BBrettschneiderExcellent place to stay for a weekend getaway to the coutryside but not super far from BJ. It is located right in the exit of Xianghe west of 7th capital ring express. It only takes 50 minutes to drive from sanlitun in beijing. When I first enter the courtyard,I was so amazed by the nice cosy small courtyard which makes you feel at home. All rooms are cosy and comfortable,located on the ground floor around the small garden with flowers. Each room has air conditioning. The bathroom is clean with shower and towel.There is a washing machine in the living room as well. Everything is super clean, the owner quickly responds if something is needed. Overall the day passed in a pleasant atmosphere :) I will certainly book again next time.BTW,there is a barbecue grill I will try :) If you are specifically looking for such a place quiet and quaint. Absolutely recommendable!
ゲゲストThe room and women's lockers were clean, but there were many dirty towels left in the resting area next to the hot springs pools. Customer service at the front desk wasn't very good this time when we wanted to go to the hot springs. The man working the front desk took a long time finding someone to accompany us to the hot springs, and when a lady finally came to accompany us there, she took us back to our rooms, instead, even though we had clearly told the man at the front desk we wanted to go to the hot springs. The employees didn't communicate with each other clearly,nor did they use common sense. When I first asked the front desk employee to accompany us to the hot springs, he said no and waved us away, but I knew it was complicated to get there and he had to tell the hot springs we were hotel guests, like what happened when I had stayed there before. It's only possible to communicate using a translation app here, since no employee speaks a single word of English, even. The restaurant's electronic menu is only in Chinese, too, so we needed to use a translation app to read the menu, also. They didn't light up all the lights in the hot springs area tonight, so it was much darker than when I had come here before. Regarding our hotel room, the refrigerator didn't work, even though it was plugged in, and the mattresses were hard.
TTheMachineThe compound and apartment are both very nice. Check-in was not difficult for us but only because we used WeChat and spoke Mandarin. Amenities were sufficient, though the kitchen lacked a microwave. The kitchen initially also lacked cooking supplies but our host provided them upon our request. The host is very responsive on WeChat. The compound has a playground and a few shops, and there are plenty of small restaurants just outside the compound. The location of the compound is right across the Chaobai river from Beijing, very close to one of the three bridges in the area. Crossing the bridge into Beijing by car requires passing a border check station which is slightly inconvenient as a foreigner since you will likely be required to go into the station to register every time. However, after the first crossing, subsequent crossings were very fast for us (1-2min processing time) and our rideshare drivers waited for us with no problems. Most of the time, the compound is ~20-25min by car to LuCheng subway station in Beijing, which is currently the closest subway station to the compound. However, during the morning rush hour on workdays, the border check station going into Beijing will have traffic jams up to 30+min. A rideshare (DiDi or Hello Ride) to/from LuCheng subway station costs around 20-30CNY each way. There are also public buses that go directly to/from LuCheng subway station but they only run during rush hour, and passengers still have to get off at the border check station for processing. This border check station is currently a big inconvenience, but current road and subway constructions in the area may alleviate this inconvenience in the near future.
Currently, it is difficult to find short term apartment rentals that accept foreigners in/near Beijing, so this stay was great value for money, despite us having paid ~2-3x the cost of rent for locals, it was still priced below tiny rooms in most Beijing hotels.