China recap: breakfasts

I believe all our hotels in China included breakfast, though I'm not sure about the one in Yichang, since we had a very early departure and were gone long before any breakfast would have been served.  And the hotel in Chongqing was pretty gross -- if breakfast was offered, I don't think we would have gone, but either way, we had no way of communicating with the staff so we had no idea if there was breakfast included or not. 

The hotel breakfasts were all set up as buffets, so most mornings for me featured about 3 plates of food, sometimes more.  I am a big believer in eating a good amount in the morning, particularly when traveling.  I love having the entire morning and even part of the traditional lunch hour where I don't have to feel like I'm in search of food. 

The biggest things I noticed about the breakfast buffets were 1. there were steamed buns, and 2. the Asian guests tended to eat a variety of cold vegetables and slaws that reminded me of a salad bar.

So here are some breakfast photos from our trip. 

Fun fruits and a cheese sandwich (Crowne Plaza, Beijing):

Mmm, steamed buns (Crowne Plaza, Beijing)!

Yes, this was breakfast, tofu, veggies, noodles, fruit (Crowne Plaza, Beijing):

A more familiar breakfast course, a mix of cereals (Crowne Plaza, Beijing):

Waffles, this was at the Crowne Plaza in Beijing, again, so plenty of Americans to enjoy them:

Another Beijing hotel breakfast including plenty of cheese this morning (Crowne Plaza, Beijing):

A final Beijing breakfast -- more steamed buns, adding a veggie sushi roll to the mix (and my pile of vitamins) (Crowne Plaza, Beijing):

Steamed buns (Beijing Crown Plaza):

Beijing again, this time with some of the bread products, and cheese and buns (Crowne Plaza, Beijing):

An interesting combination (Crowne Plaza, Beijing): 

 

 A very brown plate -- but one of the best croissants au chocolat I've ever had outside of Paris (Portman Ritz Carlton, Shanghai):

Another morning, another croissant au chocolat ... (Portman Ritz Carlton, Shanghai):

This had to be a second course because there's no chance I only had cereal (Portman Ritz Carlton, Shanghai): 

Loved the slices of cheese for breakfast, it was like a dream.  From the placemats, appears to be Crowne Plaza, Beijing: 

Waffles and a mushroom-vegetable mix (and an Asian pear to take along on our trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu that day) (Crowne Plaza, Beijing): 

Another plate of fruit, one for hubby also.  I swear, we were only in Beijing about 4 or 5 nights, I just had lots and lots of courses of breakfast, and I was also very into taking breakfast photos at that point, since it all seemed so different (Crowne Plaza, Beijing): 

We got to the breakfast buffet kind of late in Xi'an and there weren't tons of options along the "Western" breakfast variety -- pretty much just the pancakes and I took the last two.  The "Asian" breakfast options were plentiful (Huashan Mountain International Hotel, Xi'an):

Dessert for breakfast, why not (really, is it that different from a chocolate croissant?)  (Huashan Mountain International Hotel, Xi'an): 

Cereal and some interesting dried fruit  (Huashan Mountain International Hotel, Xi'an): 

Breakfast on the boat, probably the least enjoyable of the trip (Presidential Cruises, Chongqing): 

 

One difference I noticed on the second half of our trip (on the cruise and at the Portman Ritz Carlton, in Shanghai) -- we received silverware and had to request chopsticks.  The beginning of the trip was the opposite (silverware was by request only).  I'm glad my mom taught us to use chopsticks when we were growing up!  We didn't have Asian food very often (chop suey is one of the only things I remember), but it has proven to be a useful skill.