We have just returned from 9 nights at this hotel in Sept. 06.

Previous reviews are all fair, and prices quoted for meals, taxis etc. are up to date and description of hotel pretty good so I will try not to repeat.

The hotel is in a very good location. If you think 3 star you will not be disappointed. You can hear the person snoring next door in some rooms because of the locked connecting door, our room did need a new carpet. After one or two meals in the hotel, they are repetitive - even a buffet - and so you are better eating out, and staying on a no breakfast deal.

I did not fancy the fast food restaurent opposite that other people reccomend.

We preferred to turn right on leaving hotel, walk for approx 100m and eat at the restaurent with the white table cloths, the one next door is cheaper - no table cloths - but pay the extra. An evening meal for four adults with all the dishes you can eat, plus drinks was under £15.00 total for four.

Also eat at S.Silk Road on Lotus Lane in the evening. It is busy at 5.30 ish and you ,may have to wait for a table indoors. But wait.

The bread/cake shop opposite the hotel is a delight.

Taxis are cheap, whether the one at the hotel or hailed from the street.

Silk Market and the Antiques market - it sells more than antiques - are the best. Have a suit made to measure at the Silk Market as soon as you arrive. Pay approx. 1000 yuan, say £70.00 for a cashmere/ wool suit with an additional pair of trousers. This is with their best material. You can get it lower, but I wanted to be sure it was made on time.

Get prescription glasses, variable focus with titanium frames for about £40.00 at the Silk Market.

Have a foot massage at the Silk Market, far cheaper than near the hotel.

Give the Friendship store a miss, hardly anybody there, and nobody buying.

Concierge in the hotel very helpful.

Make sure you get the Chinese name for the hotel printed befor you leave home. Find a website with it on - I used the old Novotel site, bit it worked.

It is a good 3 star, arguably 4. But think 3.

Hotels nearby Tianlun and Crown Plaza are more exclusive but more pricey. Not worth the difference unless it is a special anniversary etc.

I would stay again at this hotel, am well travelled, and would reccomend it due to location, price and cleanliness. But think 3 star not 4!

I stayed in the Tianlun Songhe Hotel for 5 days for a business meeting. My room was paid by my host so I don't know how much they paid for it, but it struck me as a good 3.5* to 4* hotel. If anything it was a more chinese version of the western chains which otherwise abound in this area.
The location is ideal, steps aways from shopping and 10 minutes walk from Tiananmen.
Staff throughout the hotel were courteous, attentive and responsive. Any issues I had were dealt with promptly and efficiently.
I found the room I had was very spacious, reasonably, but not luxoriously equipped. The room was kept nicely clean, as was the bathroom. Nice big TV set, only English news was CNN, no BBC. The BBC website was also censored and not available over the Internet.
Internet access in the rooms was through a power line modem (and didn't use a USB port as claimed by the hotel instructions). You simply connected it straight to your Ethernet port. Had to pay a CNY 500 refundable deposit for the modem.
The buffet restaurant was OK, but certainly nothing to write home about and the food was always the same. One previous reviewer complained about the food not being hot - that is normal. In China, food is nearly always served lukewarm. That of course, doesn't mean it hasn't been cooked, only that it is served that way.
I would certainly recommend the hotel for its location and pleasant staff.

Background: 5 days in Beijing after having spent 3 days in Xi'an. Wife and I are in our 30's. We speak and read Mandarin. First trip to Beijing. Looking for a functional but comfortable hotel. We aren't used to having our rooms cleaned for us, and weren't expecting to have hotel restaurant food, room service, or even to have organised tours.

We had the hotel name printed out earler. The taxi from Beijing West train station had no problems findng the hotel. Although he did have to make a U-turn in a narrow road -- not sure why.

We were worried that it was a smalllish hotel, compared to Tianlun Dynasty and Crowne Plaza, both 100m away on the same road. Reception was a little slow and chilly, both on checking in and checking out. Maybe it was understaffed during those times. Language skills were useful: we witnessed other tourists having difficulties when their requests went beyond "checkin/checkout". Functional, though. During our stay, we later came down to chat about the available tours (we didn't take any in the end), and to set up Internet in our room, and they were helpful then. They accepted the usual credit cards, including Diners.

The room we got was also functional. Small/medium: TV, remote, armchair, 2 single beds, sidetable in between, minibar, cool/hot water dispenser (boils on request I think), desk with lots of drawers, luggage rack, cupboard, safe. Toilet, sink, shower in bathtub blah. Blockout curtains. There's a locked door connecting to the neighbour's room. No problems with smells, or ventilation. Outside the window was construction, but no sound. Not sure why. There aren't as many trees around the building as seems to be on the photos.

It's not extravagant. Everything wooden (i.e. door, cupboard, desks) looked a little "80's" and shabby. All dark wood too: When the curtains were closed (at night) the room became quite dark even with the lights on, making it difficult to read/write at the desk. Since there were 2 of us, the armchair with footrest was nice, while we took turns to use the desk. There were powerplugs of all sorts on the walls -- British, Australian, and US ones. Although they did need 3 prongs for the Australian plugs.

One evening, we could hear the male neighbour singing, through the thin wall/locked door, which worried us. Thank goodness that lasted only a couple of hours.

