We were part of a tour group organised by China Travel Service (CTS). This was an incredible introduction to China/Beijing. We arrived early the morning we checked in - two hours just to clear immigration and customs! This is a fairly new hotel. It is very luxurious. Rooms are largish with a spacious bathroom area (including a heated toilet seat and automatic flushing - a remote control is provided for this seat!!)
A buffet breakfast was included. The choice of food was excellent - Asian and European offerings. The hotel and rooms were very clean. The big downside was finding any staff who spoke even a bit of English - my phone app (and theirs) got a huge workout.
The roof top garden is incredible - very well-planned and laid out. Views from the roof were limited by the smog. Alongside is an amusement park. Aside from this, the hotel is not well-located - away from central Beijing with very few amenities available locally. We did find a Macdonalds one evening about 4km walk away (ordering in a non-tourist orientated venue is very interesting). This hotel is located behind another hotel - the view from our room was the back of this hotel in front.
If someone else is negotiating the traffic, this is an excellent hotel, as long as your phone carrier allows you outside access for translation apps.
We stayed for 3 nights as part of a group tour. It was amazing, marble everything great restaurant for breakfast buffet. All the amenities including heated toilet seat ! The lack of English was problematic at times, as I found my Google based translation app didn't work-no Google in China. The only negative was the first night we had to find our own dinner after a long day of touring & shopping, and the only option at the hotel was the buffet which worked out to $85 CDN. I couldn't get a room service menu or directions to nearby restaurants, so my wife & I struck out on foot and eventually found a residential area a couple of km away and brought back food for us and our travelling companions. We were adventurous (and hungry) enough to do this, but some of our group had no dinner. We wandered through the spa early one morning and it was incredible.
This is the real wow factor..an absolutely stunning hotel with everything you need - once you find it! The taxi drivers don’t speak any English, so make sure you have the hotel name in Chinese, not Garden International Hotel, as they won’t understand. It cost us around 112 RMB from the airport in a metered taxi. The location is a bit off grid but it was good for where we were going each day. It is about a 20 minute walk to Happy Valley Scenic Area metro which takes you central easily.
We stayed in the hotel for three nights. Staff were friendly, but don’t speak much English. You can just about get by with their translation apps. We found this quite surprising in such a swanky hotel.
The buffet breakfast was included in our room price, and everything was very nice and there was lots of choice. We didn’t eat lunch or dinner but it was around £25-50 a head for all you can eat buffet. There was also a menu for another restaurant opposite the hotel, which has more reasonable prices and the portions are big...they can deliver this to your room. We would have liked to use the pool facilities but we found it odd that the pool was only open two hours in the morning and two hours very late evening.
