Beijing - Moataz Othman
There is a home away from home at the Xiyuan Hotel in the Chinese capital Beijing, where Muslims find the Koran in Arabic and Chinese, on the table, and the prayer mat turned towards Kibla (Mecca).
When I visited the BTG- Jianguo Group’s stand at the BITE, I met Mr. Robert Wang, head of the sales department and gave him some issues of Islamic Tourism Magazine. Smiling, he invited me to sit down, and asked me: "Are you an Arab Muslim?" I answered: “Yes”. He asked me: "Would you care to be my guest?". "With pleasure ", I replied. He added: "Our hotel group has a great interest in Arab and Muslim businessmen, and I invite you to spend a few days as our guest".
After touring the exhibition, we headed towards the Xiyuan, a five star hotel, located close to the shopping centre and the exhibition. One can go on foot to the restaurants, supermarket and other services. After checking in, we lunched at the revolving restaurant on top of the hotel, with a beautiful, panoramic view of Beijing.
The hotel has 1,354 rooms and suites equipped to cater for various nationalities, either businessmen or tourists. In addition to the fitness club, this establishment has ten restaurants, including an Islamic restaurant. I invited some friends, whom I met in China, to dine there. Its interior is decorated with Koranic verses. We ate delicious Arab and Islamic dishes without alcohol and the food was halal.
This hotel group, is owned by the government and manages more than 120 hotels and resorts. The staff are always very obliging and attentive to the needs of their guests.