After a total of 20 hours of elapsed travel time (11h flying, 4h driving, 5h waiting in airports), I arrived at the Aloft hotel in Huanggekeng by mid-afternoon. I have stayed in better and I have stayed in worse. Within a couple of blocks you can find the Guanjingtou Reservoir, the Yitan Holiday World shopping area, some decent restaurants, and the ugly high rise apartments that dominate the landscape of most modern cities in China. It never ceases to amaze me how much China has changed since I first visited some two decades ago.