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Sleepover

Reopening after a multimillion dollar overhaul, the five-star hotel brings a whole new level of luxury to the city

Huang Tin restaurant at The Peninsula Beijing

In Beijing, you can marvel at the flaking paint and faded glory of the Forbidden City. You can gnaw on street-side lamb skewers and, in the few places not yet shut down by the government, haggle for knockoff goods. You can dodge Bentleys on your way to meet a tech billionaire or coal baron for a big investment, then celebrate with pots of tongue-melting white baijiiu liquor or, maybe, a vodka-fuelled night at a Russian karaoke bar.

As a general rule, you do not come to Beijing for the finer things. This is the place, after all, where they call the nouveau rich tuhao, "soil with grandeur." Raw exuberance doesn't particularly lend itself to refinement.

You want white-glove elegance? Try Hong Kong.

Or, maybe, try what may be that city's best accommodations export to Beijing, the Peninsula, built by the hoteliers with their very own Rolls Royce paint colour. After demolishing a former army barracks on the site, they opened the Peninsula Beijing in 1989 and, two years later, made it home to the first Luis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermes stores in Communist Beijing.

Today, a $175-million renovation, due to finish in the spring, has halved the number of rooms, creating some of the biggest standard suites in the city, jammed with multilingual touch-screen room controls, porcelain art and gaping wardrobes. The smiling service is refreshingly un-Beijing and staff aren't eager to kick you out: with 24-hour rooms, an 11 p.m. check-in means 11 p.m. checkout. The 1,775-square foot family suites come equipped with big-screen movie rooms; every room has free movies and international calls. Call it nouveau colonial. Even the elevators are quick.

Built on the former site of an army barracks, the Peninsual Beijing brings a rare touch of elegant luxury to the city, boasting spacious suites, smiling service and designer brands.

Built on the former site of an army barracks, the Peninsual Beijing brings a rare touch of elegant luxury to the city, boasting spacious suites, smiling service and designer brands.

Location, location

The geographic heart of Beijing is also its cultural centre. The stony sprawl of Tiananmen Square, the macabre weirdness of Mao's mausoleum, the classic lakeside beauty of Houhai and Beihai, the vantage point on the elite leadership compound of Zhongnanhai from Jingshan and, of course, the extraordinary Forbidden City itself. Beijing is a big city, and strolling it all can put blisters on your feet. But walking is the best way to see Beijing, and if you can stride a few kilometres, it's all accessible by foot from the Peninsula – or a short cab ride.

The Lobby at The Peninsula Beijing

The lobby at The Peninsula Beijing

Eat in or eat out

In, so long as your wallet is fat and your stomach capable. Start with afternoon tea in the lobby, possibly the most civilized way to spend an hour in Beijing. Finger sandwiches with crab meat, scones with lemon curd and clotted cream, a pastry plate brilliantly arranged with hazelnut cake pralines and lime cream macaroons – and, if tea isn't your thing, available lattes and cappuccinos – all accompanied by a string quartet. Take dinner at Jing, where locally sourced organic vegetables liven up Nova Scotia lobster, Iberian pork and Australian beef. Breakfast of hand-cured salami, sausages stuffed on the premises, salmon smoked at the hotel and even more pastries. Or skip it and gorge on the chocolate in your room.

A Peninsula suite reading room

A Peninsula suite reading room

Design

If name-checking luxury is your thing, this is your place. Shampoo and lotion by Oscar de la Renta. Linens by Frette. Spa supplies by Biologique Recherche and Espa. Plus, you'll find 38 luxury shops on site, including the city's only Graff and Harry Winston locations, and Beijing's biggest Chanel and Luis Vuitton stores. Then there's the custom touches: unique wall art, bronze lobby statues, playful room figurines, carpet patterned after the stonework in a Beijing courtyard and an artist-in-residence program that runs alongside an on-site art gallery.

Jing Bar at The Peninsula Beijing

Jing Bar at The Peninsula Beijing

William Furniss

If I could change one thing

Luxury doesn't come free, but in a city jammed with spectacular cheap eats, it's hard to justify $35 for a lobby cheeseburger, or $220 for a buffet breakfast for four. The Jing menu tops out with a 600-gram serving of Australian Wagyu strip loin for $570. You can feed an entire party for that at one of Beijing's hottest new restaurants, Georg. The Peninsula's afternoon tea, by contrast, is a relative bargain at $78 for two.

Beijing Suite bathroom at The Peninsula Beijing

A Beijing Suite bathroom at The Peninsula Beijing

Best amenity

This is not the Peninsula Beijing so much as the Peninsula Chocolat, built on a custom blend of Valrhona chocolate, a mouth-watering mix of Grenada and Ghana cacao. French pastry chef Frederic Moreau fashions it on site with an artistry that makes it tempting to feast the eyes rather than the palate. His creations are placed in each room: white chocolate flowers, brilliantly coloured raspberry and lime bonbons, even the thick chocolate pedestal on which they rest – and, if you travel with a child, chocolate-and-marshmallow teddy bear cookies. His work crowns dessert at Jing (think chocolate mousse covered in chocolate glaze, and various confections of nougat and Chantilly cream) and offers a sweet evening surprise: an unexpected knock at the door, with hotel staff delivering a nightcap of hand-made plastic-wrapped soft caramels.

The hotel’s $175-million renovation leaves each of its suites fitted with touch-screen room controls, porcelain art and custom chocolate creations.

The hotel’s $175-million renovation leaves each of its suites fitted with touch-screen room controls, porcelain art and custom chocolate creations.

The Peninsula Beijing, 8 Goldfish Lane, Wangfujing, Beijing; beijing.peninsula.com. 230 rooms from $413 (RMB 2,100).

The writer was a guest of the hotel.