halibahs

Hello all,

I'm thinking of a 5-6 days trip to Beijing during the Chinese New Year. We're planning to stay 2 nights in PH Beijing and another 2-3 nights in Aman Sunmer Palace. It's not our first time in Beijing so probably just an excursion to the Great Wall and some R&R.

I heard the ground and rooms at Aman SP is amazing (but no bathtub in some rooms?! that I cannot stand..) but the service standard and food are not up to the usual Aman standard. Have anyone stayed in the hotel recently and can provide some insight on service and food options (and costs)?

We're also planning to join a great wall excursion with Aman with the hope that they will select a section of less visited great wall with fewer tourists. Have anyone done the excursion?

Thanks!

ainternational

I did pretty much this exact trip about 4 months back. Several nights at the PH Beijing followed by three nights at Aman SP to relax after working for several days in the city.

First, I'd recommend you book the PH via a Virtuoso agent. We received an amazing double upgrade to an absolutely incredibly suite with a soaking jacuzzi the likes of which I didn't know any Park Hyatt's had. Stunning views from a special and very high corner suite - it was stellar - and I found the service (particularly Benny, the head concierge) to be really top notch. Contact them pre arrival to arrange everything. Also suggest VIP butler service at the airport for fast immigration connecting to a hotel operated transfer in a sedan to the property. Nice way to arrive in style.

Aman can then arrange, for a fee, to pick you up at the PH. Once again, we received a complimentary upgrade through Virtuoso to a Courtyard Suite I believe it was. There was a tub but it was small. Very small. Coming from the PH, to be honest, the Aman room was almost a step down. Although the exquisite traditional architecture and furnishings finally made me feel like I was really in China. The suite itself was fantastic and the bed area extremely romantic and one of a kind.

Correct, I found the food to be sub Aman standards. Even the recommended Chinese restaurant which I found to be just "ok". Western food at breakfast was unimpressive. Western lunch I found to be pretty good. The movie theater and associated popcorn / snacks were fantastic and the underground indoor pool was excellent as was the spa.

We did the Aman provided Great Wall excursion which featured a dedicated English speaking guide and driver, in an Audi A6 or A8 I believe. We went to a quieter section of the wall and the guide took us to some less known areas with incredible views. Highly recommended. We liked her so much that we had her provide the Summer Palace tour (free when booked with Virtuoso) which was also nice, although the Great Wall was much better. SP itself is interesting but very crowded. The side private entrance that Aman has is quite nice, you'll feel special there among the crowds of Chinese tourists.

All in all, I loved both the PH and Aman SP. If I was back in Beijing for business, I'd choose the PH hands down for location and overall excellent service and experience. For relaxation in Beijing, Aman SP can't be beat IMHO, although if I was looking for a nice relaxing vacation, I'd opt for something like Amanpuri over a more urban location like Aman SP.

Happy to answer specific questions as well.

Groombridge

I stayed for four nights at Aman-Summer Palace in September 2012, and felt the positives significantly outweighed the negatives:

- The service, particularly by the F&B staff, was on par with the best I have ever experienced at Aman or Four Seasons or elsewhere. Our names were used (and there were 4 different last names to keep track of in our party), our preferences were remembered, and the staff were warm and caring. Only Amantaka and Amanfayun have achieved similarly stratospheric service standards in my experience of Aman resorts.

- The facilities are so impressive -- the experience of the screening room, the pool, the spa facilities, the large and light-filled gym. It's all really wonderful. The public areas are also very atmospheric and beautifully decorated, although I do wish that the lighting in the evenings at the bar terrace overlooking the lily pond was more sensitive and atmospheric, instead of the harsh, glaring, yellow lights they turn on.

I'd never seen photos of this gorgeous underground area adjacent to the screening room and near the spa. It was always entirely empty, and since the spa's glaring faulty is its absence of a relaxation area for tea, reading, and napping after a treatment, I'd recommend they use this area for that purpose:



And here is the lily pond that abuts the bar and its terrace -- gorgeous by day, but garish and harshly lit by night:



And a view of the set-up for the daily calligraphy class offered in the cultural pavilion:



- I agree that the guest accommodations are a step down from 5-star standards, and the bathrooms in particular are in need of a refurbishment. We stayed in a Courtyard Suite, the top accommodation apart from their presidential, and it was starting to show its age, with damaged/stained wooden furniture, chipped/broken hardware in the bathroom.

- I thought the food was slightly better than what I've experienced at other Amans, where I have never felt the food is consistently great. Some dishes were delicious, many were average, and a few were not good at all.

