Red Capital Residence (top)
Get into bed with Mao? Well, maybe not exactly, but you can get pretty close at the retro chic Red Capital Residence. Located in a historic and thankfully protected hutong, this courtyard hotel has five rooms that have been lovingly and exquisitely restored and packed with revolution-era 'maomorabilia'. Settle down for the night in the Chairman's Suite and you'll be sleeping in the same style of bed favoured by the Great Leader, or you can browse some of his typical bedtime reading. There are two Concubines' Private Courtyard rooms, and in one of the two Authors' Suites a typed page from a Han Su Yin novel is slotted into an art-deco typewriter. A bomb shelter doubles as a bar while the Red Capital Restaurant in the next hutong dishes up fare fit for red capitalists. Double suites are US$300 a night while single rooms are $200 (tel: 86 10 8403 5308,
www.redcapitalclub.com.cn).
Bamboo Garden Hotel (right)
In a quiet hutong just behind the Bell and Drum tower, the Bamboo Garden is a welcome retreat from the cacophony of city life. This courtyard-style hotel was apparently once the home of the Empress Dowager Cixi's top eunuch, Li Lianying (if only walls could talk), and before that a Qing-dynasty Minister of Post. It still retains much of its classical Chinese essence, with Ming-style furniture in all the rooms and long, meandering, painted corridors a la the Summer Palace. The inner courtyard with its tumbling waterfall and rustling bamboo groves is the perfect place to soothe frayed nerves after a busy day of sightseeing. And if that doesn't work, head to the ground-floor bar where you can stretch out on an opium bed and numb your senses with a cocktail. Double rooms cost 520-580 yuan, suites are 1,200 yuan (tel: 86 10 6403 2229,
www.bbgh.com.cn).
Beijing Han Xing Yuan Hotel
Despite its prime location on the banks of the Hou Hai lake - the hangout for the city's trendsetters - there's nothing pretentious about the Beijing Han Xing Yuan Hotel. Rooms are simple but comfortable, with double beds and marble or wooden floors, and if you book one on the second floor you get a pleasant view of the small courtyard below. It also nudges up against the former residence of Sun Yat-sen's wife Soong Ching-ling, which is worth a visit. The hotel has only recently started to accept foreigners so the staff's English is still limited, but this is more than made up for with friendliness. Breakfast is not included but you can try a 'Beijing breakfast' - omelettes stuffed with Chinese spring onions and cooked ad hoc on every street corner. Standard A rooms are 358 yuan, suites are 528 yuan (tel: 86 10 6618 3331).