This courtyard hotel is down a narrow hutong but well positioned for the metro (less than 10 minutes walk) since the new lines were opened for the 2008 Olympics. The hotel is an oasis of peace with the most beautiful courtyard garden, friendly and helpful staff and a wonderful down to earth feel. We stayed for 4 nights (2 adults, and 12 and 18 year old boys) and had a lovely time.

Highlights of our trip were: the Laotse Tea House evening performances of Beijing Opera, acrobatics and Fung Fu; visiting Mao's Mausoleum (but get there early; the queues move quite quickly; before you start queuing, you have to leave your bags in the building to the East of the Mausolem, across the road); the Forbidden City and, of course, the Great Wall.

Sihe Hotel is in one of Beijing's remaining Hutong's. You have to walk about 1/8 mile from the main road, because cabs do not like to go down the narrow alley (they "might get stuck" between other cars). It is an interesting walk thru an old Beijing neighborhood. The hotel will arrange transportation if you request. We felt very safe in the area. Buses are on the main road, the subway is about 1/8 mile up the road & there is a large grocery/dry goods store across from the subway entrance.

The hotel is great, the staff is friendly & extremely helpful. The place is not fancy but very clean, has AC, comfortable beds, and good (western) bathroom facilities. Sitting in a semi-private courtyard is nice. Rooms are of different sizes, ours was a little small, but that was OK. Breakfast is good.
We really enjoyed Sihe Courtyard Hotel & will recommend it to anyone. If we were to go back to Beijing we would stay there again.

The hotel is situated in a typical narrow lane next to a row of old houses. Vistors benefit from ambiance of living with the locals. Easy walking distance to Forbidden City with Metro station and railway syation 5 to 10 minutes away. Very interesting area/

We stayed here 3 nights and it turned out to be much more comfortable than we expected when we arrived.
Reception is a small side room by the entrance. Staff were friendly and helpful although they struggle with English. As the name suggests, this hotel is a series of courtyards - all the buildings are single storey. As you walk from one courtyard to the next, you feel more and more distance between you and the bustle of Beijing. Most courtyards have a tree (all with IV drips!) which gives it more of a rural feel. The covered walkways turned out to be important since we stayed here through some very heavy rainfall - our rooms were completely watertight, but I saw that the kitchen had 4 or 5 buckets filling from a leaking roof!
We had two rooms - single room for our daughter and a large double for us. Our room was furnished with traditional Chinese furniture and turned out to be very comfortable - although the bed was firm / hard, this was the best nights' sleep we had in all the hotels on our China trip (including some swish 5 star hotels).
There are no meals here apart form breakfast. The best you can say about breakfast is that it's adequate. But they have free access to the internet (either your laptop or through their PC in the breakfast room), which we didn't find in our other hotels on this trip.
There are lots of street restaurants nearby - even KFC and McDonalds if that's your thing. We ate in a couple of the restaurants - the meals were cheap, tasty and filling; just order off the pictures in the menu.
When you leave the hotel, remember which roads you're following so that you can find your way back - the hotel is down a small lane. Even so, our taxi (a large 6 seater) nearly always managed to get to the front door.
Would definitely stay here again for that local feel.