The hotel, although not in the Beijing city center, has a good location. It is few minutes away from the Beijing zoo (with the giant pandas) and even closer to a great market which is full of cheap, cheap clothes and extremely cheap designer bags and purses, there is a great variety of restaurants neabry, from japanese to pizza outlets. it is a five-minute walk from the nearest metro and trains are inexpensive and quick and take you to the city center in no time. The rooms are extremely well maintained and look great, the bathroom is also extremely clean and well kept with some good amenities. the tv has a great movie channel with a good choice of movies as well as the news channel (cnn). I have to say, that we had no problems with the a/c system, even though we stayed in august. The rooms also have a good view of the surrounding area. the hotel staff are extremely friendly and curteous and even kept half our luggage for us free of charge while we visited neighbouring mongolia for week and upon our arrival, put us in the same room. overall, the hotel has a good location and looks more like a five star hotel, with a shoopers paradise nearby. The food itself wasnt the best but the diversity of the nearby restaurants more than makes up for it. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay here at Debao and will stay here agin when i reutnr to Beijing.

We are both Americans, I am originally from America, and my wife is from Japan. We stayed from 27-30 May. Positive Aspects: 1. Lobby is quite beautiful 2. Rooms are quite clean 3. Both high and low profile comfortable pillows 3. Service was good, and hotel staff were friendly Negative Aspects: 1. Matresses were between firm to extra firm, which made it difficult for us to sleep. Although some people prefer a firm mattress, the majority of people in the world prefer a medium or soft mattress. Hotel should generally choose a medium mattress, because that will suit the needs of the majority of people in the world. 2. The hotel lobby and floors were air conditioned, and there were individual room A/C controls. However, the room A/C was not working. I like a slightly cool temperature for sleeping like most western people, but it was too warm for comfortable sleeping. After complaining to the Front Desk, the manager was called, who explained that they don't turn on the room A/C until the outside temperature goes above a certain point. When I objected to this policy, which apparently is the same policy for many hotels there, he finally agreed to turn it on. However at 2am I woke up sweating, and I am not overweight. Therefore, didn't get much sleep on the first night. Next day I complained about this, and the manager informed me that the hotel turns off the room A/C between 1-6am. I told him that we need A/C especially between 1-6am, and advised him that if he didn't provide A/C during that time, I would recommend to our tour guide and leaders that they use a different hotel next time, and our tour had more than 40 people. Since these tours come frequently, the manager finally agreed to give us 24 hour A/C. Before considering a hotel in China, you need to first ask the hotel 2 questions. First, do you have A/C if the outside temperature goes above 72 degrees F, and second, is this 24 hour A/C? Otherwise, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise! 3. The shower was irritatingly weak, apparently in an effort to conserve water. Therefore, it took me about 45 minutes to take a shower, which I am sure actually used more water than if it had been normal pressure. I don't believe that guests should have to pay $85 / night to get irritated and frustrated like that. 4. The TV had only one foreign language channel, which was CNN in English. Most hotels in other countries will offer 2-3 English channels, NHK Japanese channel, Airirang Korean channel, and usually a German or French channel. 5. The free breakfast at the hotel was one of the worst ones that I have ever eaten at a hotel. I won't go into details. The Debao Hotel is rated as a 4-star hotel by the Chinese system, however I would rate it as between 2-3 stars, and probably closer to 2 stars. All in all, we had a great time in China, so I would recommend a China tour, but do yourself a favor and choose another hotel. Stanley Schultz