Jade Garden Hotel

Location Location Location!!! Walking distance to restaurants, shopping, Tiananmen Square, the Palace Museum and the Forbidden City. Traffic is a nightmare so walking is your best option in this area. Hotel room was upgraded. It was the one with the extra space and the sofa. Dated but comfortable. Slight smoke smell in this hotel, but that seems to be a common thing in China. Lots of restaurants in the area. The nights were a little cool so the hotel delivered a stand up heater for the room which was great! Hallways were very quiet. Didn’t really see people while staying in this hotel!

To get started, how to get there: You can buy a phone card where you pick up luggage, it's 200y On the way out, you have the airtport express train sign for 25y My phone didn't allow me to, but I advise you to download Alipay and pay with it, it's easier. Otherwise, you go to the ticket office and tell them your final destination. It will give you a single-use card, to pass contactless at the entrance and insert at the exit (it will be swallowed) Atm on the right exiting the arrival area The metro is also to the right, an escalator that descends 2 floors Take the vending machines before the entrance gate 25y airport express to Dong zhi Men 30mn journey Departure 15:05 (2:40 to get out of the plane) Once you take the subway in the center of Beijing, it will be 3y Jade garden hotel: decent room clean bed, carpet is room the bathroom is aging, there are 2 bottles of water offered per day, an umbrella available, as well as slippers and bathrobes. Fridge leaks, but it works There is tea and coffee, but impossible to connect the teapot, because the line is too short This had already been said by another traveler Otherwise, the hotel is close to the forbidden city. It seems it took me, like, an hour and a half, to get to the hotel, since the express airport left. The breakfast knead is okay, there is choice, but it is a little expensive for the country, 69y The most is during the visit of the forbidden city, you exit, you turn left, always straight up to the wall and then left and you are at the entrance 😉 One more thing, everything must be booked in advance in Beijing, the check is done with your visa, if you have a reservation, you pass. And if you plan to book the night before, well, it's dead, it's at least three days before. Otherwise the Chinese are all very nice, I've never seen this elsewhere

Location was great. 10 minutes walk to the Forbidden City and a bit more to Tianmen Square. Lots of little shops and restaurants along the road and 10 minutes walk to the main shopping area with all the usual luxury brands interspersed with tacky souvenir and sweet shops. Taxi fares are dirt cheap in Beijing although traffic is a nightmare. The hotel is old and tired. When we ckecked in they said that although we were booked into a double would we accept a twin room. I refused so they gave us a free upgrade to what they said was a better room. it was on the second floor. There was a lift to the first floor and then two flights of stairs up the the second floor. A porter carried our luggage up but after that we took our chances. When we checked out we struggled down the stairs with heavy suitcases and helped another lady with hers. The room would have been the height of luxury thirty years ago. A large lounge area and wardrobes as a sort of divider between that and the bedroom area, again very roomy. The aircon didn't work and we struggled to get the windows to open partially. The fridge made a noise but didn't chill our drinks. A huge bathroom provided a large glass shower enclosure with a rainfall style shower head. Would have been impressive if the shower tray had been kept clean, which it hadn't. My wife ventured into the shower each day, using the non-slip mat provided for the bath to stand on but I didn't venture into it. There was a huge sink which made weird and wonderful noises when you pulled the plug. There was also a huge pink corner spa bath. We would have loved to use that but knowing how fastidious you have to be cleaning the jets out we daren't venture in. The permanent strong smell of drains was also an unpleaseant feature of the bathroom. Similarly, although all the rooms are non-smoking, ours reeked of cigarette smoke. The staff were freindly enough, as far as their limited English allowed. Communication was just about adequate but given the number of UK guests staying I would have expected better from some of the reception staff. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant one morning. It serves breakfast until 10.00 am and we went in around 9.30 to find very little on offer. We were told there were no free tables so we would have to get our food and go through to the bar across the corridor to eat it. There was nobody else in there and there were no lights on. There were many empty tables in the restaurant but they all had reserved signs on them. Eventually they decided they could spare us one of their "reserved" tables and we could sit down. The food was dire, to say the least. The bacon was cold there was little choice in terms of what was supposed to be an "English" or "Continental" breakfast. There was a toaster but no bread, which I had to ask for. They do cook fried eggs and omelettes on request but other than that there was very little to justify the 58 Yuan charge (about £7.50 each). To sum up? I couldn't recomment this hotel, other than for it's location. I'd be looking for something a bit more modern.