Our group of 15 students and teachers stayed at the Beijing Shatan from March 16 to March 21, 2008. I booked the Beijing Shatan because it was located on a hutong only a short walk from the back exit of the Forbidden City. The hotel turned out to be an excellent choice! The staff were friendly, efficient, spoke English and went out of their way to make sure our stay was comfortable. The rooms were modern, clean and each had a mini-bar-fridge and safe. A delicious Chinese/Western buffet breakfast was included in the price of the room. There was also another good restaurant in the hotel and a variety of small inexpensive restaurants, fruit stores, bakeries and a grocery store just a few steps up the hutong from our hotel. In the evening, our students enjoyed using the pool table and games tables located in the basement. I’ve visited Beijing many times and this hotel was the best for it’s value and location. I will definitely stay at the Beijing Shatan the next time I visit Beijing.

Gwena Schuck
Richmond, B.C.
Canada

We stayed at Beijing Shatan for six nights, April 5-10, 2008. We booked the room on the internet and paid 488 CNY per night for a second-floor room with a double bed, and a large window overlooking the street.

When we arrived, we were told that our rate included only one breakfast, and we would have to pay if we wanted a second. We agreed to pay an extra 38 CNY per day, but gradually learned that the front-desk staff is empowered to haggle. If we had bargained (opening with an offer of, say, at 20 CNY) we likely could have cut the cost to around 25. If you’re arriving without a reservation, be prepared to negotiate for your room rate as well.

We moved to the Shatan from a five-star hotel at well over twice the price (The New Century) and were actually happier and more comfortable in our new digs.

The location is FABULOUS. A stone's throw from the Forbidden City, yet on a hutong with very few foreign faces. We enjoyed getting to know "our" neighbourhood. Our #1 tip? Try a Sunday morning stroll through Jingshan Park.

Our room included free high-speed internet (standard in all Shatan rooms, I believe) -- a real boon, as we were travelling with a notebook computer.

Now for my take on some of the observations/complaints in other reviews.

Yes, the carpet is badly stained. That is the ONLY fault we could find with our room, and it didn't particularly bother us. Beijing is no place for the dainty.

The bed was very firm, but that was the case in every Chinese hotel we stayed at. Fortunately, we love a firm bed. We found the Shatan's bed as comfortable as any we've slept in -- anywhere. The bathroom was small but clean, with an excellent shower.

The ceiling in our room (front, second floor) was not unusually low (and I'm 6'6"). That must be a problem only in some rooms. Our flat-screen TV had perfectly acceptable sound and picture, but, then again, who comes to China to watch TV?

I couldn't detect any cigarette smell in our non-smoking room. Your mileage may vary -- non-smokers should arrive in Beijing with a healthy dose of forbearance, as smoking is still widely tolerated here.

Stay away from the minibar goods -- there’s a good supermarket down the street where you can get the same stuff for less than half the price. You'll have to start by making a trip there to buy bottled water (don't worry -- the cashiers cheerfully help new arrivals figure out Chinese currency). That said, the hotel minibar prices are still a fraction of those in a Western hotel. A beer was about $1.15.

The active street life makes for a bit of a noisy room, but we loved being in the middle of the hustle and bustle. 98 percent of the faces you see out the window are locals, not tourists (I have posted a couple of photos). Bring good ear plugs if you’re a light sleeper like me.

The breakfast was excellent. Lots of Chinese breakfast foods, but even a finicky Westerner will do fine (there are fried eggs, toast and jam, and plenty of fresh fruit). We steered clear of the hotel's dinners, based on reports from other TripAdvisor users.

We ate at three different restaurants on our street, and had GREAT suppers each time. I carefully noted the addresses.

At #9 they have an English-language menu (though one "aubergine" dish we ordered was actually apple fritters!). The restaurant was also slightly pricier than the others we tried. We also had a very nice (and cheaper) meal next door at #7.

Our favourite, though, was the restaurant at #8-2. This was the one recommended in WalkIt's review (see below). The menu is in Mandarin (with photos) but the owner was very helpful in deciphering the choices for us in his limited English. We had two meals there, featuring six different dishes, and they were all delicious -- and cheap! Warmly recommended.

