Tag: Beijing Hotels
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The 72-Hour Layover: Four Seasons Beijing Style
As we learned from our extensive coverage of Anthony Bourdain’s “The Layover” show, a stopover in a city can be as fun as you make it. And if you’re a savvy traveler (which we know most of you are), many of you will plan your flight arrangements to include a break in a city that you love or want to cross off your bucket list. Certain routes seem conducive to extended layovers—Beijing being one of them.
But instead of holing up in an airport lounge of one-of-the world’s most historic and exciting cities, the Four Seasons Hotel Beijing has come up with a better idea--the “Experience the Best of Beijing in 72 Hours” package.
For the first time ever, tourists can spend up to 72 hours in Beijing sans visa. So, now a hotel staff member will arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport, tuck you into a FS car (either limo or BMW 5, hand you a steaming cup of traditional tea, then whisk you away to the hotel to get freshened up.
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Which Beijing Hotel Offers This Killer View?
It’s not a view of Tiananmen Square or a section of the Great Wall outside Beijing, but the window of this Superior Club room at the Kerry Hotel Beijing perfectly frames Rem Koolhaas’s now-iconic shard-like CCTV building.
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Four Seasons Hotel Opens In Beijing, More To Come
Just about a month after the reveal of its new flagship in hometown Toronto, Four Seasons added yet another new destination to its roster yesterday with the opening of Four Seasons Beijing. This marks a total of five hotels in China, complementing Shanghai, Shanghai (Pudong), Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Hong Kong.
A total of 313 rooms and 66 suites can be found in this mixed-use complex that also combines two private apartment towers. Restaurant Cai Yi Xuan serves regional Chinese cuisine, with Mio being the Italian option that seems a near-staple for Four Seasons Hotels these days. Opus lounge & bar offers all-day dining and drinks, including daily afternoon tea.
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A Second EAST Hotel Opens in the East...Beijing to Be Precise
It's hard to believe it, but one of the hotels we named in our "Favorite Hotel Beds Ever" list only had one location...up until this week. That's right—the EAST Hotel in Hong Kong now has a sister property in Beijing, China.
The 369 guest rooms (including 23 suites with executive lounge access) of the EAST Beijingdebut with a special opening rate starting from 798 RMB ($126) per night, through December 31. This includes a location as the only hotel within the massive Indigo development in the Chaoyang area (a 15-min drive to the Central Business District), an iPod Touch and iHome in each room, Elemis amenities and free and fast WiFi throughout the entire hotel.
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'The Daily Meal' Reveals Its Favorite World-Wide Hotel Restaurants. What are Yours?
Ever tried the blackened miso pork belly at Opposite House? How about the 280 EURO tasting menu at Le Bristol Paris? Or Joël Robuchon's award-winning French cuisine at MGM Grand in Las Vegas?
If you happen to have dined at any of these—or 98 other—top-tier hotel restaurants around the world, you may want to take a look at The Daily Meal's "101 Best Hotel Restaurants Around The World," which was published late last week. Consulting the Michelin Guide, and using the well-traveled knowledge of TDM editors, the list was compiled using only two criteria: the hotels had to have at least 15 rooms (which immediately eliminated small B&Bs and private dining clubs), and the restaurants had to actually be housed within the hotels themselves.
However, that still left a lot, a lot, a lot of restaurants to choose from. In fact, the final list tallied properties in over 80 cities in 40 countries across six continents. Find out which of your favorites made the cut!
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Keanu Reeves' Excellent Adventure in Beijing Happened at The Oakwood
While there's soon to be a handful of luxury hotels in Beijing for the rich and famous to stay at, actor Keanu Reeves chose more humble lodgings when he was in town filming the "Man of Tai Chi", his directorial debut.
"The Matrix" star opted for serviced apartment brand, Oakwood Residence Beijing in the city's Chaoyang District (that's Keanu with the hotel's general manager Arthur Krieger.) The hotel has a whopping 406 fully-equipped modern luxury apartments ranging from studios to four-bedroom penthouse and terrace apartments. On-site there's also a fitness center, a health and beauty spa, a business center, a kids play area and even some private landscaped gardens.
Rates at the Oakwood Beijing start at about $129USD a night and typically require a 30-night minimum stay. and as Oakwood pointed out in the comments below, there is no minimum stay requirement. Excellent!
Have you stayed at an Oakwood before? How does it compare to other extended stay or serviced apartment brands out there? Sound off in comments below!
[Photo: Oakwood Residence Beijing]
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Four Seasons Shanghai, Pudong and Beijing Start Accepting Reservations
Where: China
Looks like Four Seasons will soon add their share to the Asia hotel boom: doors will open to Four Seasons Shanghai, Pudong, and Four Seasons Beijing on August 28 and October 29, respectively.
