Beijing Accomodation

A friend of mine is travelling to Beijing for the first time on the 14th of
november.
He will travel with a group of 4 people who are all newcomers to China and
Asia for that matter.
The purpose of the visit is mainly shopping and most likely they will try to
make it to some of the major sights as well if their limited time allows
that.
What will be a good affordable place to stay at considering the purpose of
their visit? They havent made any reservations and will only stay 3 days.
SAS Radisson has been recommended, but it is a bit pricey at some 85 us
dollars.

Cheers
Michael Christoffersen

Hi

My wife and I went to Beijing in March 2003 and we stayed at the SAS
Radisson. I have posted a "review" of the hotel in my trip report that I
have posted on my homepage www.gardkarlsen.com. Maybe your friend can find
some useful information there :-)

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norge

"Michael Christoffersen" wrote in message
. ..
A friend of mine is travelling to Beijing for the first time on the 14th
of
november.
He will travel with a group of 4 people who are all newcomers to China and
Asia for that matter.
The purpose of the visit is mainly shopping and most likely they will try
to
make it to some of the major sights as well if their limited time allows
that.
What will be a good affordable place to stay at considering the purpose of
their visit? They havent made any reservations and will only stay 3 days.
SAS Radisson has been recommended, but it is a bit pricey at some 85 us
dollars.

Cheers
Michael Christoffersen

"Gard" wrote in message
...
Hi

My wife and I went to Beijing in March 2003 and we stayed at the SAS
Radisson. I have posted a "review" of the hotel in my trip report that I
have posted on my homepage www.gardkarlsen.com. Maybe your friend can find
some useful information there :-)

Hi Gard,

Thanks for the link, will check it out for sure although as I said in my
first post it is a rather steep price, but I guess I should not compare the
prices in BJS with BKK all the time.

Cheers
Michael Christoffersen

Beijing has a very good tourist desk at the airport where they get good
prices for you from local hotels there. If you tell them what you want,
they will find a place for you. I can't remember the name of the place I
stayed at, but it was a local place with everything I needed at a
fraction of the cost. I think it was in the Chaoyang district if that
means anything.


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Desert Dweller wrote:

Beijing has a very good tourist desk at the airport where they get good
prices for you from local hotels there. If you tell them what you want,
they will find a place for you. I can't remember the name of the place I
stayed at, but it was a local place with everything I needed at a
fraction of the cost. I think it was in the Chaoyang district if that
means anything.

These 'tourist desks' should be avoided unless you want to pay more than
you have to. They often quote higher prices to foreigners than to
Chinese, and take a substantial commission. By all means talk to them to
see what's available, but any price they quote you you can beat for
yourself at the hotel reception desk, not least because you avoid paying
the commission, but also often because the best rate available is
considerably lower than those they quote.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

"Michael Christoffersen" wrote in message ...
A friend of mine is travelling to Beijing for the first time on the 14th of
november.

What will be a good affordable place to stay at considering the purpose of
their visit? They havent made any reservations and will only stay 3 days.
SAS Radisson has been recommended, but it is a bit pricey at some 85 us
dollars.


I just came back from Beijing earlier today (I'm back in Hong Kong
now) after 2 wonderful days there!
I have no idea what kind of accomodations you're looking for: a fancy,
luxerious hotel with all the facilities or just something cheap, but
being on a round-the-world trip and trying to save money I opted for
the second and stayed at a hostel called the Beijing Saga
international youth hostel. You can even book in advance via the
Internet if you like:

http://reservations.bookhostels.com/...telNumber=1024

It was cheap (I paid 50 RMB a night in a dorm as far as I can
remember, you can also get single rooms if you like), clean, centrally
located (I walked about 25 minutes to get to the Forbidden
city/Tianamen area or some of the shopping malls), has what you need
(a small restaurant so you don't have to go out all the time when you
want to eat, Internet access, telephone etc.).
They also organize daily trips to the Great wall (I went yesterday)
for around 90 RMB, and fellow travellers I met were really nice.

Staying in a dorm for the first time I was concerned about safety, but
you get a locker to store your valuables in, inside the dorm, so no
worries.
Highly recommended!


Hallvard