birthday and Christmas, so it was definitely my turn to go to him. I prefer it when he comes to me. Not just because it is easier for me, but also because I would rather be in Hong Kong than Fuzhou. There is nothing particularly wrong with Fuzhou. It is simply not my kind of town. Hong Kong has more to offer.

As usual, we stayed in a hotel. We picked the Ramada Plaza because it is near the lake. Ramada hotels are never the best in the world, but this one was clean enough and did not look too old. A lot of hotels in China look like they were decorated by Chairman Mao. I don't stay at a hotel based on its furniture, and I really don't care what is trendy and what is not, but if a hotel can't bother to redecorate after twenty years then you know they are not that interested in details. You definitely have to change the carpet every once in a while. Not because styles change, but because they wear out fast.

Our room was clean and not too small. The hotel had an indoor swimming pool, but we never used it. I rarely eat at hotel restaurants and this time was no exception. There is food all over the place in Fuzhou, and most of it is cheaper and better than whatever the hotel has.

My only real complaint was the cigarette smoke. I have stayed in enough Chinese hotels to know there is no such thing as a non-smoking room. At most, they will spray the room with disinfectant after a smoker checks out. Often, they will not even do that. Some rooms claim to be non-smoking and some hotels say they have non-smoking floors, but that is either to stop people from complaining or is a rule never enforced. You can smoke in any room you want. That's great for smokers. Not so great for those of us who like to breathe and think cigarettes smell like shit.

I'm all for freedom, and people have rights, of course, but where is my right to not have to breathe in poison? It's not like the lingering stink of some food I don't like. This is smoke. Smoke is not unhealthy the way cookies are unhealthy. Smoke is toxic. It will kill you. Why does someone's right to kill themselves outweigh my right to live?

We complained about the smell of the room and they sprayed the hell out of it. That does nothing to take the poison out of the room. It merely covers up one stink with another. Luckily, we could open the windows. You can't in some smoke hotels. By the end of the day, the stench was not as bad.

The room was cold with the windows open, but not really cold at all with the windows shut. Fuzhou gets cold in January, but it was ok inside the hotel.