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About Waldorf Astoria Beijing

Waldorf Astoria Beijing opened in 2014 and is in a prime location in the heart of Wangfujing. Right across the street is the apm mall, the Peninsula Beijing is diagonally across from it, and the Legendale and Regent are just one intersection away. The location is excellent. The hotel’s main building has 169 rooms, including 9 with unique terraces and 37 luxury suites. In addition, the hotel also has one-of-a-kind hutong courtyard suites. The East Courtyard consists of 4 courtyard suites, including three 100-square-meter suites and one 150-square-meter suite. The West Courtyard is a standalone 765-square-meter courtyard villa with its own 145-square-meter private garden courtyard.

The location really is great. The Forbidden City and Tiananmen are only two intersections away, and even during traffic restrictions, it is still walkable. It is also fairly close to both Dengshikou and Jinyu Hutong subway stations, an easy walk to either one. Honestly, I walked around Wangfujing Pedestrian Street and did not find it very interesting; it was basically full of tourists strolling around.

In fact, one of our writers stayed at this hotel back in 2019 using a Hilton weekend night certificate. The certificate has since been updated and is no longer limited to weekend use, which makes it a pretty good fit for this hotel (room rates are typically 2000+ RMB year-round).

Booking

This time I booked five nights over the May Day holiday. I had originally planned to stay four nights, but then remembered that award stays come with the fifth night free, so I added an extra night at essentially no additional cost. As long as a standard room is available, you can book it with points or a free night certificate. Waldorf Astoria Beijing seemed to release standard rooms quite generously; I checked several times along the way and there was always availability. Award bookings cost 80,000 Hilton points per night, and with the fifth night free, the total for five nights came to 320,000 points. As for whether that is a good deal, during the May Day holiday, a room was 4,800 RMB per night, or over 5,000 RMB after tax. The redemption value was very high.

I had read online that Diamond members on their first stay here often get upgraded to a suite, but since I expected occupancy to be very high during May Day, I did not bother reaching out in advance.

Check-in

By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was already evening. A family of six or seven people was checking in at the time, so we were directed to a separate counter. After I handed over my ID, the front desk agent started rapidly typing away to process everything. One thing I did notice was that there were no chairs at the check-in area, so we had to stand and wait. I remember InterContinental and St. Regis both providing chairs, and being able to sit while checking in makes for a much better experience.

The agent confirmed the room and number of guests and said that because occupancy was very high during the May Day holiday, an upgrade would not be possible, but he could move us to the 11th floor with a room facing the Forbidden City. I had already guessed that an upgrade might not happen, since this was the first May Day holiday after the pandemic and Beijing was sure to be packed with visitors, so I had not emailed or called customer service in advance to try to talk my way into an upgrade. But since I was already there in person, I mentioned that I was a Diamond member and that this was my first stay at Waldorf Astoria Beijing. I also noted that I was traveling with a child and hoped for a somewhat larger room. While hesitating a bit, he kept typing and eventually said he could offer a studio suite, although on a lower floor. I was happy as long as there was some kind of upgrade, so I gladly accepted. Later I looked it up and found that this studio suite was the Premier Panormama Studio, a corner room with 270-degree windows. It was going for 6000rmb per night before tax, which immediately made me feel like I had scored big. In after-tax USD terms, it should be about $1,000 a night, which means 80,000 points gave a redemption value of as much as 1.25 c/p. Factoring in the fifth night free, the effective redemption value was 1.5 c/p.

Overall Property

Floors 1-3 of the hotel are the main facilities areas, while the basement level (-1) has the pool, gym, and spa. None of these areas are especially large, but that is understandable given the hotel’s location inside Beijing’s 2nd Ring Road, where space comes at a premium and every square foot has to be used carefully.

The artwork on the walls was pretty interesting.

This staircase is especially well-suited for bridal photos, with the bride walking down in a long wedding dress. In fact, there really was a bride taking photos here on the second day of our stay.

The overall color palette of the hotel is fairly dark, and there is not a lot of natural light coming in. Even the elevators use this dim yellow lighting. Overall, it does create a certain sense of mystery and luxury.

Near the elevators, there are displays of several famous Beijing landmarks, which I thought was pretty interesting.

Room Review

We stayed in the Premier Panormama Studio, one of the hotel’s corner rooms facing toward the front right side of the building. It looks out over Jinyu Hutong, and from the right side you can see part of the Forbidden City.

Entryway

The entry corridor is honestly a bit too long. Even I felt it was a waste of space, which was a little painful to see. But perhaps for luxury travelers, having space to take off shoes, hang up a suit, wash hands, and then enter the bedroom makes more sense.