I stayed at Shatan hotel for three nights. I had three hotels in the same price range to choose from, and chose Shatan based on the reviews here on TripAdvisor compared to the other two. Everything looked exactly like in the pictures I found posted here, so there were no surprises.
I enjoyed my stay, and must say it was good value. China is really cheap, but I'm sure you can pay just as much for a hotel not nearly as good as this one.
I have nothing bad to say really, except this one time in the evening my first day there when someone knocked on my door, and it was two hotel employees (a guy and a girl) who gave me a newspaper, asked me something I didn't understand and left again. The newspaper was in Chinese, which I can't read, and they didn't give me any more newpapers the rest of my stay. Weird. I almost suspected (not to sound paranoid) they made up an excuse to knock on my door to see the blonde girl staying at their hotel alone. Maybe that's not normal to them. It wasn't a big deal to me or anything, just a little strange.

I enjoyed my stay, think it was well worth my money and would recommend this hotel to anyone.
The staff also spoke English well, at least the people in the reception did.

I stayed in Beijing Shatan Hotel for 5 days 4 nights on March 21-25, 2008. I booked 2 standard rooms, double bed, no window, each only costs me 398 yuan (around USD 61). Overall, we were satisfied with everything. This is a 3 star hotel but the facility is above the average of a 3 star hotel. I chose this hotel based on reviews on this site and I am so happy that my choice was right.

The bed, furnitures, TV, bathroom, all was in good condition, clean, and worked properly. Thank God they had HBO channel. Otherwise, we could not see the TV because all programs were in Chinese and China made their own programs. Unlike in Indonesia, none was adopted from abroad in here (i.e. National Geography, Grey's Anatomy, Oprah Winfrey etc).

I can see why some people complaint about ceiling and the bathroom because the ceiling was too low for them. For a person with heights of 2 metres and above, of course it feels like you are going into a cave. Also, the bath box was too small for Caucasian in average. For Asian like me (my height is 1.65 metres), the space is okay and enough.

I was also afraid because there was a comment about how hard the bed was (One of the reviewer said it was so hard as if you slept on the door) but I found that the bed was okay, nothing wrong, soft enough to have a good sleep. So, no worry about the bed.

The room we chose did not have a window so it is a bit strange for me. It was my first experience of staying in the room without window like that. But, on the other hand, I thought if we had windows, probably we would face a problem with noise coming from the street. So, maybe it is better not to have a window at all.

I agreed with other travellers about the carpet. It had stains here and there. It seems the cleaning service did not clean the carpet although every morning I saw a vacuum cleaner standing outside the rooms but I never heard it run.

I found all staffs has a limited English capability. When we told them about something, they just guessed what we want to say. Sometimes, they guessed wrongly. On the last day we stayed, the electricity was down in our room. So, my husband went down to the lobby to report that. In the lobby, instead of sending someone to fix the problem, the front desk just assumed that my husband wanted to check out. While he talked about the electricity, she kept repeating asking about "You want to check out?" "Do you want to check out?" over and over and she said "Okay, wait a moment" and then she process all the bills, ignoring my husband's intention of telling her about the electricity!
The bellboy could not speak English as well but the bell boy wearing the eyeglass was nice and always had a smile on his face.

The breakfast had many varieties enough for us to choose. As some reviewers said, the service was pretty slow in replenishing the empty plates. But, it did not bother us that much because so far we never in a situation where we were running out of everything. The taste was also great. Not spicy, tasteless, salty or whatever. It was just great.

The location was the greatest thing of this hotel. It was near a traditional market and a minimarket. If we need something, we just walked out from the hotel and bought everything easily. We loved to buy fruits from that market. The strawberries were big, red, sweet, fresh, and juicy. There was also some mangoes that were so tiny I wonder how to peel it off. If you wander along the street especially in the evening, you can feel the local atmosphere, the bustle of people, buyers and sellers made transactions, many things were displayed, and it was a nice experience for foreigners.

If you walked out the hotel and went left, you will find Jingshan Park in front of you. In Jingshan Park, you can climb the stairs to the top of the hill to see the whole Forbidden city. After go through Jingshan Park (paid 2 Yuan per adult and 1 Yuan per child above 2 yrs old), you can go on to Beihai Park (in adjacent to Jingshan Park) where there is a white Pagoda. From the hotel, you can also find Forbidden city easily by walking within 5 minutes. Just went left from the hotel untill you find a big road then turn left. There you go, the Forbidden city, North gate section; is in front of your face. Just cross the road and you can start your journey from there. So, you don't need to hire a tour and travel or taxi to go through this interesting places from the hotel. That would be saving money.

Well, I am sure that we will stay again in Beijing Shatan Hotel if we have a chance to visit Beijing again in the future. It was very value of money.