The 22 Best Hotels in Beijing

Forty-two restored siheyuan scattered across a historic hutong neighborhood, each behind its own wooden gate with its own address. That's the hotel, a Forbes Five Star and number fourteen on the World's 50 Best Hotels list. Getting to dinner means wandering laneway alleys past laundry lines and e-scooters, which is either charming or inconvenient depending on your mood, though a butler escort and buggy are always on call.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. The 50 #14 · The World's 50 Best Hotels
3. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

A Frank Gehry fish lamp in red, pink, and peach dangles from the lobby ceiling, which is either a bold opening statement or a gentle warning about what follows. This Forbes Five Star, Michelin Key hotel sits steps from Wangfujing and a short walk from the Forbidden City, and the rooms face that direction deliberately. The spa has a skylight lap pool, the bar staff wear Vivienne Tam, and MO Bar runs late with cocktails and a sunset terrace.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Pearlescent white marble stretches across the lobby beneath a pair of Qin Feng ink paintings, with Peninsula Afternoon Tea laid out below them as if to say the British era never quite ended. This all-suite luxury hotel sits a short walk from Tiananmen Square, with Cantonese and modern French restaurants on site, a Clarins spa, and rooms where a bedside panel controls everything short of your mood. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

The lobby sits on the 64th floor, which tells you everything about the kind of hotel this is. Part of the Shangri-La family, it occupies the top stretch of Beijing's tallest tower, with an infinity pool on the 78th floor and views that make the city look like a model set. Rooms are large by any standard, the spa is enormous, and the tea selection is reportedly among the biggest in the capital. A Forbes Four Star property.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The interiors, by Yabu Pushelberg, layer black lacquer and brushes of red and gold against a restraint that reads as quietly Western, somehow making both coexist without apology. This 175-room luxury hotel sits in the heart of Wangfujing, close to the Forbidden City, with a staff-to-guest ratio that the Michelin Guide calls nearly one to one but that feels like ten to one. A full-service spa, heated pool, and three restaurants round things out. It holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Rooms at this 500-room business hotel look one way toward the Forbidden City and the other toward Wangfujing's shopping stretch, which is a genuinely useful piece of urban luck. Interiors run to aubergine and gold, with full-length windows, deep soaking tubs, and glass-walled bathrooms that outdo most home setups. The Serenity Spa runs until 1 a.m., and Lei Garden draws Cantonese food devotees who aren't staying here at all.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A golden cloud of sculptural butterflies floats above the lobby seating, which tells you something about the register this hotel is pitching at. It's a Shangri-La property in everything but name, updated for guests who've stayed in enough boutique hotels to notice the difference. Rooms are high-tech without being fussy, the 35-meter pool is serious, and the window view of Rem Koolhaas's CCTV Tower is worth requesting specifically.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Ole Scheeren's glass cube sits a short walk from the Forbidden City, its facade patterned to echo Beijing's old hutong brick walls. This luxury hotel's 116 rooms lean into calm minimalism, with many looking straight out at the imperial complex. Two restaurants, a Guerlain spa, and a tea room dedicated to Chinese tea culture give guests plenty of reasons to stay put in the Wangfujing corridor. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