Bonus: there was a notice on the desk that said we could rent from reception a USB appliance that attached to the powerplug that would also provide Internet in the room. There was a 500Y refundable guarantee fee, and a 50Y/daily fee. This was not advertised when we made our booking, and if it was USB, it was unlikely that we would have network drivers for my Mac OS X PowerBook. Turns our that 1. the daily fee was already included in our room rates, 2. it was ethernet to power, not USB. 3. included in the bundle was a power extension cable with additional sockets. We had to pay the 500Y, which was OK, and refunded at the end. Worked with my PowerBook without drivers. Excellent! We got to read Tripadvisor etc to plan our days, send/receive emails, and upload photos every evening etc.

We weren't too interested in taking organised group tours, but sought a car to Mutianyu Great Wall. There is a travel counter at the hotel which would organise a private tour in a deluxe car for 700Y (they have a printed price list for many locations). We went out instead, and organised a trip with a normal Beijing cab for 500Y (to/fro, and wait for us at the wall). The hotel would organise a rented car to/fro Simatai for us for > 1000Y. The printed prices seemed a little high, and we didn't try to haggle.

The hotel location is good. Wangfujin shopping didn't appeal to use much, but we did take a peek. It's there and we budgeted some time to look around, but never properly made it. Within walking distance are: Wangfujin Bookstore, Wangfujin food lane, Donghuamen food street, Forbidden City/Tiananmen/Beihai area. Quanjunde Beijing Roast duck has a branch along Wangfujin closeby -- went there twice. Oriental Plaza (where Hyatt is), has lots of franchise food shops that are nice, yet not pricey (by foreigners standards). A meal was usually 30-40Y for 2 of us. We ate at different shops a lot.

The subway station is about 10-15 minutes down Wangfujin Street (between Oriental Plaza, and Beijing Hotel) -- probably a third or a quarter the distance to actual Tiananmen Square itself. I *estimate* that the Square is about 2.5km from the hotel, so it's not just next door.

Food was not included in our hotel rates, and we weren't too interested in the idea. Opposite the hotel is a franchise modern-type Chinese restaurant. Funnily the morning and evening service is totally different. Including staff uniforms, food types, and method of ordering food. There are menus with pictures on them in the afternoon/evening only. Morning seems a little more fast paced, and we order/pay at a counter, then collect at a 2nd counter. Tricky, but we watched others, and everything turned out ok. It's good and cheap enought that we could've gone there everyday. There's also a McDonalds 100m away that opens at 7am, and a supermarket right next to that too (look for a sign and an arrow painted on the wall).

On our last day, we suddenly realised that we could've had Mongolian hotpot right at the hotel restaurant, and not too pricey too. Made our mouths water, but too late: we were leaving. We would probably have gone for another round of Quanjunde Beijing Duck (it's that good).

We had our room cleaned every other day (i.e. twice in total). No problems there, but we did put the 12" G4 PowerBook in the roomsafe. Anything larger wouldn't have fit IMHO.

Lots of legal 1.60Y cabs on the street outside the hotel, when we made trips to Summer Palace (50Y) and Airport (about 100Y, can't remember). We didn't bother asking the hotel staff to hail us one. There was also a bus stop about 10m away from the hotel, which maybe we could have tried to use, but didn't.

We paid 578Y for a "deluxe standard room", on Asiatravel -- just about the upper limit of what we wanted to pay. The picture there is accurate, although in reality, things are darker and there is no rose in the bed.

I'd recommend the hotel to my friends, if they aren't looking for too many amenities. I'd stay there again, but only after some price hunting. The location, and unadvertised internet-in-room is a major bonus.

My husband and I stayed at the TianLun SongHe for 5 nights last week. We paid RMB538 each night. The hotel was quite old and furniture in the room had seen better days. The room was of reasonable size but the bathroom was small. I found the bed very hard and had trouble sleeping the first night but my husband was ok. I think, most importantly, the room was clean. We liked the water-dispenser (hot/cold) and it gets refilled everyday.

SongHe enjoys a great location just off WangFuJing. When you come out from the hotel & turn left, you will find WangFuJing (pedestrian street). To the right, you will find many food outlets (mainly Shanghainese/Taiwanese type plus a MacDonald's). At right end, you will find another main street (DongSi meaning East Four) which houses boutiques/salons/more eateries. Not many tourists in this part. Hence, the stuff they sell is different from WangFuJing which has all the malls, fastfood and the bigger brands. But for bargain hunting, I think nothing beats Silk Street market. Lots of fake LVs, Pradas, Gucci and Polo Ralph Lauren shirts. Also good for children's clothes. Be prepared to bargain though - we always walked off and got called back :P

Hotels in the vicinity:
Next door, also a TianLun hotel but the TianLun Dynasty. I think you will need to pay RMB 700-800 'cos it's newer and more luxurious. Opposite the TianLun Dynasty is the Holiday Crowne Plaza which is another new/luxurious hotel. About 2 blocks down, there is the Taiwan hotel, Novotel Peace and a Lee Garden apartment. All in very convenient locations just off WangFuJing pedestrian street. But depending on the class of hotel, the price of local tour packages may also be different. I paid RMB300 for a one-day tour to Badaling and SiSanLing while tour-mates staying at TianLun Dynasty paid RMB320. The really grand hotels like Grand Hyatt, Beijing Hotel, are at the southern end of WangFuJing and sits on top of the subway. At the northern end is the Prime Hotel which is a little way off.