Places to live
We first booked into Hulu Hotel in one of the alleyways, a newly opened courtyard house hotel. All of the courtyard hotels are pretty hard to find, not suggested for people who likes to get out and about easier. When we got there we couldn't check in because they didn't recognize the ID we carried, and for the same price (900RMB) we found a lot of 5 star hotels in the same area with better facilities. I think many people like to live in these courtyard hotels for the vibe and experience, but comfort and value wise, a big hotel is still much better.
I strongly recommend Sanlitun, Dengshikou, Guomao districts. Anywhere on the east side between zone 2 and zone 3 really. These are great places to live for shopping, nightlife and modern architecture, also close enough to the center to check out the older tourist spots.
Traffic in Beijing is terrible, try to take the metro if your destination is near a metro station, however, be aware that most metro stations are very far apart from each other, sometimes you may need to take another taxi after metro.
Linked Hybrid - Steven Holl
Closest metro station - Dongzhimen, Liufang
Located right next to the airport highway, this is the IT place to live for artists and singers. Eight residential towers surrounding a central plaza with its own hipster cinema and hotel. All the bridges are parts of the clubhouse (swimming pool, gym, lecture hall, function room etc), which makes a lot more sense than just eye candy.
Living in a starchitect designed apartment is not cheap of course, a 150 sqm 2 bedroom flat is 25k RMB per month, clubhouse use is some 30k annual fee on top of that. And I must say, the interior could be done a LOT better, after a tour around the place, it's definitely not worth the 25k, but still worth a short visit to check it out :)
We first booked into Hulu Hotel in one of the alleyways, a newly opened courtyard house hotel. All of the courtyard hotels are pretty hard to find, not suggested for people who likes to get out and about easier. When we got there we couldn't check in because they didn't recognize the ID we carried, and for the same price (900RMB) we found a lot of 5 star hotels in the same area with better facilities. I think many people like to live in these courtyard hotels for the vibe and experience, but comfort and value wise, a big hotel is still much better.
I strongly recommend Sanlitun, Dengshikou, Guomao districts. Anywhere on the east side between zone 2 and zone 3 really. These are great places to live for shopping, nightlife and modern architecture, also close enough to the center to check out the older tourist spots.
Traffic in Beijing is terrible, try to take the metro if your destination is near a metro station, however, be aware that most metro stations are very far apart from each other, sometimes you may need to take another taxi after metro.
Linked Hybrid - Steven Holl
Closest metro station - Dongzhimen, Liufang
Located right next to the airport highway, this is the IT place to live for artists and singers. Eight residential towers surrounding a central plaza with its own hipster cinema and hotel. All the bridges are parts of the clubhouse (swimming pool, gym, lecture hall, function room etc), which makes a lot more sense than just eye candy.
Living in a starchitect designed apartment is not cheap of course, a 150 sqm 2 bedroom flat is 25k RMB per month, clubhouse use is some 30k annual fee on top of that. And I must say, the interior could be done a LOT better, after a tour around the place, it's definitely not worth the 25k, but still worth a short visit to check it out :)
Wangjing Soho - Zaha Hadid
Closest metro station - Wangjing
Office complex North zone 5 of Beijing, must say after seeing this I have much more regards for Zaha Hadid, details are done much better than Guangzhou Opera House. Good clear circulation through the place with a very pleasant sunken plaza in the middle. Worth the visit even though it's not that close to anything else. Office interior on the other hand is not that great compared to the exterior, you can sneak into one of the lifts to check out a floor.
Closest metro station - Wangjing
Office complex North zone 5 of Beijing, must say after seeing this I have much more regards for Zaha Hadid, details are done much better than Guangzhou Opera House. Good clear circulation through the place with a very pleasant sunken plaza in the middle. Worth the visit even though it's not that close to anything else. Office interior on the other hand is not that great compared to the exterior, you can sneak into one of the lifts to check out a floor.
CCTV Tower - OMA
How to get there: located right next to Jingtaixizhao metro station
Despite all the hype, I dont think this is really worth going to, the building is fenced off about 100m from the building itself, and you can't enter the premises at all.
How to get there: located right next to Jingtaixizhao metro station
Despite all the hype, I dont think this is really worth going to, the building is fenced off about 100m from the building itself, and you can't enter the premises at all.
Conrad Hotel - MAD
Walking distance from CCTV tower
Walking distance from CCTV tower
Jiaming Center - GMP
A very pleasant surprise bonus right next to Conrad Hotel. very elegant, humble design with beautiful details and a full building height atrium in the middle linking the two blocks.
A very pleasant surprise bonus right next to Conrad Hotel. very elegant, humble design with beautiful details and a full building height atrium in the middle linking the two blocks.
National Opera House (The Egg) - Paul Andrew
How to get there: Tiananmen West metro station
Beautiful experience journey into the opera house with the pool above the walkway.
Another project ruined by the interior.
How to get there: Tiananmen West metro station
Beautiful experience journey into the opera house with the pool above the walkway.
Another project ruined by the interior.
The commune has now been turned into a hotel resort, it's open for visit only during the week days, they only allow you to enter two of the houses (rotating depending on which houses are vacant), and the rest you can see from the outside, won't be able to go into the interior of the house. But check around all the doors to see if any are left unlocked by mistake :p we managed to enter Kengo Kuma's this way and it was absolutely the highlight of the trip.
How to get there: Take 919 from Deshengmen and get off at Shuiguan Great Wall, nearly 2 hours journey. You can also rent a taxi there, a return trip would be about 800 RMB.
Bamboo house - Kengo Kuma
The best use of bamboo i've ever seen, and you really feel the zen when you're sitting in this teahouse with this view. Beautiful collection of furniture too. Seeing this house makes the whole trip worthy :)
How to get there: Take 919 from Deshengmen and get off at Shuiguan Great Wall, nearly 2 hours journey. You can also rent a taxi there, a return trip would be about 800 RMB.
Bamboo house - Kengo Kuma
The best use of bamboo i've ever seen, and you really feel the zen when you're sitting in this teahouse with this view. Beautiful collection of furniture too. Seeing this house makes the whole trip worthy :)
Commune by the Great Wall
Architecture X Food King's Joy Restaurant
Courtyard renovation project by Yung Ho Chang
Vegetarian restaurant right next to Yonghe Temple, the black truffle egg white was the best egg white I've ever had. I'd recommend it for special occasions, I guess it's quite hard to make a fancy meal with only vegetarian food, I think they could have done better with the food, but the atmosphere, service and setting was brilliant.
Great entrance experience, Good interior, tasteful and not too fancy. Many patterns made with the roof tiles around. There are two courtyards, one exterior and one interior are the two dinning halls, there are also private tables that are separated by wooden brick screens that overlook the two courtyards.
Courtyard renovation project by Yung Ho Chang
Vegetarian restaurant right next to Yonghe Temple, the black truffle egg white was the best egg white I've ever had. I'd recommend it for special occasions, I guess it's quite hard to make a fancy meal with only vegetarian food, I think they could have done better with the food, but the atmosphere, service and setting was brilliant.
Great entrance experience, Good interior, tasteful and not too fancy. Many patterns made with the roof tiles around. There are two courtyards, one exterior and one interior are the two dinning halls, there are also private tables that are separated by wooden brick screens that overlook the two courtyards.