Fodor's Expert Review Hotel Kapok

Designed by Studio Pei Zhu (who also worked on the Olympics), this minimalist-style offering helped kick-start the boutique hotel movement in Beijing—it has large, design-conscious guest rooms, internal courtyards enclosed in glass, and bamboo and pebble gardens, as well as a quirky exterior lattice wrapped around the entire building. Though showing signs of wear and tear, it remains in a fabulous location for sightseeing (a few blocks from the East Gate of the Forbidden City), the service is friendly enough, and the price is right.