Since I went at the slow season, the hotel is very economical, even for the VIP room. The bathroom is okay, not great, but it is clean. The deco is great, my husband is very pleased with the room, I think they cramp too much ancient furniture into a small space, I would have preferred they do not put the lounge/chinese day bed in the room, because it make the room feel very cramp.
The service is okay, they have all the basic services. The food is not bad, but it is not your usual 5 star hotel standard of choices. I think it is suffient.
It is great stay after all my comments. I will definitely stay there again.

We stayed in Beijing for a week. Staying in a traditional courtyard hotel like the Beijing Sihe in a Hutong turned out to be great for us. You get a real feel for the older Beijing and are only 3 blocks from the modern wide boulevards of the new city.

The staff was excellent and helpful. The beds were a bit firm for our tastes, but totally acceptable. Breakfast with other adventurers trading hints each morning was also great.

We stayed in two different rooms. The first was a 'deluxe' and was too small to unpack and live in for a week. Luckily they had a larger room (although it had two beds instead of one) that gave us a more comfortable space. Having internet access really made planning each day much easier - although if you don't travel with a laptop - there is an inexpensive 24 hour internet cafe at the end of the hutong on Dongsi Nandajie.

Some people have commented about the difficulty getting to this hotel. We called them (using skype) and had them set up an airport pickup for us. The driver took us right to the hotel. After an 18 hour flight - this was really great.

Finally - when touring town - we often had a tough time getting taxis to take us back to the hotel using the hotels business card.
We found it far more effective to take a picture (see below) of the address of a shop at the entrance to the Hutong on Dongsi Nandajie. We would then just get in the cab and show the driver the picture on the digital camera display. He would drive us right there without any problems.

Enjoy.

My wife and I stayed for 6 nights in an Executive Room at the end of September. We wholeheartedly agree with all the positive comments from previous reviews.

We loved the difference it provided from the big, bland, sterile chain hotels that are commonplace in Bejing. The executive room was very spacious and I believe they have two of these rooms facing the inner courtyard. The largest room is the VIP room at the north end of the courtyard. I would recommend trying to get an executive room as on a couple of occassions we overhead comments made by other guests about the lack of space in the standard room.

Only a couple of negatives:

* The head of our bed backed onto a wall that seemed to have running pipes behind it. We worked out the kicthen was probably behind it, so we simple slept at the other end of the bed.

* The breakfast became a bit tedious after a while. The 'western' (or whatever similar name it had) breakfast had a Chinese twist to it, so by the end of our stay we were just eating the fruit. The bread was incredibly sweet for our taste.

* A little bit tricky for cabs to find, even when you had chinese directions. I would recommend getting the chinese names of the nearest major intersection and than walking form there.

We liked some of the local restaurants that are enjoyed by locals, they're very filling and very cheap. Along the major street at the eastern end of Lishi Hutong (which Dengcao hutong is off) there are a number of good eats. For the two of us, three courses with a few beers - cost about 90 RMB. Also there are a number of little shops within the surrounding hutongs that welcome your business. They are so cheap, we would often buy a few beers and sit in the courtyard at night after a long day. The big 750ml bottles of Tsingtao would work out to be about 30 cents (AUD) each! Much better than the mark-ups you get in Western bars.

We hired a taxi driver through the hotel to take us to the Jinshanling-Simatai section of the Great Wall. It cost 650RMB, which is cheaper than any other quoted price I could find and you get driven up there (at a breakneck speed) where they wait for you at Simatai to finish the 10km (6 mile) hike. Probably the highlight of our China experience.

If you get the chance definitely stay at the Sihe Hotel. The location is great (very central, about 20min walk to Forbidden City) and the staff very friendly and helpful, despite the obvious gaps in English comprehension.

For a couple of days we had a wonderful English speaking guide who took us around to where we wanted to go. She was very reasonably priced and had an excellent knowledge of the places of interest. If you want to know more, feel free to send me a message

I booked the Beijing Sihe Hotel based on these fantastic reviews. I was very excited, but a little concerned that my mother and I would be disappointed. We were thrilled with everything about the hotel! The staff was friendly and helpful through our entire stay. We left our luggage with the front desk 2 days before we checked in (because we could not take more than one bag on the train) and when we arrived our bags were in our room. The staff went out of their way to make our stay outstanding from finding a restaurant that delivered late at night to arranging a taxi to take us to the airport at 5:00am.
The breakfast at the hotel restaurant was wonderful! The Chinese Dumpling Breakfast was one of the best things we ate during our stay in China. A great way to start our day before climbing the great wall.
The reviews stated that taxi drivers had difficulty finding the hotel. We had the address written in Chinese characters, and did not have any problem. At the train station, we went through 3 taxi drivers before one knew where it was, but it was quick and the driver who took us easily made it to the entrance to the hutong. Taxis have difficulty fitting down the small alley, so we walked from the entrance to the hotel each time. It was a short walk, and well worth it!
Overall, this hotel was fantastic! I will stay here again next time I visit and cannot wait to stay here with my husband. My mother and I loved every minute of it! Believe everything you've read! Stay at the Sihe!!!