Royal Accomodations

We arrived in Beijing late, the train was late, and the night was dark. Our guest house was a little hard to find, on one of the old hutongs, which are the winding alleyways that surround the Forbidden City. It was down the street from where the Empress used to live. These hutongs, in their run-down grey stone way, are the unassuming façade for courtyard houses: a square of rooms around an outdoor courtyard garden. Ours was renovated, freshly painted, and stunning. The garden was glassed in so that the house could be air-conditioned, and McKinley got a silken bed. When we arrived, tired and grubby from the train, McKinely reclined on her bed and sighed, “Now I know why princesses are so happy.”