We spotted Four Seasons Shanghai, Pudong earlier this year from the heights of the Park Hyatt next door. The start date for reservations has actually moved up a few days from September 1 at the time to August 28 now.
You'll find 187 rooms in the 55-story tower, alongside 73 luxury residences. Art-deco inspired design will bring a pared-down aesthetic to the rooms and public spaces, with splashes of red in a neutral color palette in the rooms. We liked some of the first images we saw here, so we're interested to see the end result.
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So Many New Asia Hotels, So Little Time
As we mentioned earlier today, there's a hotel boom happening in Asia right now. There's so many to list, we're giving you a sort of Magic Mike-type news brief. A little tease, and a little unveiling. It's just a little show for now, but keep coming back and we'll keep giving you a little more...detail.
Rosewood Beijing, slated to open in summer 2013 in the business-centric Chaoyang District will be the brand’s first China property. The 279-room hotel, though in an urban location, will be filled with terraces, gardens and balconies throughout to go along with its intended residential feel. Guestrooms will be designed to look like luxury apartments, with big bathrooms, walk-in closets and even window-seats, and at 538 sq.ft., they’re said to be amongst the largest in Beijing. The hotel will have seven restaurants and lounges, an indoor swimming pool, yoga studio, and the Rosewood Sense spa with five suites designed for overnight stays.
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Life Inside the Wall, The Marriott Beijing City Wall
A couple of weeks ago we showed you the view we had of the W Chang'An Beijing right from our room across the street. So what did our room with a vieW look like? Read more about it below.
First of all, the hotel we stayed at was the Marriott Beijing City Wall, which opened in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics and takes its name from being adjacent to the remaining ancient Ming Dynasty City Wall. Yet with 649 rooms and suites, the hotel is a massive structure, and feels like it; it's an imposing building, there are two entrances along the main driveway, and separate elevator banks per tower.
While you may not come here for a small boutique hotel experience, what you will find is reliability, and, as we found, surprisingly personal service for a hotel of this size. The concierge team and doormen look after guests very well; every time you leave the hotel you'll receive a folded card with the hotel details, and inside a number of key points of interest in the city in English and Chinese.
If you need to go somewhere else, they'll arrange everything with a taxi driver to make sure you get to where you want to go. It might sound very straightforward, but trust us when we say that in a city like Beijing navigational support is very welcome.
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A Room with a VieW of the Upcoming W Beijing
Arriving in Beijing on Friday morning, we were all set to battle the city's (at times epic) traffic to play tourist and scope out a few hotels in the process.
Walking into our room, as always the first thing we did was head to the windows and check out our view. Imagine our surprise when staring us in the face was a construction site and a giant "W" advertisement. We never thought that checking the first hotel off our list would be that easy.
As you can tell from the first picture, it'll be a while before Beijing welcomes the W - Chang'An; opening is scheduled for January 1, 2014. Expect 340 rooms, three restaurants, and a spa with indoor pool, alongside the brand's "Whatever, Whenever" service. You'll have to look past the poor quality of the close-up pictures, these were taken from a taxi driving just slow enough (that traffic again) for a few quick snaps.
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Conrad Beijing Still Set for a 2012 Opening But We're Starting to Think Otherwise
While we ponder the opening question of the Bulgari London today, there's yet another hotel that we're concerned about--The Conrad Beijing.
When we checked in on the hotel back in November, construction was well under way and we even marveled at the hotel's planned "nervous tissue" exterior. With an opening date of 2012, we thought for sure the Conrad would make it on time. But now we're having second thoughts.
The Conrad website still has Beijing on their future openings page with an opening date of 2012listed which is the good news. The site also mentions the hotel will have 300 guest rooms, a spa, a bunch of restaurants and lounges and even a rooftop bar and restaurant.
The hotel is located in the thick of things in the city's business district but close to the tourist spots of Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Wangfujing Street, a shopping district.
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What is This at The Opposite House in Beijing?
We like to keep it fun but informative here at HotelChatter so our newest series, What is This? is devoted to odd-looking items in hotel rooms that upon first glance look as if they serve only a decorative purpose. But everything happens for a reason, right? And we're here to tell you what these things really do.
If you're looking for a luxury boutique stay in Beijing, look no further than the Opposite House in the city's Chaoyang District and which is also attached to the upscale shopping mall, Sanlitun Village. (Remember when the Apple store in Beijing got bombarded before the new iPhone release? Yeah, that's right near the Opposite House.)
But once you get inside one of the cool and modern guestrooms designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, you might find yourself asking what is this white boxy thing in the bathroom?
