Absolute Private Residence Club in Beijing

Has anyone stayed there? Have an opportunity to visit Beijing for a week in early November. I cannot find any reviews of this property. My main interest is location...is it centrally located (it appears to be). Also, any idea of how large this property is? I just got off the phone with II and they have no availability and tell me that they did 0 exchanges during this time last year! I find this hard to believe as the time we're looking at is a low demand time. Is there another exchange company that may be better to use? If possible I'd like to use timeshare rather than Marriott hotel points. TIA for any information on this property.

If forced to use hotel points any recommendations as to which Marriott hotel is best located for tourists?

Ingrid

We stayed there June 1 -6. We rented a 1 BR through the Absolute Resort management as we could not get a swap either. They advertised thru Redweek.com. It is very comfortable for the 3 of us and we would stay there again - will write a review soon. The location is near the Pearl Market. Nothing is within walking distance - it's at a busy intersection and you'll have to take a taxi to where-ever you want to go but taxis are cheap in Beijing. We arrived late Sunday night and they made arrangements for the receptionist to stay till we checked in. The Absolute staff is very courteous. The building is actually a 4 star hotel and it could be that the time-share units are on certain floors. We stayed on the 16th floor and there was daily maid service. We were so busy sight-seeing and shopping that we did not use any of their amenities. We didn't even go look for the pool. They do have restaurants (not good), small grocery store, beauty salon and gift shops on site. The breakfast buffet was o.k. but we've had better.

oops double posting

Thank you PLL. We decided to book the Courtyard Beijing as it was very cheap points-wise and it's in the same district, one block from subway and close to Tianamen Square and Temple of Heaven.

Did you find it easy to get around on your own? We'll be there for a week and trying to figure out the best way to see all the sights. Any insight you could provide would be great.

Ingrid

IngridN said:

Thank you PLL. We decided to book the Courtyard Beijing as it was very cheap points-wise and it's in the same district, one block from subway and close to Tianamen Square and Temple of Heaven.

Did you find it easy to get around on your own? We'll be there for a week and trying to figure out the best way to see all the sights. Any insight you could provide would be great.

Ingrid

Click to expand...

Yes Beijing is easy to get around by taxi if you know where you want to go. If you don't speak Chinese, you need to have your concierge write down the name of the place you're going to and show the taxi driver your hotel's card to get back. Some places are very similiar sounding (even in Chinese) so best to have a card with name and location of the place in writing, Chinese ofcourse. The taxi drivers in China do not speak English. We met up some friends at the Ritz Carlton and the taxi driver had no idea where it was. But once the Concierge wrote down the location in Chinese, he was able to find it. Do not assume the Taxi driver at the airport knows where the Courtyard is. The Absolute provided us directions in Chinese for the taxi driver. Traffic is very bad. We didn't take the subway because we only had 4 full days and packed with activities. We were in HK, Guangzhou and Guilin the week prior.

We hired a private guide for 2 days at $55 per day. Our guide took us to the Forbidden City(Tiannamen Sq), Temple of Heaven and dinner by taxi. Dinner was $7 for the 4 of us. On day 2, she hired a private van and driver for $100 and we went to the Great Wall at Mutianyu and later that afternoon, the van took us to the Summer Palace. If you would like her name and contact, let me know as I highly recommend her. We used a guide because we wanted flexibility yet we wanted to see the most in the short time we had without doing factory tours. She said normally the tour of the Forbidden city is 2 hrs but we spent 4 hrs there because we wanted to see the clock museum and the jewelry exhibit as well. We also took a leisurely stroll, and had lunch there. I did find postings onwww.tripadvisor very helpful.

We were also fortunate to have a friend in Beijing who took us shopping one day - can't visit Beijing without shopping. We went to Wanfujing St on our own - snack Street closes at 10 pm if you intend to go. The taxi was less than $5 each way from the Absolute. From the map at the Marriott website, the Courtyard is north of the Absolute.

