Beijing Yanshan Hotel — Hotel in Beijing

i go back to Zhongguancun to see my parents every year at least once for the last 26 years i have been living in the US. for some reasons beyond me, despite a high concentration of some of the best universities in the country and even the world such as my alma mater Peking U, haidian district is sadly and glaringly lack of any decent hotel accommodations. one reason i can guess is that no one (unless out of absolute necessity) would stay in the west part of BJ as anyway and any time you come and go, it is impossible to get through BJ's unbearable traffic (airport is at that east of city so is the business/expat district chaoyang.) and unfortunately i am one of those people who have such necessity. i never stayed there before i started coming back with my husband several years ago, and would have never chosen to stay in a place like yanshan if it were not for the fact that i needed to see my very old and frail parents multiple times in a day. no way i could stay anywhere that is beyond simple walking distance: my husband and i have been staying there every year since 2012 for our family visit. location is definitely a plus as it is nestled in a still very authentic traditional chinese residential area with small streets and many local inexpensive shops and restaurants. but the benefit stops there. i have to qualify my ONE star rating. it is the avg of our two stays on this trip (the head and tail part of our trips .. in between we spent 10 days at JW in SH) first stay, we had an apartment in the B tower which is more like an apartment. it is no frill! but because they renoed the room (floor, beds, and bathroom) we loved staying there every year. it is clean thanks to the laminate floor. stand up shower is big. beds are comfortable. and for $80, that is all we needed. second stay however, i could not get a room in building B. i had to stay in a room in building A which is the original hotel tower. may i tell you it was truly the dingiest room i have ever stayed in my whole life including the time when i was a dirt poor student in the US. the room fashioned a bathroom sporting 5 different shades of pinkish brown, and a carpet soiled with dark spots all over. and no power outlet on the wall. but this is NOT the bad part. for both stays, the worse part is the people this hotel hires, esp the women working at the reception and the"concierge" guy! the women are truly the worst. for as long as i do not have to deal with them, i am ok with all the kinks. but you do, at least at the check in and check out. the snobbishness they display is astonishing. they do not speak any english (despite the fact it is obviously a requirement for the staff at this hotel) and they even pretend they do not understand the word of "shampoo"! when i asked for an extra half roll of toilet paper, the woman told me to go back to my room and dial "1"! and this was after i asked the concierge if he could page someone, and was told no. this happened on both of our stays - they give you a roll only 1/3 of normal size and no extra roll any where in the room. if i was not someone who can still speak simple chinese, we would not have been able to even perform our bodily function comfortably. for as long as my parents are still living, i would have no choice but stay at this place. but i will NEVER stay in building A again. and for those of you who doesn't have to go somewhere multiple times a day (therefore multiple trips through traffic) and those of you who do not speak chinese, stay away (i see absolutely no point!) for $80 a night, i could get a beautiful one bedroom apartment...

i have been saying at yanshan hotel every year since 2012 for my annual family visit. top reason has always been its location as zhongguancun, despite being the "brain center" of china, is not set up for visitors. yanshan always served its practical purpose with comfy bed and functional shower. but over the years, they have been upgrading their rooms. we were there in jan and again last two weeks.we were pleasantly surprised that our room in B building now has new bright furniture and a flat screen TV it made room so much better. i cannot comment on their main building as it is always dated and uncomfortable - e.g. a/c in that building is your typical hotel built in type that simply does not work when old.its rooms are always dark and smaller than ones in building b which was built in apartment style for extended stay. i always stay away from the main building. i encourage the management to continue to improve the facilty - it does not need to cost much. simple IKEA furniture made this recent stay much better! however, i think their real challenge is still the staffing. their concierge service continues to be a joke (it varies depending on who is working but on average the guy just does not want to work) how do you have a sigh of "taxi service" when you cannot reserve ANY car service to the airport? and receptionists still do not speak a word of english and almost never greet anyone or acknowledge the fact we have been coming for years and were just...

The location is far away from the downtown shopping area as it takes about an hour or 10-12 underground stations to reach the business district. But it has two shopping malls nearby, one next door that also come with a limited range of local food - quite sufficient for short stay. It is generally a good choice for those who need to go to Reming University as it is within walking distance of 500m (across the road). ||||The hotel staff are generally friendly in a typical Chinese way, customer service is probably not part of the culture yet. Room is clean and spacious and fairly well-equipped with hair-drier and a mini-refrigerator that is not cold. Aircon is working well, so as water heater. ||||The package of about US$90 per night comes with breakfast which is quite boring. I only went for the porridge and veggies (quite oily). For those who do not mind taking fast food (Big Mac) instead of the buffet breakfast, it is within walking distance of 200m - next to it is a big supermarket where you could stock up drinks, milk,...