Dongfang Hotel Beijing

The Dongfang Hotel in Beijing has been around since 1918, it was the first hotel to have telephones in every room. Although the building structure and handrails of the stairs and balconies are from 1918, the rest has been upgraded through the years, leaving a comfortable and affordable hotel at an excellent location.
The hotel has rooms for different budgets. You can stay at a high-end room for a high-end price, but smaller double rooms are quite nice and very reasonably priced. Be sure not to miss the complementary slippers in the (very clean!) bathroom. They have the size of tiny Chinese feet and are therefore quite hilarious…
While I was staying at this hotel (summer of 2005), my room had a view of an adjacent hutong. It’s unclear if this is still the case today, since the city has been eliminating hutongs round the clock. The location is nonetheless perfect, quaint shops and restaurants are very near and it’s about a thirty minute walk to the Forbidden City.
If Beijing is your first stop in China, things can be overwhelming, especially the fact that most people only speak Chinese. The hotel staff is happy to help (even though their English is not fabulous) with directions, or to stop a taxi and explain to the taxi driver where you want to go.