I stayed at the Holiday Inn, Central Plaza based on the reviews here, 10 out of 10 people whom I told I was staying at a Holiday Inn, laughed. It is everything that's been written here and more, because of Storm and Linda. 1st things first, I found out that this Holiday Inn in the new "flagship" hotel of the new "brand" of Holiday Inn's World Wide, I think Thailand/Singapore are next. I stayed there 12 day's while in Beijing, during that time, their corp. ad firm were there doing promo spots, and I was interviewed and told about the new branding of Holiday Inn World Wide. It really is a 4 star hotel. I made arrangements to be picked up at the airport, China Air forgot one piece of luggage in HK, so I was late getting out to meet the driver. Once on the fwy to the hotel, all I can say is, you have NEVER seen traffic or the way people drive in Beijing - once you accept it, you'll be fine. Once at the hotel I told them about my luggage, and Sophia at the check-in took control to stay on top of it. Hearing a few times it was being sent to the hotel, the next morning I was up early and came down from the 16th floor, elevator door opens, there stood Storm Li. I thought to my self, this guy really is real. hahahah - After chatting for a few minutes, I went out to the cafe in front to have some coffee. Storm came out and while we were talking, he said excuse me, and I thought nothing of it. Five minutes later he returned WITH my lost luggage, and thought "this guy is good!"

The next few day's Storm probed me to find out what I was looking to do in Beijing, even besides the normal tourist stuff. One thing I told him was that I wanted to see a Chinese Band at a club in Beijing, his reply was, speak to Linda the Dutch girl who's the guest manager in one of the three restaurants. I had noticed her smile, a mile away, the 1st few day's. One morning she came to my table and asked if everthing was ok, I told her it was, and how Storm said she was the one to talk
to about clubs in Beijing, her smile lit the room! I told her I was looking to find a "local" Chinese band to see live in a club, not an ex-pat bar, but a true Chinese
club. She said she'll check into it. The very next day she came up to me at breakfast, and said she found one, and was I free that very night, I was, we went.

The club was named MAO of all things and it was 100 % the type club I was looking for. Three live Chinese bands, probably 300 people there, and long story
short, they were great! Linda's company was fantastic, as she speaks Chinese very well and everthing went great. Seeing her "run" the restaurant over the next few
day's, showed me that she is a treasure, to any company she would ever work for. Her smile pull's you in, her personality will inspire you.

As to Storm, he went out of his way with everthing I wanted to do. I told him I had read there were coffee makers in each room, but wern't the type I was expecting, when I told him about Mr Coffee was what I was looking for, he said let's go for a walk to get him a newspaper. During that walk he took me into a Chinese "cvs/savon" type store and there was a Mr.Coffee, that I bought for $6.00 USD and told him I'd leave it for him, once I left.

I wanted to visit the Terra Cota Warriors in the city of Xian, Storm found out that Xian was not effected by the earth quake, and was safe to go. He set me up to take a train at 9pm Monday evening and took me too the train station, got on the train, and took me to my car, and introduced me to the strangers I'd be spending the night with. hahaha - Once he left, we departed and I arrived in Xian at 8:30 the next morning. There I met Grace, and a driver that Storm set up, we spent the whole day in Xian seeing the TCW - I flew back that night on China Air (only took carry on) and Storm had a driver pick me up, and was at the hotel once I got back.

There is so much more, but as you can see, once I start talking about these two, I could go on, and on, and on.

Linda and Storm are special, but to Sophia @ check-in, to Lisa in the executive lounge, to even Mini, the house keeper in the 16th floor,
Holiday Inn should feel very forunate, to have employees like them.

My husband and I stayed at this hotel for 4 nights at the start of our trip to China, and one night prior to leaving. We chose the Holiday Inn Central Plaza after studying Trip Advisor. The hotel rooms were well furnished, spotless, with fairly comfortable beds. Two bottles of water, and usually 2 pices of fruit were complimentary daily. We had several meals at the main restaurant, the buffet choice was comprehensive and tasty, but did seem a little expensive. One night we chose from the menu but we were both disappointed with the quality
We had the perfectly adequate 'Two egg' room service breakfast (coffee extra) several times, the cost was reasonable, and the eggs were usually still hot on arrival. The location of the hotel was OK, we found it very interesting going for walks to check out the neighbourhood. There is a nice bakery a short walk to the left of the hotel, bottled water/soft drinks were very cheap locally (approx 100yds to right). Taxis were very easy to find, and we were only turned down once one evening. The hotel was well staffed, they were very polite, and most had a reasonable command of English.
We had read many positive comments about Storm, we were pleased when he introduced himself to us on our second day, and asked how he could help. The next day he arranged a Pedicab ride from the hotel to the Hutong to finish with Peking Duck lunch. That evening he arranged tickets for the excellent Acrobatic Show. When we returned to the hotel for the second time he arranged a driver to meet us at the airport, and detour via the Olympic Stadiums which we had wanted to see.
Storm really went up in our estimation when he took time out of his busy day to accompany us to catch a train to Zhengzhou. It was a huge relief to have him guide us through the massive Beijing West Station. When we discovered we had been booked on the slow instead of the fast train he managed to find 2 people to exchange trains with us! Lastly he helped us onto the train and made sure we were able to sit together. We just feel so grateful to him for all his help. There is a world of difference between someone who says "have a nice day" and Storm, who takes the extra trouble and time to make sure it is.

We had a large, light and airy de-lux room with a huge window and lovely window seat in this stylish hotel. It was a smokiong room (we had booked non-smoking) but none of the alterrnatives offered were as nice. The vast reception area and the resturant are visually immaculate, but the westernm food in the resturant was dissapointing.
The main problem with this hotel is its location, not within walking distance of any of the sites or even a park. Taxis may be cheap (unless you are ripped off, which we certainly would have been had we not had our Chinese speaking son with us) and the traffic in Beijing is so bad that almost any jouney is a long hot one spent sitting in traffic jams.
We liked the hotel, but will choose on in a better location next time.

I booked this hotel partly because of its location.

If you look at Google Earth and like me assumed it was bordering the Forbidden City, you would be completely wrong. The Google Earth indicators are wrong.

This hotel is a good 20 mins drive from the Forbidden City. You will be able to get a taxi there, but getting one back to your hotel will be almost impossible (the drivers will refuse you). Have fun sitting in backwards in a motorised rickshaw weaving through 8 lanes of peak hour traffic.

You will probably be offered an upgrade to the Executive Floor. I can't say I got too much benefit from it.

There is nothing in the immediate vicinity that would entice you to leave the hotel.

If I was returning to Beijing, I'd find somewhere closer to The Forbidden City.