The Courtyard 7 is an old courtyard home (siheyuan or 四合院) in the Nanluoguxiang hutong neighborhood that has been converted to a small hotel. What is remarkable about it is that they have done an excellent job of preserving the original architecture and general feel, but have also managed to include all the amenities you would want from a hotel, most notably a nice bathroom in the room, and a decent restaurant. I had read about the hotel on the web and was skeptical before I showed up that they really could have preserved the look and atmosphere of a siheyuan and still made it habitable. But whoever did this, really pulled it off and did a nice job.
The hotel is fairly easy to find if you study the map on their web page beforehand. It was pretty easy for me to get out of the taxi at the north entrance to Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷北口) and walk south on Nanluoguxiang for 100m or so and then turn right at the first alley, Qiangulouyuan (前鼓楼苑). One easy way of identifying the intersection at which to turn is that there is a Korean restaurant in a relatively modern building, Saveurs de Koree, at one corner. It was about 40m down the alley on the right.
Here is a picture of the entrance:
Another shot of the entrance, that provides a better view of the buildings on the other side of the alley...
One of the interior courtyards. The restaurant where they offer breakfast is on the left, and the entrance to the courtyards around which the guestrooms are arranged is on the right...
I stayed in one of the smaller rooms at the back. Way back in the day, these were the rooms occupied by the unmarried daughters of the family. I didn't take pictures of the room, but it was done nicely. The room had a really lovely antique bed. The mattress was firm, but that was fine with me. I guess if they had really wanted to be authentic they would have provided ceramic or stone headrests in lieu of pillows, but they did provide pillows. The bathroom was very nice. They had a very good free WiFi signal in the room.
Overall, the room was a little cramped, without a really good desk or other surface to work on, so it might not be the best choice for a long stay for a business trip, but if you need a base where you can stay while you can explore downtown Beijing, I don't think you could beat this place.
The staff was really nice. I spoke Chinese with them so can't assess their English. The staff were all young people who seemed pretty enthusiastic. Some other guests had small children with them and the young ladies working at the restaurant really seemed to like them and give them a lot of attention.
The room rate was very reasonable. I booked the room on Travelocity. It was much cheaper than any of the business hotels in the CBD. For the price, the experience was really remarkable.
Another nice feature of the hotel is the location. Nanluoguxiang is an interesting little hutong neighborhood that has become home to a lot of interesting little restaurants, shops, and bars. Sure it is a little touristy and not really 'authentic', but I really don't know what is authentic. It is certainly much nicer, smaller-scale, and generally low-key than Houhai. And from the hotel you can walk fairly easily to Houhai, and other major sites are a short walk or taxi ride away.
If you need to get here from the airport, I would strongly advise you take a taxi from the official line at the airport, rather than taking the light rail to Dongzhimen and hailing a taxi there. I tried the light rail to Dnogzhimen, and that worked fine, but I was disappointed that at Dongzhimen, there was no official taxi line, just a bunch of scamming drivers hanging around the entrance who quoted absolutely ridiculous prices to take me to Nanluoguxiang. Most of them initially said they would do the trip for 100 yuan, which is about what it would have cost to come all the way from the airport. I had to walk about 30 yards with my luggage to get away from these scammers and hail a regular taxi. The metered fare was something like 12 or 13 yuan.
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