Beijing Budget Hotels – My Brother’s View on Red Lantern House

Beijing Budget Hotels Experience – Hang the Red Lantern House!

My younger brother, an undergraduate, and his girlfriend (I tend not to remember their names as they come and go!) rejected my advice and generous offer to stay in a more up-market hotel in favor of Red Lantern House.

And did he regret? Read on…

Firstly, he couldn’t really find the place. Though he had the hostel’s address in Chinese, his taxi driver had no clue how to navigate as the hotel is situated amongst several similarly-named small hutong alleys.

Thank God he did the right thing by calling the hostel’s front desk for help and soon he arrived there.

Note: Always bring the place’s address in Chinese. More importantly, get the telephone number of the places you are going. This will save a lot of inconvenience.

At times, one must realize that it is not unusual for your taxi driver to drive you “around” just to earn more money from a Foreign Ghost (or commonly known as Lao Wai).

Overall, my brother found the hostel clean - the common shower room and shared western style bathrooms are very well-kept.

Why talk about bathrooms first? Well, if their bathrooms are good, the rest is probably great. And that was true! My brother found the rooms well heated with nice wool blankets on the beds (it was winter then) provided. Well worth the money!

In addition, Red Lantern House is one of those rare Beijing budget hotels with an enclosed courtyard. My brother and girl spent most of their evenings there chatting with many backpackers from around the world.

My brother did mention about a babelicious backpacker from Sweden who looks like Baywatch Pamela Anderson…for the ‘right’ reason, but that’s another story in itself.

It was also great to know that the owners of the Red Lantern were very friendly and love chatting. As we are Chinese too (our forefathers), my brother had a great time listening to old Chinese folk tales and legends from them.

For food and drinks, the in-house cafe do provide decent food (that isif you are tired to explore more restaurants nearby the hostel) and cheap beers.

Well, the beers were so cheap that my brother got drunk in the courtyard after a beer drinking competition with some Chinese university students on holiday.

And yes, he was carried back to his room by them!

Note: Never ever try to out-drink the Chinese especially with their special blend of White Wine (or commonly called Bai Jiu). It is a losing cause unless you are very well-trained since young.

Average price: US$9 per night

No.5 Zhengjue Hutong, Xinjie Kou, Xicheng District, Beijing, P.R.C.

Tel: +8610 6611 5771 or +86 10 6616 9477

Email: lindyguo@hotmail.com