And do take lots of photos. We are so glad we did. Bring lots of batteries for your digital camera. Batteries in China are expensive and NOT reliable. They run out of juice too fast.

Thank you for all the helpful information. I would love the name and contact info of your guide...please PM me with the info. We were thinking of hiring someone for some of the days as well as go on our own on others, depending on where the sites were situated. Thinking of hiring a guide & car & driver for some of the locations outside the city. We plan on seeing the wall at Mutianyu as well as the usual tourist sites and shopping.

This is our second visit to Beijing. We went in 1994 as part of a month-long tour of China and Hong Kong. The highlights, for me on that trip, were Beijing, Dazu, and the Yangtzee river cruise. Also Guilin, Hangshou, Suzhoe, and on and on. I've always wanted to go back and DH has a conference in Beijing in early Nov. and I'll be joining him afterwards for a week of sightseeing. The first trip we arranged through CITS as none of the U.S. tour groups we were looking at spent enought time in Beijing, nor did they offer the Dazu outing, which was an absolute must see for us.

A couple of questions (I'm sure I'll have many more later as we get into planning for this trip after we get back from NYC later this month).

1. What's the best way to pay for things...yuan, dollars, credit card, or a combination thereof depending on the purchase/location?

2. ATM locations? All over the place? Airport? Assuming we'll need yuan for some purchases, we'll bring a couple of hundred $ with us to make things easier.

Again, thank you so much for the information...it's very helpful, especially as we'll be on our own this time. We don't speak a word of Chinese, so want to be sure we make it as easy as possible getting around.

Ingrid

Ingrid,

If you go to www.elong.com and search for JinQiao Internaitonal Garden, you will find Private Residence Club - JinQiao is available for rent at a rate of 498 to 638 Yuan per night.

See this: http://www.elong.net/hotels/Search....tar=-1&HotelName=??????&RoomNum=1&PersonNum=1

Also see the official web site of Absolute Private Residence at http://www.myabsolute.com/resorts/jinqiao.htm

To answer your questions, I never use credit cards outside of major chain hotels or others without a good reputation, e.g. airlines. If you do, keep track of the records and receipts.

I always carry cash in a money belt. You can change your dollars to Yuan from the hotel or at the bank; both offer the same rates. If you go to the bank, you may see someone in the bank lobby offering you the exchange service at a slightly better rate. The guy even has a machine to count the bills.

Is it a black market? Definitely, however, the bank manager allows such competition in the bank's property because of corruption. Is it safe? Yes, very safe. The guy I always deal with has been "working" in the same bank for more than 10 years. He can even deposit your money into your bank account, if you have one, which is like a guarantee you won't receive any fake money.

For a tourist exchanging a few hundred US dollars, use the hotel service.

Absolute Private Residence Beijing

We are booked to stay from 21 November. First time. We were told through II that exchange activity with this timeshare apt was limited. Similar to New York in that it's a pouplar destination but limited Timeshare resorts exist in either place.
However we were lucky and scored a week. From what we have been told by II the place is about 20 minutes walk from Tianamen Sq and other major attractions in that area which, from a couple of earlier business trips, put's it reasonably handy. We are told the underground train system is very good too.

Guess I'll know more by the end of the month!

Garryco said:

We are booked to stay from 21 November. First time. We were told through II that exchange activity with this timeshare apt was limited. Similar to New York in that it's a pouplar destination but limited Timeshare resorts exist in either place.
However we were lucky and scored a week. From what we have been told by II the place is about 20 minutes walk from Tianamen Sq and other major attractions in that area which, from a couple of earlier business trips, put's it reasonably handy. We are told the underground train system is very good too.

Guess I'll know more by the end of the month!

Click to expand...

We stayed at one of the centrally located Marriotts and took the subway everywhere...absolutely the best. When they built it, they took the best from all the others. English signs everywhere, manned, exceptionally clean. Unfortunately, it's crowded no matter the time of day!

Enjoy your stay.

Ingrid

Detailed Bejing Subway Map 2009- Bejing Subway System

Scroll down to see the map


Richard