Stayed in the IC Sanlitun from Dec27 to Dec29.

Apologies for the bellow pics, they were taken with an old smart phone

We took a taxi from the airport and the driver had to call the property to confirm the address, no big deal but indeed people still don't know it. We arrived around 9am and they granted us an early check-in at that time, we have had early check-ins all the time in this trip to China and S. Korea, but this is low season / winter.

We thought the IC Beijing Sanlitun to be a very nice property with a contemporary design. We really liked the lobby


A nice touch is that they change the elevator carpet everyday:


Staff was always very nice and helpful despite some obvious difficulties with english everybody went beyond and above for us. We forgot to bring a power adaptor and they lent us one and after that showed us in the room where there were outlets we could use with no adaptor.

The only problem in our room is that the shower door did not seal properly leaking some water in the floor, but the room is exquisitely decorated and everything was brand new. The free Nespresso was a nice touch, I don't usually drink coffee and got hyper because of the quantity of caffeine I in-took there

What really blew my mind away though were the gym and pool facilities, very likely the best of any urban hotel we have stayed. There was some miscommunication when I first arrived there as it was very early in the morning - 6am I believe - and the person in the front desk did not speak English. I wanted to go to the Swimming pool and she sent me to the gym after giving me a small towel and a bottle of mineral water: nice touch.



I used google translator and showed the caracter of what supposedly was the swimming pool and the lady then gave me a wrist and made some signals that I think she was asking if I had my swimming cap and googles and after showing her that I got mine she sent me to the men's dress room. The wrist had a number on it and opened - by contact - a locker, I believe the wrist was waterproof but decided not to risk. From the dress room I went to the amazing swimming pool where I was the only one and swam some laps for about 40 minutes:


We received 2 free drinks - at the lobby bar - for being elite members and just like El_Duderito mentioned minibar contents were free of charge. We actually liked the "light show", but agree that it can be a little annoying for those who are around all the time:



After these 2 nights we spent 3 nights at the Grand Hyatt and it felt like a significant downgrade. The GC is also a nice property, but not as close as the IC Sanlitun though better located to explore the main attractions of downtown Beijing.

Another thing that I highly recommend is doing a long hike in the Great Wall, we went with Beijing Hikers to the Jinshanling section of the wall and it was amazing! We came back after that to the Mutianyu section and it almost felt "meh" for us after Jinshanling. And don't forget to get a VPN to access facebook, google (including gmail and google maps), instagram, bloomberg, etc...