The hotel doesn’t have the best location. It is located next to ring 3 on the northeast of Beijing. It was not a problem because there were always taxis outside the hotel. It cost about 20-30 RMB to take the taxi into Tiananmen Square. It is also possible to take the subway to get around. The nearest station is Liufang, which is about 15 minutes walk from the hotel.

The lobby of the hotel is standard. On the second floor you’ll find the breakfast restaurant and the restaurant"the grill". In the breakfast restaurant you have a selection of bread, fruit, cereal, bacon, sausages, eggs in different versions, warm dishes etc. There were also hot Chinese dishes if you prefer to start the day with them. :-) Tea/coffee was served at the table and different sorts of juices and milk were available.

In the lobby you’ll find the business centre. The internet connection was not very good and it was expensive. If you need to access the internet I recommend going out of the hotel, turn right into the first street and walk for about 50-100 meter. There is a small shopping mall and on the third floor was a big internet/game café where you could surf for 4 RMB pr hour.

In the lobby you can book tours and we used this option for the Great Wall and acrobatics show. On a little piece of paper in the lobby you’ll find the weather forecast for the next two days and that helped us plan our activities. There is an ATM at the hotel and an ATM at the Carrefour store. The Carrefour shop is only minutes away and we normally went here to buy water. You can also find Pizza Hut and KFC near by :-)

The hotel room was nice. It had a combination of tiles and carpet. There was a minibar, a safe, a water boiler with a selection of different tea-bags, a thing to iron your pants, a wardrobe with about 10 hangers, TV with cable TV (CNN, BBC etc). There was a comfortable chair and also a chair in connection with the desk. The bed was not big and it was hard. It seems like it is possible to use different electrical plugs because I could use the standard Norwegian round plugs.

The bathroom had tiles and it had a bathtub with the possibility of taking a shower. By the sink we found little stuff like soap, body lotion, bath foam, etc and a hairdryer. The tap water is not drinkable!. But we got two ½ litre bottles from the hotel each day.

There is a gym in connection with the hotel. There are 2 squash courts (45 RMB for .5 hour, 75 for 1 hour), an outdoor tennis court, a swimming pool and a gym.

We bought a package deal--flight and 6 nights' hotel accommodation. When the tickets were sent to us by the travel agency, they included our hotel coupon and a little business card for the hotel (which came in handy).

The Radisson SAS was a very nice hotel--modern, but not too centrally situated. We used taxis to get into the city centre, which usually took 15 - 30 minutes depending on the traffic.

Our room was spacious and comfortable--except for the brick-hard bed. Standard items included : well-stocked bathroom (though no sewing kit), wardrobe, safe, desk, satellite TV, and comfortable chair. The view was of the front side of the hotel and the city's bright lights at night.

The staff were friendly and helpful, and we made good use of the in-house travel agency. We also had them help us by writing down the Mandarin version of our destination before taking taxis.

The buffet breakfast was delectable, with a range from Scandinavian to Asian delights. The breakfast buffet has a view of the garden, where the indoor pool and outdoor tennis court are.

I took a swim in the pool--all by myself (with an attendant at bay). And the squash courts were popular, as it seems many of the best players in Beijing play there. There were also a sauna and massage facilities. The gift shop was small and overstocked --with 40% discounts for hotel guests.

The hotel had oil paintings decorating its walls that were available for purchase-- I was very tempted, as some of them were very lively.

I was surprised to see the large number of excellent four and five star hotels in Beijing. Every comfort that you could want is available in Beijing. Our hotel was $105.00 per night which is very reasonable for a Radisson (that was the conference rate and this is considered a four star hotel). Our room was Art Deco and the hotel had choices of Italian, Danish, or Chinese décor. They had two very good restaurants here, one the Danish restaurant which had a very good buffet, great pizza, soup and hamburgers.

Their Chinese restaurant was also very good with some unusual dishes such as double boiled caterpillar fungus soup.

The staff spoke fairly good English and were extremely attentive. They remembered you by name and went out of their way to make sure that you were happy.