We were so pleased with this hotel. The furnishings were new and quite nice. The hotel had lots of amenities as in great toiletries, free bottled water, laundry service, travel agency services, and a doorman who helped control the problem with taxis.
Our package was $990 US for RT air and five nights hotel from Minneapolis, MN. When we called to add a night, the cost was $138US, not negotiatable. I felt we had a terrific value, especially when our travel agent added three nights to our package for free.
The breakfast buffet was great! There was loads of fresh fruit, full English breakfast with pancakes, eggs, omelettes made to order, cheeses and cold cuts, and a full Chinese breakfast. We never tired of our breakfast choices. We also ate at the hotel when they had a dinner seafood buffet. It was a true full spread of seafood that I really enjoyed.
A few words about taxis. There is a history of problems for tourists with taxis overcharging, and we did encounter it a few times. When we didn't take a taxi from the hotel, cab drivers would try to negotiate a price rather than use the meter. We got out of some cabs when this was attempted and they refused to use the meter. The next cab we flagged always used the meter. See the card scanned in to illustrate how our hotel helped monitor cab rates. They would check off our destination or write in the place we wanted to visit, write in the cab number, and tell us about how much the fare should be. When we caught cabs off the street on our return, we knew how much the fare should be, and if our first cab was fair. We really had no problems with taxis while using this system.
A couple of times when we insisted on the meter, the taxi driver would agree. This was the case when we left Beijing for the airport to fly to Xian. The cab driver wanted 100, when Mike questioned why the meter wasn't on. We said "No, meter" and then he tried 80. We insisted on the meter. He agreed and the the cost was 62 plus the toll of 10.
100Yuan = $12US approximately
Most cab rides within Beijing were less than $3 US. This was a great treat as the city sites are rather spread out and the subway system isn't that comprehensive.