Thorn Tree travel forum

1

I stayed there last january and enjoyed it.
It's great if you want to stay in 'old' Beijing, as the courtyards, especially the back one, are lovely.
I think it was quite a bit cheaper when I was there (around 600), but they were renovating a lot of the rooms, so maybe it is more luxurious.
Pros:
Great location (very close to Wangfujing)
Atmospheric

Cons:
We stayed in the front courtyard and it was a bit noisy.
If you come in late (past 11/12) you have to ring the bell for someone to let you into the courtyard.
800 sounds a bit overpriced.

Hmm, so looking back I guess there are more cons than pros...!
I don't think you will be able to get a discount, but there's no harm in emailing to check.

Sorry, can't think of anywhere similar but cheaper.

2

I stayed there last january cause my parents were coming and were paying. we got the nice rooms in the back courtyard, but not the really nice ones in the main column of the back courtyard.

It is expensive and IMO overpriced. i stayed at the hostel down the alley for one night before my parents got there. This hutong is OK, but there is a lot of construction, and it does not feel much like a hutong anymore, as outside the wall is just a big construction site. The hutongs just to the north and west of central beijing are better. And IMO north and west of tiananmen is also a better location, Wangfujing is not so great. I liked the caged birds at haoyuan hotel in the morning. It was annoying that the staff wouldn't open the gates until after 8am
(and closed them early as mentioned above), and one day it took forever to wake them. Actually the staff was a bit "captainshostelesque" for lack of a better term. The Chinese breakfast was actually hot and pretty tasty though, rare for a hotel.

I am staying at the bamboo garden this spring when more relatives visit and not going back to haoyuan. sure bamboo garden is not authentic, but haoyuan is not either. Also, I have decided that the key in Beijing is to be on a subway line to get around more efficiently, like to and from dinner or at least to Tiananmen, etc.

3

Thanks to both of you.

I'll check out Bamboo Garden.

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4

by the way, bamboo garden is overpriced too, and they tried sending me a "confirmation" email about a reservation i made with totally different prices than what I reserved, much to my chagrin. They have since corrected this error but we are not off to a good start. I think Lusongyuan might be cheaper in terms of price over the 2 mentioned so far, and gets lots of good reviews in travel mags etc. Lusongyuan is not on a subway line either and in a similar location to Haoyuan, might be good though

5

Thanks for all the suggextion. Lusongyuan Hotel is around 5-600 Rmb.

Hong Kong & Macau FAQs | Off the Beaten Track in Hong Kong | Hong Kong & Macau Places to Eat Trip Reports Guangxi, Guizhou & Hunan | Fujian & Eastern Guangdong | Huangshan / Huizhou villages | Taiwan | HK to Saigon | Sicily | Sichuan & Chongqing | Kaiping | Yunnan 07 | Yunnan 09 | Gulangyu island | China Rail Assistance | HK Map | A day in Hong Kong
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