Beijing Hotel Shatan

our room in the Hotel Shatan

The Beijing Hotel Shatan is in a hutong backstreet area just northeast of the Forbidden City. It's a great location, with lively street stalls outside, a supermarket a hundred metres to the east and Jingshan park a similar distance to the west.

We booked online and paid 1352 yuan for four nights — about US$40/night. The economy room we had was nice, except that it had no external window, just a fake window with glowing blue tropical island (complete with palms and seagulls) lit by fluorescent lights... I'd stay there again, but I'd pay the extra 40 yuan/night for a "standard" room with a real window.

You can book the Beijing Hotel Shatan through Sinohotel.

She wasn't always around, but one of the staff had excellent English.

We paid to have a load of laundry done but forgot to ask how much it was and it ended up being exorbitant — it would almost have been cheaper to have bought new clothes! The little laundry shop next door to the hotel is definitely a better choice. On the other hand, Internet access in the hotel's "business centre" was very reasonably priced.


Scenes from the street market outside the hotel