Bathroom and Restroom

After turning the corner, there is a separate restroom on the right, with a toilet and sink. On the left is the main bathroom, with two sinks, a large bathtub, and a shower.

The sink area on the right uses gold accents, which gives it a rather opulent look. One thing worth complaining about is that the faucet extends out too little, so when washing your hands, you end up hitting the edge of the basin. Very user-unfriendly design.

The larger bathroom on the left has one sink on each side, again with the same gold accents. Soaking in the tub while looking down at the traffic below was a unique experience.

Further in on the right, there is also a separate shower room.

Bedroom

The bedroom area is quite large, since it is combined with both the work area and sitting area. And this 270-degree room really does get excellent natural light, although the western sun in the afternoon can make it quite hot, so you need to run the air conditioning pretty aggressively. We arrived at night, and the lights outside still made the area feel lively.

A look from another angle

A closer look at the work area

This sitting area is very nice, especially for having tea and chatting. It would also be great for a late-night snack.

The minibar setup was pretty standard: coffee and tea.

But since this is an older hotel, the signs of age are still pretty obvious. You could clearly see the wear and tear on the nightstand.

Later, because of a small hiccup, they also gave us two teddy bears.

Exterior View

The night view outside the window was great, but this was right before the May Day holiday. In the following few days, the area downstairs was packed with people.

Breakfast

Breakfast was served at the French restaurant on the first floor, but because the restaurant itself was fairly small, the hotel also used the lobby lounge as overflow seating. Between 8:30 and 9:30, though, you might have to wait a bit for a table.

The tables and chairs in the lobby lounge really were not ideal for breakfast.

Since it was so crowded when we went, we did not take many breakfast photos. Overall, it was pretty standard. After eating it for five days, we were honestly tired of it, and there was nothing especially memorable.

Lobby Lounge

It seemed that Diamond members received two welcome drinks at check-in. We saved ours for the last day and had them while waiting for our ride. The bunny display in one corner of the lobby was also great for photos.

The bunny wall was so cute.

Ignore the guy in the background—the decor here was also very nice.

Pool

This was the smallest hotel pool I have ever seen, but fortunately hardly anyone else came, so we had a pretty comfortable time here. One thing worth praising: even though there were very few people, the lifeguard stayed by the pool the whole time. Very conscientious and responsible.

Siheyuan Courtyard Houses

The hotel actually also has a few siheyuan courtyard residences available to book.

It looked like one of them was occupied by a wedding party.

I glanced at the price, and it was roughly the cost of one night for a two-night stay, but considering that several rooms are included, it actually did not seem too bad.

Eating, Drinking, and Sightseeing in Beijing

We spent five days in Beijing this trip, and there were people everywhere. If you plan to visit the major attractions, be sure to make reservations in advance through a mini program or APP. Famous places like Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, the National Museum, Prince Gong’s Mansion, and the Summer Palace all require advance reservations, and the booking window varies by attraction, usually around 7-10 days ahead. If you are visiting during a holiday, make sure you are ready to book as soon as slots open.

If you want to eat at popular viral restaurants, be prepared to wait in line—three to four hours is entirely possible. Some places let you get a queue number online through the Meiwei Buyong Deng WeChat official account. You can grab a number ahead of time and then head over based on the number of parties in front of you, which can save a lot of time.

Tiananmen

We happened to pass by in the car, and this was probably the least crowded moment.

Tiananmen Square

National Museum of China

Very worth visiting—you could easily spend a full day here without feeling it was too much.

Phoenix Crown

Military Museum

Highly recommended for families with young boys.

The Super-Popular Hu Da Restaurant

This is the hottest restaurant on Guijie Street. There are three locations on the same street, and one of them is even open 24 hours. How crazy can the online queue get?

There was a sea of people at the entrance.

The crawfish was pretty good.

Hot Pot with Copper Pot

We first tried the very popular Nanmen Shuanrou and waited two hours before getting seated. But they used an alcohol burner, which took away a bit of the traditional feel. The sesame sauce was also just average.

Later, though, we had shuanrou at Fengzeju in Baofang Hutong, and it was genuinely impressive. Charcoal-heated copper pot plus their house-special sesame sauce—it was fantastic. We went at lunchtime and did not need to take a number.

Peking Duck

We also tried Siji Minfu, which is quite famous. The Forbidden City location was already into the 1,000s in the queue, and the other locations were also in the 300-400 range. After 12 noon, they stopped issuing queue numbers for the day.

Peking duck chef

Half a duck was really just this little.

As for the taste, it was honestly pretty ordinary—not really much better than the chain Manyuan Chunbing...