“Excellent hotel”

Excellent stay in this impressive hotel which seems to be striving for that 5th star. Located in xuanwumen it is located 5-10 minute walk to caishikou metro station which will get you to the airport via the airport express in about an hour or to the centre of Beijing in about 15 minutes. I even managed to walk to to the hotel from tiananmen square which took me just under an hour past some lovely hutongs and many interesting novelty shops along xinhua street. Near the hotel there are some outstanding restaurants in the muslim district around niu jie. The hotel building is stunning with a lovely interior. The rooms were clean and serviced daily. Receptionists were extremely efficient and helpful. All in all I cannot fault this hotel and would definitely stay there again.

“Excellent Value”

Modern business hotel with real marble stone finish in bathroom -new 40" flat screen TV - internet service. Large size rooms - separate bath and shower stall in bathroom. Very help full staff. Excellent value for western and/or Chinese style unlimited hot buffet breakfast. Lots of choices to select from - 6 congees, meats, fried noodle, rice, pastries to fruits, salads and vegs. There is a walmart about 900 metre away. Only draw back is 500 metre walk to subway and traffic noise. The district is a bit run down to the subway with a daily farmer's market in the back. A clean medium size market stall mall is just across the street. This should change in a year or two since a lot of the homes on both sides of the main road is being torn down for redevelopment. If you can walk it is a good choice hotel. I would rate this up with the other Chinese chain -5 star hotels that I stayed in Beijin, Hong Kong, Macau,and Xi'an . I would book this hotel again. A Canuk review.

“Not for international travelers”

The hotel wasn't bad overall, but it's definitely not targeting international travelers, especially tourists, as its core market. The rooms were decent sized, for a business hotel in Asia. The condition and amenities were reasonable - nothing significantly wrong but not exceptional either. The problem I had was that very few of the staff spoke any English at all - even in very guest-facing roles like reception. In the 5 days I was there, I only ran into three people who spoke sufficient English to be able to answer basic questions. Most only knew a few very basic words and phrases, or none at all. Moreover, the location is pretty far out there. It's not convenient to the metro system, and I couldn't find any reasonable restaurants or convenience stores within walking distance. You can usually hail cabs outside, but given the layout of the hotel grounds, the staff won't be able to help you with that - you'll need to go to the edge of the road and wait yourself. Overall, if you can speak Mandarin and need to be in this specific area for business or other reasons, then the hotel is fine, especially for the price. However, as I'm guessing many people reading this aren't fluent in Mandarin and are looking for a hotel to base themselves for sightseeing, I can't recommend it. There are a number of Western tourist oriented hotels closer to the Forbidden City with comparable quality and prices, but with plenty of staff fluent in English.