Talking Travel: New Air Routes, New Hotels, and Deals from Portland

Talking Travel is the Beijinger's new weekly travel guide to great deals, interesting destinations, and weekend getaways.

Big week for travel news. We'll go through some good deals, our promised look at Hong Kong as the ultimate weekend getaway, will follow next week.

One of the best deals we've seen popped up early this week, for flights on United Airlines from Portland, Oregon to Beijing. The roundtrip airfare is USD 742, including tax! The flight is routed through San Francisco, must be purchased by December 24. Travel must start by February 1 and be completed within six months. Going the opposite direction (Beijing-Portland) will cost about USD 500 more, so now is a good time to convince your family or friends in the Pacific Northwest to come visit for solar or Chinese New Year.

Happy New Year! China Eastern Airlines is initiating non-stop service from Beijing to Denpasar (that means Bali) on December 31. The schedule isn't so great — the flight leaves at 3:30pm and arrives at 10:30pm, but the return is a red eye that leaves at about 11:30pm and arrives at 6:30am, so some of that first night reveling that is missed can be made up just before departure. Service is three times per week. It's not cheap: China Eastern's website quoted over HKD 7,000 (just under RMB 5,500) for the roundtrip. Look for promotional fares from Singapore Airlines to Bali as we get closer to the shoulder season in March.

Hyatt announced this week that it will bring its third brand, Hyatt Regency, to Beijing in 2017, with the first hotel to open in Wangjing. Beijing already has a Grand Hyatt in Wangfujing and a Park Hyatt in the CBD, so the lower-end Hyatt Regency brand will fit well in a residential area like Wangjing.

I had a chance to stay at the Mandarin Oriental in Shanghai's Pudong district over the weekend. Don't get excited — I won it as a lucky draw prize at Chi Fan For Charity in 2012. The hotel is located in a quiet area, although it's easy walking distance to any meetings one might have in Pudong's Blade Runner-like business district. Only opened in August, the rooms are beautifully appointed, with bathtubs that overlook the river through closable blinds, and the hotel stands next to an almost deserted promenade along the Huangpu River. Rooms on higher floors may have a view of the Bund, but for the most part the hotel is angled away from Shanghai's landmark waterfront. One thing about the rooms being "quiet" — the hotel's proximity to the water may mean the occasional blast from a ship may be heard. Rooms start at about RMB 2,600 per night.

My counterpart at Beijing Kids and I got look at the New World Beijing Hotel on Monday. This shouldn't be confused with a hotel that used to operated as part of the New World Shopping Center complex, nor the Penta Hotel, which New World also owns and operates (and has a fantastic noodle bar). It only opened in November. New World is a Hong Kong company and they're going for a "modern Asian hospitality" feel, which is both obvious and successful. "Tasteful" is the right word for both the rooms and the restaurants. The set back from the rest of Chongwenmen, and is almost due north of the Temple of Heaven, a nice view of which can be seen from the executive lounge on the tenth floor. They're offering an introductory promotion of a first night from RMB 1,388 and up, and get the second night free. Not a bad option for those visitors from Portland.

One sad bit of news: Delta will be ceasing its Beijing to Tokyo Narita service on March 29, 2014. It's bad news for Beijing travelers to Japan because this was always a bit of a secret, inexpensive connection to Tokyo, which could be had for about RMB 2,800 on a good day. Our January Get Out column in the Beijinger is all about travel to Hokkaido, and recommends flying Delta to Tokyo before an Air Asia connection to Sapporo. At least it will still be available during ski season.

Hong Kong as the ultimate weekend getaway will appear next Tuesday. For all of our readers who are traveling this week, I wish you one road flat safe.

Look for more travel information from the Beijinger every issue in our Get Out column.

Photo: Mandarin Oriental