The indoor pool here streams black-and-white films on a full-wall screen, which sets the tone nicely for a hotel that otherwise leans sharply modern and Chinese rather than gilt-and-chandelier Ritz. A glass skyscraper on Financial Street, it draws a weekday suit crowd that fills the Crystal Bar and afternoon tea service without much fuss. Rooms run large, with zebrawood bathrooms and full electronic controls. The spa and movement studio are worth the detour.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The lobby shifts from afternoon tea to Japanese street food to a drinks lounge over the course of a single day, which tells you something about the ambitions of this large international hotel near the Olympic Village and the National Convention Center. Floor-to-ceiling windows pull in natural light and views of the Bird's Nest. Earth-toned rooms run to deep soaking tubs and city panoramas, and the airport is a 30-minute drive.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A glass pyramid in Chaoyang that turns out to contain a very serious business hotel, with Dalí and Warhol on the walls and a Panasonic massage chair waiting in every room. Bang & Olufsen audio, Philippe Starck at the desk, Riedel glassware stocked at the in-room bar: the amenity list reads like a very confident magazine spread. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Parkview Green puts a city's worth of dining and retail just outside the door, though leaving feels optional.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Walled inside its own private compound right beside the Summer Palace, this Aman property holds a collection of century-old guest houses arranged around ponds and gardens that the public never sees. The electronic amenities hide discreetly behind bamboo blinds and hand-carved screens, while pools, spa, and squash court all sit underground. Staff outnumber guests by a wide margin, which is rather the point. A Michelin Key property.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Floor-to-ceiling windows, handworked leather, and walnut furnishings keep the rooms from tipping into megahotel gloss, though the recessed neon lighting makes a reasonable case for the other side. CHAO is a hotel in the way Sanlitun is a neighborhood, technically true but underselling it badly. Clubhouse access covers a gym, barbershop, workshare space, and event rooms that look like a director's vision of the future. The complimentary bar in your room is a genuinely nice touch.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Graffiti in the fitness center sets the tone: JEN is a high-design hotel inside the China World Trade Center complex, and it wears its generational ambitions openly. The Shangri-La group runs the operation, so the comfort is real beneath the attitude. San Wu Tang handles daytime dining, and Beersmith, the bar and beer garden, keeps things social well past a reasonable hour.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The lobby sits on the 63rd floor, which means the panorama isn't a perk reserved for the top suites; it belongs to everyone who steps off the elevator. This luxury hotel occupies the upper half of a 66-story tower in Chaoyang, and the glass-enclosed pool deck alone makes the altitude feel like a design choice rather than a real estate accident. Rooms are exactly what the Park Hyatt name promises, with views that add a certain productive vertigo.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A former steel mill turned mixed-use park on Beijing's west side is an unlikely address for a Shangri-La, yet here we are. Milan-based Lissoni & Partners designed the hotel, and the architecture alone sets it apart from the standard luxury template. The spa is substantial, the kids' club runs to a climbing wall, and the whole thing holds a Michelin Key. Industrial heritage and five-star comfort sharing a postcode turns out to be a look.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

The entire building facade doubles as a pixelated video screen, which tells you something about the register of this luxury hotel near the National Centre for Performing Arts. Rooms run to high-gloss Hollywood lighting and the brand's signature beds, and the meeting floors, gym, spa, and heated pool cover the expected bases. The crowd skews younger than Beijing's typical high-end traveler, or at least younger in spirit.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Courtyard rooms arranged in traditional village clusters sit against a mountain backdrop west of Beijing, far enough from the city to feel genuinely remote. Xitan is a luxury resort that leans into the nature-retreat concept without sacrificing comfort, pairing contemporary interiors with classical architecture. The Qin Spa centers on hydrotherapy, and The House of Rong, part of the Xin Rong Ji group, handles dinner. Michelin has awarded it one Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A bar doubling as a live jazz club called Xian takes its design cues from the nearby 798 Art Zone, which tells you something about the ambitions here. EAST bills itself as a lifestyle business hotel, and the pitch mostly holds up: 359 rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, chic co-working lounges, and enough quirky touches to keep things from feeling like a corporate holding pen. Corner rooms get the panoramic views; upper floors get access to a lounge where cocktail hour comes to you.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Wood awnings designed to echo the vendor stalls outside set the tone at this 348-room business hotel in Wangjing, Beijing's newer commercial district. Floor-to-ceiling city views come standard, the marble and bamboo interior reads corporate without feeling sterile, and the dining options run wider than expected, from a Cantonese room with its own wine cellar to a Japanese izakaya with open prep counters. The timber-lined spa pool is the quiet surprise.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A 12th-century Song Dynasty painting was the starting point for architect Wang Shu, and the result is a low-slung resort of concrete and wood sitting on the wooded shores of Yanqi Lake, well northeast of the city. Rooms land in modern-luxe territory, using classic Chinese design as a foundation. The lake, the woods, a pool, and a rooftop walking trail take care of the rest, with Chaosan and French dining when you come inside.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels