No 9 Dacheng Road Hotel

Be prepared -- this is a hotel for Chinese people, not foreigners. That's fine and a more authentic experience but make sure a Chinese colleague accompanies you. I was on business and my Chinese host selected the hotel. Thank goodness they made sure I checked in ok and took me to my room because it appears that almost no one speaks English (and I don't speak Chinese). The room had one quirk -- to turn the lights on in the bedroom part, you must use the touch panel controls on the wall by the side of the bed. (1) Make sure you know where these are because when you come in at night, the bedroom will be dark. (2) Those controls turn on the outlet, not only the lamp. During the day, if you plug a laptop or smartphone in to recharge, you must turn the outlet on. I only figured this out because my Chinese colleague called down to the front desk to figure it out. The wifi was good -- great speed. Otherwise, the hotel is a normal, good business hotel. The room and bathroom are very large. There are many lights/lamps. The fixtures in the bathroom are Toto, and the hot water is great with good and steady water power.. There are tea making facilities (if you want coffee, take you own packets of instant coffee). The flat screen TV is huge, but there are no foreign channels at all (no CNN, no BBC, not even Channel News Asia and no ESPN or SKY sports). The hotel is on Dacheng Road, but at night it was not noisy at all. As proudly stated in the hotel brochure, this is the hotel of the Central Guard of the General Bureau Communist Party of China, run "in military style." I am told that this means that things are done well and precisely, not laid back/nonchalant.