This is a much over-hyped hotel. We booked through an online reservation company beginning with "O". Our payment was nonrefundable. We got to the hotel okay from the aiport using the subway and a little bit of walking. When we checked in, we were given a standard, tired-looking room with two old twin beds. We reserved a superior double room. The hotel front desk did not want to change this. After creating a scene and slamming the door a few times, they finally gave us the room we paid for, but there was no apology. The location was decent - just a fifteen minute walk to the subway stops and fifteen minutes' walk to Wangfujing St.

The weather in mid-October was warm and sunny, but the air conditioning never cooled the room below 25C. Once the room temp hit 25C, the air shut off. They would not program it to lower temperature. The front desk would only place a small fan in the room. What kept the room hot was houskeeping opening the windows every day. Besides letting heat in, it let that wonderful smog-filled Beijing air with its dust in to place a fine coating on everything in our room

The hotel promoted tours to the Great Wall. We signed up. We were escorted to our tour bus at 8:15 in the morning, and we promptly sat on the bus for another 40 minutes. I guess we did not have to rush our breakfast. We sat on this bus just one block from the hotel. The first stop was the Ming Tombs. We were there for less than an hour and visited just one temple. We never saw the famed walkway lined with carved stone animals. We hopped back on the bus and stopped at a jade factory next. The tour guide kept hinting that foreigners usually buy the highest quality jade here. When I purchased a piece, the sales clerk took down our tour information. It finally dawned on me - the tour guide gets a kick-back for all sales racked up by her tourists. We were then ushered into the VIP dining lounge. Trouble is, no matter what they called it, the VIP lounge was like a typical Chinese restaurant. And the VIP foreigners were eating side-by-side with the VIP peasants. It happened to be the only dining room at the jade factory.

The Great Wall part of the tour was splendid, living up to our expectations. But on the way back, we made an unscheduled stop at a silk factory in Beijing. Then the bus went off course to deliver some of the tourists to a specific restaurant. By the time we got back to our hotel, we were three hours late, and most restaurants in Wangfujing area were closing. So we had to settle for street food that night.

We were disappointed in hs hotel If not for the non-refundable full amount I paid in advance, we would have left as soon as they tried to stick us with the substandard room. I will never prepay for a hotel again, and I will never recommend this hotel to anyone.

This hotel had everything to help us enjoy Beijing.

English - When in China, it's best to speak Chinese. But if you don't, front desk consulted each other to come up with enough English to give you the information you seek.

Room - Nice clean room on the small side. Great in-room ethernet internet access. Loved the bathroom. There was a clothes line you can pull out across the tub to dry your things! Try to get a room away from the alley. At night, garbage smell wafts up.

Breakfast - Breakfast buffet was affordable. It had a good variety to cater to Eastern and Western taste, and quite delicious. Breakfast room very comfortable.

Service - Staff was always helpful. I left my hiking boots in the closet and checked out of the hotel. I phoned to see how to get them back. The hotel agreed to send my boots to my Shanghai hotel, no charge! When I arrived in Shanghai, my boots were waiting for me in my room. That level of service is beyond anything I expected.

Location - When you come out of the hotel, turn left. Walk 5 minutes or so and you are at the side wall of the Forbidden City. Take a tour train for about 2 RMB; it travels along the palace's moat and brings you to the main entrance. If you turn right on coming out of the hotel, you walk 2 minutes to the Night Food Market. I saw tourists buy and eat scorpions on a stick, to the giggles of the food vendors.

Bicycle rickshaw - Don't take them! Very expensive. We were not able to get a tax in front of the hotel. But a bicycle rickshaw pulled up and offered us a ride. Like naive tourists, we got on! The driver showed us a piece of paper with 80 RMB written on it. We thought, expensive but let's give the experience a go. When we got to our destination, the driver demanded 80 RMB per person! We took a taxi back to the hotel. Cost: 20 RMB. When we told our rickshaw story to a local friend, she advised never to take the rickshaw and unlicensed taxis. They prey on tourists. I wish the hotel had warned us about the rickshaws.

We had a very enjoyable stay at Jade Garden.
The hotel had an excellent location and a wonderful history. If you go, check out the hotels story which is painted on a wall in the lower lounge area to the left of the dining lounge.
Our room was spotless. When we inadvertently left our camera in a public area it was kept for us by the concierge. He was also helpful in helping us book our day trips.
We enjoyed the breakfast buffet which was fresh and had a large variety.
We never had trouble finding this hotel.

We had a bit of trouble finding the place initially but once we found it, it was great. The staff spoke good English and the room was brilliant, we did not eat in the restaurant as there was so much to offer elsewhere.