“Excellent Quality for Price”
The hotel is an excellent choice for the price. It has a upscale lobby and excellent staff that can help you with all your travel needs. Their Bellboy service is outstanding and can even help you schedule a whole day trip to the Great Wall, Jade factory, Silk factory, Lunch, and vase factory with a private driver for under $60 a person.
If you are not going to use the wetbar in the room, you can request that it will not be used, and they will remove the contents. Then the normal deposit will not be required. The room has a great coffee maker for coffee and tea that is refilled every morning. The bed was very comfortable compared to other places I stayed. The room was very clean, and decorated very well. The room also features an in-room safe.
Guest services include money exchange at great rates compared to other locations. They also have 3 restaurants to choose from in the lobby. And a small gift store with reasonable priced beverages. The location is a little ways from scenic places, but can be easily be reached by taxi at their low rates.
When I was there, both the BMW Group and mercedes where having their training seesions here in one of the conference rooms. I think this speaks for itself on how well this hotel is regarded.
Area recommendations
If you are going to see the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Tianamen Square, Beijing Zoo, Temple of Confucious, Military Museum, Belhai park, Wangfujing Shopping I would recommend staying near the International Hotel or Howard Johnsons Paragon which is located on Line 1. This location provides easy access to all parts of the city by subway. I stayed at the Howard Johnsons paragon, and all you do is exit the hotel, and walk to the corner nearest the Beijing Railway Station and you are at Line 2 loop that will connect to all railways within Beijing.
Getting around
I used the subway for primary means of transportation except for a few times I used a taxi. From the Airport you can take the Airport Express which will bring you too Line 10 and Line 2. Both of these lines can link you by subway to just about anywhere in the city. The subway is only 2RMB and you can transfer between lines without leaving the station for the same price. If you leave the station, then you will have to pay the 2 RMB again.
To go to Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square take Line 2 to Tiananmen East or West station. To go to Temple of Heaven take Line 5 to Tianton Dongmen Station, to Summer Palace take Line 4 to Beigongmen Station, to Military Museum take Line 2 to Military Museum Station, to Silk Market take Line 2 to Yong'anli Station. Olympic Stadium, Take Line 2 to Line 8, and transfer , and then get off at Olympic Sports Center Station. For temple of Confucious it is recommended to take a taxi. Apple app for Beijing Railway is highly recommended as it is an exact duplicate of what you will find in the subway cars. Also when you are going down the stairs into the subway, look at the sign that is above the stairs, as it will tell you the furthest station in each direction. That way you can determine which subway car to get on depending on which direction you need to travel.
Must see
The attractions I went too, and would recommend to anyone that is going to Beijing are: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Temple of Confucious, Military Museum (closed on Mondays), Summer Palace - enter at Beigongmen Station on Line 4 (then walk all the way to the lake, as there are a lot of scenic areas that most people miss when coming in other entrances).
Temple of Heaven has a lot of people in the tree area south of Temple of Heaven that play music, dancing, singing, and sword practice on Saturdays.
