Travelers to Beijing suffer an embarrassment of riches when it comes to accommodations. There is everything from huge ostentatious American, European, Japanese and Chinese hotels to scruffy hostels. The Xinyancheng hotel strikes a balance which gives you a slice of the real China.

The Xinyancheng is a clean and comfortable small (117 rooms) hotel that caters to both the local Chinese population and tourists. It opened only a year ago and the rooms are modern and simple. The bathrooms are western and have large parisian style, wet-room showers with excellent water pressure and lots of hot water at all hours. There are good amenities like a lobby bar (with good coffee!), cable television, free broadband internet. There is a business center on the second floor. Although on a busy street, the insulation is good and it is quiet. The staff is very helpful although their English is about as bad as my Mandarin! They tried very hard to be helpful and gave great support to our trip... more