We arrived at Alley Garden on the 2nd of August at 11 p.m.
A young and friendly boy received us and explained all the available services (free wifi, safety box, laundry and breakfast with fee, tour booking) and given us a city map together with some "tip".
We booked the hotel online for 6 nights and we paid all at our arrival, at once.
The hotel is a quiet siheyuan in a typical chinese hutong and is closer to the tube station and to the restaurants. Is really good position!
We found helpfull staff and nice guests.
But...Price exceeds proposal. Considering that we paid a 15% surcharge for service we expected more room cleanliness and one towels change, at least.

This is a small hotel near the Lama Temple (Yonghegong) in the Dongcheng district northwest of the forbidden city. It is in a narrow hutong where in the heat of the summer people spend a lot of their time outside in the streets. The hotel is completely renovated with small but clean rooms. They have a few double rooms as well as 2 dorms. Most rooms have single beds and some have a double bed. We booked 1 Standard room and 1 Deluxe. Don't book the Standard room since it has no window, and it is pretty damp inside. Only the aircon to refresh the air.

The Deluxe room was nice with a window towards a small courtyard. There are some chairs and tables for the guests to sit outside and there is a small patio on the roof with tables and benches. There is also space on the patio to dry your clothes.

The bathroom is small but clean. The towels are not changed everyday, which is a problem in the hot summer when one likes to take a shower a few times a day.

The hotel staff is friendly and most speak some English. Their guests are mainly young foreigners and young overseas Chinese. It is possible to get some drinks in the hotel and they can make you breakfast in the morning on your request. When checking in you have to pay for your stay in advance plus they require a deposit of 50Y pp per night. The remainder of this you will get back when checking out after they have deducted your expenses in the hotel.

There is a washing machine which you can use for a small charge. Their are 2 computers which you may use, Internet is charged per hour (8Y/
hour). The hotel also has 2 old bikes for rent, the fee is 20Y/day and a deposit of 200Y.

After having stayed in quite a few dirty but still expensive 4 star hotels in China, we thought this hotel a very good bargain. We paid 600Y per day for the 2 rooms. It was a nice experience and the hotel is surprisingly quiet in the middle of this big city Beijing. In the morning nothing else to wake you but the singing of the birds. There are plenty of nice local restaurants in the vicinity (Yonghegong Dajie and Andingmen neidajie). The Guozijie (Imperial Exam street) is also very near.