Beijing Tang House Nanluoguxiang

Even thought the hotel is very well located, it's not so easy to be found. The staff is ok but not really friendly and, rather than help you giving indications on how to use public transportation, they would suggest a taxi (!!!) The rooms are ok if you're not too picky. They might be not really clean and not very bright, but they are more than enough for a backpacker.

I went to Beijing by myself for two weeks and stayed at this lovely centrally-located hotel on the edge of the Nanluogu Hutong. In the first place the taxi driver didn't know it, but when he called the hotel they told him how to get there so that was fine - you can also take the subway to get to the nearby Beixinjiao subway station without too much trouble, and it's an easy five-ten minute walk from there to the hotel. When I got there however I found that none of the staff spoke much if any English, which was initially problematic, and they couldn't find my reservation. Despite this they put me up in a temporary room for about half an hour until they could solve this for me - communicated through a translation program on their computer which they and I typed into - and I was moved into my room shortly after. I had booked the most expensive double room for myself, which was still incredibly cheap, and the room was beautiful. Very well-appointed, with its own bathroom and very Chinese decor. The other rooms (which I saw in my brief half-hour stay in one!) are very plain and clean, much like any hostel you might see worldwide, also with their own bathrooms. Almost all the other guests were Chinese, but it was generally very quiet and I had no problems with noise from other guests or indeed from the ever-present Beijing traffic. Despite the listing, the internet at the hotel was fairly poor and required me to borrow an internet cable from the hotel to use it. There was no functioning wifi (I was told repeatedly that this was broken and would be fixed, but this didn't happen while I was there). My shower also tended to leak all over the floor whenever I used it, and the air conditioning did not work for my entire stay despite repeatedly telling them it was broken. The leaky shower was not a huge problem - maid service came every day and would mop it up while I was out, and I acclimated to the heat! But I was disappointed this was not fixed. The hotel is very close to a central subway line into Beijing city centre, and it only took ten minutes to get in each day. I walked to Beixinqiao station and never had any trouble with crossing the road or with locals. It's also incredibly close to one of the coolest hutong communities in Beijing, Nanluogu Alley, which has many cafes offering free internet and interesting shopping, as well as the Bell Tower and the Longhegong Lama Temple, Beijing's biggest Buddhist temple. All in all I greatly enjoyed my stay, but it's not one for the faint of heart - you do need to be very independent and not too fussy. While the room was lovely the few things that didn't work made it not as good as it could have been. So a recommendation for those looking for a home base rather than a resort, but with a few reservations (no pun intended!)