We spent 3 days here at the end of March. Our room was in the tower and was, by American standards, a little small. In UK terms it was quite spacious. The bed a full kIng size was very comfortable and the room was very quiet. The bathroom had a shower separate from the bath a real personal plus point.
Our view was out of the back of the hotel over the gardens and was fine, I expect rooms on the south side overlooking the highway intersection may be a little noisier. Others have remarked on the proximity of the intersection but we did not find it intrusive. We've stayed in far noisier city hotels elsewhere. In fact on a positive note the location on the third ring road made it easy to travel away from the hotel. But the location is quite isolated - we had transport so for us this was not an issue. But without it I would expect this could be a problem. In fact the only problem with an otherwise flawless hotel.
Service was excellent - attentive, friendly, and everyone we encountered had enough English for us to successfully communicate our requirements.
The breakfast buffet was enormous and I would defy anyone not to find something to eat either Oriental or Western in addition there was an a la carte menu we didn't need to sample. We also ate here - a light meal in the Yi cafe late one evening and even though they were about to stop serving we were not rushed and watched as they dismantled and removed the ice sculptures from the buffet for repacking in the freezers!
Check in was quick and efficient, and I was addressed by name, always a nice touch.
All told this was a great first 'Shangri La' experience and one I would repeat without hesitation.

Stayed here for 3 nights as part of post-cruise package. Room was in the older wing and showed its age a bit--could use updating. Best part of the experience there was the food in both the Coffee Shop and the Blu Lobster. Also lovely garden which is a respite from the crazy traffic. Location is not great--not pedestrian-friendly. Staff speaks little English but are very nice and try hard to accomodate.

Booked this hotel last August reason being as my daughter is at the university in that area so location wise it suited us brilliantly, so after reading reports about this hotel after I had booked it I was thinking I had made a mistake..
Not to be , we stayed in the orinal part of the Hotel not the new wing, rooms maybe a tad dated but fine infact the beds are the comfiest...
Breakfast was just brilliant there was such a geart selection that i couldnt even list everything, staff were polite and charming, not hovering over you wanting to be tipped... but Beijingers do not expect to be tipped so dont.
Both restauruants in the hotel were brillant... Blu Lobster was the most probably the best I have had the pleasure to eat in... if its good enough for Celine Dion well.......there you go.
Location wise yes it is somewhat out of the way... taxis are cheap, I wouldnt recommend the subway as we used it but my daughter is used to it and can speak the language, we did the major attractions and the longest we were in a taxi was about 40 mins... in fact I was glad i booked this hotel and not one nearer to the other attractions, beijing is ssooooo big you will always be stuck in some kind of traffic....

First of all, this hotel is really far away from the centre of Beijing (ie Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City etc). I'm talking a 30 minute ride in a taxi. Yes, taxis are extremely cheap in Beijing, but I didn't enjoy spending 5 hours a day in them getting to an from our hotel.
Also, being in this location, there are no restaurants or shops anywhere nearby. Nothing worth visiting is within walking distance, so you need to be aware you are very isolated, but to be honest, I was relieved we weren't staying in the centre of the city. It was a relief to get back to our peaceful hotel each day.

The restaurants in the hotel were superb. I don't usually like eating in the hotels too much, I think it's important to get out there and 'be with the people', but we had so much trouble finding restaurants where menus were written even partly in English (KFC was really our only choice-if you're a fan, you'll be in heaven in Beijing), so we ate in the hotel every night. The food was amazing - I was never disappointed. It's not cheap though, so bring a credit card with a big limit.

The hotel itself is nice. We were in a suite, and it was ok. A little dated, and the zebra print on the walls was a bit hard to get used to, but having 2 bathrooms was fantastic.

The Horizon Club was ok (staff were fantastic) but next time I'd stay in the Valley Wing. Much nicer for a very similar price.

The only bad thing I can say is the service in the lobby lounge broke my heart. We went there one day after going to the Great Wall, and the girls working there wouldn't let us have a table (perhaps because we looked too 'touristy' compared to all the business guests). I was furious and absolutely mortified. I went up to my room and got a bit upset and had a bit of a teary moment, but the girls in the Horizon Club were really nice to us, so it wasn't everyone in the hotel who was rude. The guys on the door definitely deserve a mention - they had the best English of anyone in the hotel, they were funny and a pleasure to see each day.

All in all, this hotel is probably more suited to business travellers than tourists. We did not see one other tourist in the hotel for the entire week while we were there and we were told they were running at about 80% capacity, so you may feel like a fish out of water if you're on holiday.