Anyone home?

"You can't ask for a discount on the emperor's meal," said the man at the other end of the telephone. He was clearly annoyed.

Why can't I? After all, you get a discount on almost everything in China. But I let it pass. After all, I have set my heart on spending a night at Wei Zhongxian's courtyard house, no matter what the price of the meal.

And to be fair to the man at the reception, I have got the "winter discount" for staying at the bedroom in which the most powerful, if also the most infamous, eunuch in Chinese history slept - 400 years ago. I am given the suite for 600 yuan ($87.7), half of its summer price. Obviously, they still think things to do with emperors shouldn't be put up for a bargain; eunuchs are a different matter.