A posting on the Oriental List tonight linked to a warning on the US embassy in Beijing site, that reports a terrorist threat from Islamic fundamentalists to attack 4- and 5-star hotels in China. I hardly ever stay in top hotels anymore (if you have to pay yourself you think twice before staying there), but from tomorrow onwards I will stay in the 5-star Kempinski Hotel in Beijing for a few days. Let’s see if they have any extra security measures, I suppose not. Not that I am afraid, it’s probably all blown out of proportion (just like bird flu), but I find it interesting to see if you will notice anything.
Talking about bird flu, it seems the hype is a bit over in Europe. First there were many reports on bird flu breaking out all over Eastern Europe, and later even Germany. But suddenly there are no reports anymore. Censorship in Europe? Or did the virus just disappear? Or did the media finally realize they were once again making an elephant out of a mouse?
Security — my way of looking at things that are properly done is … one would not notice the effort of getting things done … BUT things just run smoothly.
Therefore if a 5 stars hotel is going to provide better security, I would expect you would not notice it either (if you do so would the terrorists !), BUT they would catch the terriorists without any fuss.
As for bird flu … perhaps there are more important things than bird flu at the moment such as Paris? Actually only 2 days ago there were news about China and bird flu … Perhaps the CLEVER birds decided to fly back to China since it is not safe for them over here in Europe :-)) ???
Cindy
Maybe you are right, I did not notice anything special in terms of security. But that could also be because it turned out that the threat was not very serious (at least according to the government). I noticed more police than usual on the streets thought, but that could also be because of Mr. Bush visit this week.