I am spending this Tuesday night (Oct 11) in Beijing for a 15 hour layover. Does anyone have favorite areas to visit or other recommendations? I'd like to get some good food (street or restaurant) and walk around. Thanks!

Matt

Assuming your arrival is on-time around 6:20 pm (from the other thread, I'm assuming we're talking about the CA JFK-PEK flight), you won't jump through the transit/entry hoops and be able to get to town until about 8:00 pm. That means that your options for "sightseeing" are fairly limited. And many local eating places and street food will be winding down. I think you are going to be more tired than you expect, and will just want to get to a hotel room to dump your stuff and relax. But it's your call.

Due to timing and distance, I don't recommend that you try to go deeply to the center of the city such as Tiananmen area or Wangfujing. Especially do not head for the Wangfujing Night Market, which will be wrapping up by the time you could get there. For eats, a good place that continues all evening and wee hours, and is pretty lively is colloquially known as Guijie or "Ghost Street." Lots of local restaurants there at great prices, and some western offerings too. From the Dongzhimen Transport Hub (terminus for the Airport Express light rail), you'd need to head about 1 km west. Or tell a taxi driver "Dongzhimennei" and "Guijie." (characters are 东直门内 and 簋街). Or get to your hotel and have the doorman help you with the taxi. Near Guijie, there are some residential hutong areas you can walk through but at that time of evening, you won't see much activity outside especially if it is cold.

Another possibility is heading for the Sanlitun area where you'll find a variety of western, Chinese, and other Asian options, though not at bargain prices. Also plenty of drinking spots. Either taxi or Subway Line 10 to Tuanjiehu stop, Exit A and walk west away from the elevated 3rd Ring Road. This area will also be hopping at least to 11 pm-midnight. But is the face of "Modern China" not "Old China."

Having a hotel booked in either area would be helpful on logistics. And also for getting out to airport the next morning.

I would just go to Sanlitun. Even though I don't really care for Sanlitun any more, it still has a high concentration of restaurants (some of which are good), cheap hotels (e.g. Yo Yo), and isn't so far from the airport.

Other areas to consider:
-Yansha (Marriott NE is a good pick)
-Goulou (especially if you're into hutongs)
-Lido
-Zhongguancun/wudaokou

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. We were thinking of booking a hotel near the airport to avoid morning traffic. Any recommendations? There are plenty of cheap ones with ratings but no personal reviews.

Thank you,
Matt

Theoretically sounds like a good plan, but in actuality, in Beijing it's not. The cheaper hotels (non-branded, Chinese) are awkward to access from T3 and not that great, most of them are over near T1/2 and don't have shuttles. And nothing is around them. You would do just as well to just go into town and stay there, near one of the locations I mentioned. As long as you are within walking distance of the Dongzhimen Transport Hub or any subway stop on Line 10, you're golden and don't have to worry about Beijing morning traffic. You can get on the Airport Express around 7 or even 7:30 in the morning, and 15 minutes later be at T3. Plenty of time, if you're HKG flight is around 9:30. See if the Holiday Inn Express on Chunxiu Lu has any availability. Less expensive would be the Home Inn (Beijing Dongzhimen) is a simple but clean chain, like a US motel style, and great location. The Beijing A.C. Embassy Hotel is in the same area and a little more expensive. The Home Inn (Yansha) would also be workable. If you have access to a computer and haven't left home yet or are on the road, www.sinohotel.com is a good and reliable local booking agent with fair pricing. In most cases you reserve with credit card and pay hotel directly. They haven't screwed up a China booking for me yet.

Like big sis suggests, the cheap hotel near the airport idea isn't very good in practice. If you don't want to stay in town, the Lido area is a nice compromise. In addition to the Lido itself (kind of expensive), there is the Rosedale and this Japanese serviced apartment called the Jiuxian Gongyu (because it's near Jiuxian Qiao). I know that I've plugged the Lido idea many times over in these PEK layover threads. The reason for this is because there are a number of decent restaurants in the area, it is pleasant (there is even a decent park), you can easily pop into town for several hours at night, and traffic is rarely bad on the airport expressway.

My wife and I have a 16hr overnight transit through PEK in June-2015 and I want to get into the city.

I had a similar itinerary last year, and I got TWOV without problems. I stayed near Sanyuanqiao (Orange Hotel), but I'm hoping to stay walking distance to Dongzhimen this time. I see that Siji Minfu is close by too!

I see HIE Dongzhimen (10 minute walk from Airport Express?), but what other options are good in that area? (And maybe a bit cheaper than Holiday Inn franchise.)

My mando is passable, so I could probably survive.

I stay at the HIE Dongzhimen often. It's actually quite far to walk from the Airport Express/subway station, but too close that many taxi drivers will refuse to take you (especially when going to the HIE, because of the direction and blocked road median). Plan on flagging down a pedicab, which can weave through traffic and get you there in ~ 5 minutes. Taking a taxi from the hotel to the Airport Express/subway station should not be a problem.

I do like the HIE Dongzhimen, and I recommend it for a short trip like this because of its vicinity to the Airport Express.

Any insights on "local franchises" like Home Inn, Green Tree or Hanting? I could save some cash staying with them. CTrip has them for about half the cost of HIE.

Unless you have a Chinese passport, I wouldn't recommend booking those online. For instance, I encountered a number of Hanting in Nanjing and throughout Guangdong that wouldn't accept foreign guests. That said, when I've been able to stay with that chain, they're my first choice (among other mainland-born chain hotels).

Also, I think user moondog could help you out with your question/Green Tree opinions.

Like most other chains, Hanting on its Chinese-language website shows which hotels in the group don't accept foreigners, usually by noting 内宾 “domestic guest" in the main list, though sometimes by noting that foreigners aren't accepted in the detailed hotel description.

Further, ctrip and elong on their English-language websites intend to list only hotels which accept non-Chinese, but their systems are not perfect and mistakes happen. I can vouch for that. In any event, if there's a particular hotel you're interested in, you can always call ctrip first and ask them to confirm with the hotel directly that you won't be thrown out into the cold because of your foreign face.

I've liked Green Tree and Jinjiang Inns, but a lot depends on the particular property. Best to read the reviews beforehand, using Google Translate if necessary. Chinese guests can be scathing.

I am actually considering Jinjiang near Dongzhimen station.

I would assume that Jinjiang is okay with foreigners (I'm foreign but not a "foreign face") since they have an english website.

Some Jinjiang Inns are OK with foreigners, others aren't; you have to check the particular property you're looking at. If it's the Dongzhimen Embassy District one at No.23 Xin Yuan Xi Li Middle Street, then the Jinjiang website says 可接待外宾 "Can Accept Foreign Guests."

"Foreign guest" normally means anyone not checking in with a Chinese ID card, including Taiwan and HK visitors.

(I checked Jinjiang Inns, the cheaper range of the Jinjiang group; perhaps you're looking for a higher-end Jinjiang Hotel.)

I used to work at Dangdai MOMA (lego brick complex with connecting bridges alongside airport express) in Dongzhemen a few years back. They were building a hotel there though I never saw it completed. Seems to have opened though not much info around about it apart from a few indifferent reviews on Tripadvisor.

Anyone know anything about it?