- Our biggest disappointment was the quality of the excursions. We'd expected that Aman would provide bespoke, tailored, unique access and experiences, but the tour of the Forbidden City was a total dud, less informative and interesting than the audio guide I used last time. For the Great Wall, they provide two excursions. They avoid the very touristy sections (Badaling and Mutianyu) and instead give you the option of a the restored section that is farthest from Beijing (Jinshanling, about 2-3 hours away) or if you want assurance that there will be no one around, they will take you to a non-restored section for rugged hiking, but it is a section that has not been restored, so from the pictures they showed us seemed to lack the grandeur of the restored sections. So we opted for their Jinshanling tour.

Here's the sort scenery you get at the Jinshanling sector of the Great Wall:



We loved that section of the Wall, but again, the credit belongs to the Wall and not Aman, as there was nothing special about the excursion and, in fact, the "picnic lunch in a gazebo" element of that excursion was a debacle -- a concrete platform surrounded by locals' underwear hanging on laundry lines. They need to re-think their excursions entirely and talk with some other Aman resorts about how to do this sort of thing properly.

Here's a glimpse of where/how they set up the picnic lunch next to the Great Wall parking lot:



One of my favorite experiences at an Aman resort is the special dinners or breakfasts they can arrange in scenic locations, and when we inquired about this, they indicated that they do have a relationship with the Chinese government whereby they can rent a tower in the Summer Palace for a private dinner. We made this arrangement, and while the food was wonderful -- all the more amazing given that it was cooked in the tower by Aman's head chef without the aid of an open flame -- the Chinese restrictions on the tower (since it is a historic structure) meant no candles, so it wasn't quite as atmospheric as other Aman dinners, but was still quite nice, albeit in retrospect not worth the hefty rental fee we paid to use the tower. Here's the tower itself:



And here is a view of the dining set-up atop the tower:



And if you're curious about Aman's back-door entrance to the Summer Palace, here's it is -- a corridor that runs alongside the back of the Aman compound and through which you can enter the Summer Palace grounds, which at all hours are mobbed, but the sunrise period in which the locals are exercising in groups is really wonderful to see.

The corridor from Aman to the Summer Palace:



And the Summer Palace itself, right after sunrise:

halibahs

thank you very much for your reports guys! especially groombridge for the lovely pics!
how much did the tour to great wall cost?
i must say having a picnic surrounded by locals' underwear is definitely not an Aman standard picnic!! Did you have a word with management about that?

are there any dining options around Aman SP? or is it a 30 mins drive into town before one can find a decent restaurant?

Groombridge

I don't recall the cost of the Great Wall excursion -- but if you email them they will send you a document containing all of their excursions and their prices.

Yes, I sent a note to the GM (whom we never met, as she was traveling on business the dates we were there) about the disappointing quality of the excursions and the GM indicated that they'd recently been discussing a need to re-think them.

I doubt there are dining options anywhere near Aman SP that are anywhere nearly as high of quality as what you'll get at Aman -- and one local whom I trust indicated that Aman's Chinese restaurant was considered one of the top authentic Chinese restaurants in the city.

Ericka

Great pics, Groombridge! Underwear, and all.

mike_la_jolla

I don't remember anything outside the gate other than street food. And you can't get anywhere in Beijing in 30 minutes.

If you intend on taking taxis, make sure you have the 'taxi card' with you. All the cars had trouble finding the place. It is very discrete and on an out of the way side street.

ainternational

A few more thoughts to follow up to my prior post:

- Service was absolutely fantastic. Specifically the management. I celebrated my birthday at the property and they went over the top with a hand written card signed by over 20 staff members and a special Chinese cake presentation and gift provided during our candlelit dinner overlooking the lagoon. Truly amazing and memorable experience. Shimizu-san, now moved back to TYO and presumably working on the Aman in Japan, was truly amazing.

- Service at the bar and restaurants was good. Not incredible, but quite nice. I especially appreciated the service at the bar and during the afternoon tea time. We also enjoyed the arts and crafts each day in the afternoon and the associated non-Aman staff they brought in as teachers.

- Walking around outside the property one night, we found VERY little in the area of food. There are some restaurants beyond the street food, but they are very sketchy when compared to anything in central Beijing. I was adventurous enough to give one or two a shot, but my companion was not and we returned to Aman for our meals. Highly recommend you don't EVER consider eating in Summer Palace proper. Our guide explained that due to local laws, nothing but microwaves can be used to prepare food at actual restaurants in Summer Palace (Aman excluded since it's adjacent). Thus she explained that there are many high priced terrible restaurants within the palace itself which should be avoided at absolutely all costs.

Great pictures, Groombridge! Brings back many memories for me....

halibahs

thanks for all the info guys, unfortunately my partner was denied for a chinese visa because his passport only has one and a half blank pages left.... (we applied for an indian visa earlier in preparation for Aman India Journey )

contacted Aman central reservation and decided to go to Amantaka instead, seems like the resort is quite full, hopefully won't affect service and stay quality *fingers crossed*

saving the Chinese Amans for another time I guess....