Unlike most other reviewers here, I found this hotel to be disappointing and poor value for money - and I have lived in, and travelled extensively across, Asia for six years.

The hotel seems to be trading off its image as a quaint, old-fashioned, Chinese style inn, and is charging foreign guests a premium price for what is, in fact, modest "bed-and-breakfast" service and facilities.

First, the cost. I stayed for two nights at CNY 880 a night, including service, for a so-called "deluxe" room. I had stayed the previous two nights in an Executive Floor room at the Holiday Inn Central Plaza, currently ranked 1st out of 1,083 hotels in Beijing on tripadvisor.com, for less than a quarter more (CNY 1,094 a night). The comparison could not have been more stark in terms of levels of customer service, facilities and food quality. Do not misunderstand me: I never expected full-service Holiday Inn style facilities at the Sihe, but I did expect service, quality and facilities, in some form, that would justify paying over 80% of the Holiday Inn rate.

I had a tiny room (815 I think) at the Sihe, albeit with a large double bed and clean sheets, but with not even enough room for two people to pass each other, and certainly no space for luggage to be properly stored and accessed - and there was absolutely nowhere else to rest a suitcase than on the floor.

The bathroom was a square about the width of two small shower cubicles, with stains on the floor from from leaking pipes, thin and fraying towels, and not even enough shelf space to unpack toiletries.

The televison was an old cathode ray tube model (flat-screen would have freed some precious shelf-space), with maybe 30 Chinese channels and just HBO and CCTV 9 in English: amazing, considering that it seems to be almost exclusively non-Chinese guests staying here. Free internet access is offered - this worked at first attempt and then was down (along with HBO!) on the second day.

Second, the ambience. The staff were never exactly unfriendly, but equally at no point was there even the slightest gesture of friendliness towards us. The "welcome" at reception was a simple: "Can I have your passport?". Even though my reservation clearly stated that two of us were staying, and two of us arrived together, the hotel assumed it was just me staying (and had gone so far as to remove a set of towels just in case I had dared to use them as well as my own!). When the two of us came back to the hotel later on, the staff must have realised that there were indeed two of us and came chasing after us to get a copy of the second passport (they later presented us with the towels that had been removed).

I have no idea if the staff are competent in English - they should be, if they are charging sky-high prices to international visitors - because there was never any conversation or greetings from them. There is also an atmosphere of "We know we have to have guests staying here, but we would rather you weren't here and we don't trust you anyway" about the place: for example, printed labels on the cheap-n-cheerful Lux shampoo bottle to remind us that it "is not a gift" (in other words, don't dare think that you can take it with you!); being followed out onto the street to ask us to check out at 10am even though we had just left our luggage at reception, deposited the key, and had said we were returning a couple of hours later; being asked to sign on arrival a pre-authorisation of 100% of the room charges on my Amex card (this has never happened to me in any hotel anywhere in the world, and certainly did not at the Holiday Inn two days earlier).

Third, the breakfast. This is included in the CNY 880 but is poor value - we tried it the first morning, went to McDonalds instead the second morning. Of course the buffet was smaller than at the Holiday Inn, but it was the quality of the food that was such a disappointment - stale bread and cake, oily omelette, packet juice - all very basic and cheap stuff. A timid waitress watched over us eating in the tiny breakfast room, on low stools, never greeted us in any way, and re-stocked items on the buffet only when it was clear there was almost nothing left to choose from. It reminded me of breakfast at some of the youth hostels that I've stayed in.

I repeat again that I did not expect five-star, international brand hotel standards, but I did very much expect value-for-money, and my stay was very poor value for money overall. My suggestion for first-time visitors to China, or Asia generally, who want to see and experience an authentic Chinese neighbourhood, is to spend their CNY 880 on a hotel that has facilities to match that price (such as the Holiday Inn) and simply pop across to the Sihe one day to take a few photos inside of the courtyard (which is actually not impressive in any way at all).

In fact, the most interesting part of the hotel is what is outside, not inside: watching the daily life of the people who live in the hutong (lane) where the hotel is situated. Bear in mind also the hotel is barely accessible by car - our taxi dropped us on the main road, and we wheeled our bags down the lane to the hotel (a 5-10 minute walk).

We really enjoyed staying here. The staff is wonderfully friendly and helpful--they even packed us a breakfast when we had to catch an early flight out. The striking thing about the hotel is how quiet it is. Your basically in the middle of Beijing, and once you get to the hotel you really cannot hear any city noise.

They have free internet, a decent breakfast (w/ Western options), and the rooms were very clean.

We stayed in two different rooms. The standard, which was a little on the small side, but had a newly remodeled bathroom, and a suite. The suite was comparable to the standard in terms of cleanliness and comfort, but it was about twice the size of the standard.

The front desk staff also helped us arrange a taxi to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. It's about a 90 minute drive out there, and we had the driver from 9:00 - 5:30 all for around 500 Yuan. Their regular driver was unavailable, but the alternate driver was super nice and he spoke some english. He also took us to a wonderful dumpling place after the trek.

If you do this trip, do yourself a favor and take the cable cars up (NOT the ski lift). Head left at your first opportunity, then circle back and take the toboggan down. If you take the ski lift, you will basically be climbing uphill all day long.

The hotel is pretty close to Tianamen Square, the forbidden City, Beihei park, etc. We took taxi's to most of these places (the average price being about 15 Yuan ($2.50).

To get there, we took the express train from the airport (25 Yuan per person). You need to transfer to the No. 2 at Dongzhimen. Then transfer to the No. 5 at Yonghegong (one stop). From there get off at Dongsi. It's about a 5 minute walk from the Dongsi station.

FYI - We took a cab back to the airport and it cost around 80 Yuan (without traffic).

Be sure to get the hotel card with its Chinese name written on it. We had a few instances where the taxi's didn't know where it was. You might want to get the Dongsi metro station written in Chinese so that you have a landmark that most taxi's know about.

We have just returned from Beijing were we stayed in this authentic little hotel situated in the Hutong. It was an amazing experience. The hotel is truly chinese with traditional furniture and atmosphere. On arrival there we were very scepticle of this little alley way and whether it will be safe living in this narrow residential street. Well, well to our surprise, I must admit that the most friendly, helpful and sincere people live in this hutong. The hotel staff were super. Always ready to help and advice when needed. The room was very small, with just enough space to move around the bed but still very clean and authentic. After all you don't live there you only sleep there. The bed was big and comfortable and so was the bathroom. We would go back there any time. Well done Sihe staff, you made our stay very comfortable. Great people!!!

I booked this hotel on the basis of reviews here in TripAdvisor. And everything that I read was absolutely true. From the front desk personnel to the room itself, this is a fabulous hotel.

I booked a triple room. When we arrived we were told we were "upgraded" at no additional cost. I always get a little nervous when I am told I am upgraded for no additional cost. But upon entering the room, 818, what a surprise. If you want to feel as though you are in China and not in a modern hotel that happens to be in China, this is the place to stay.

It is located on a hutong. After several days the locals started to recognize us and us them. One problem is that many taxis do not like going into hutongs, so we indicated to the driver that they could leave us off at the main street intersecting the hutong. It's about a five minute walk to the hotel from the street.

Maybe I had forgotten when I booked the room, but breakfast was included in our rate. What a wonderful breakfast it was, with both Chinese and western items. And egg dishes made to order.

I cannot speak highly enough of the front desk personnel. Jillian and Fay (I believe their names are) were always very helpful and pleasant.

The location is very good. Just about a 15 minute walk to the night food market on DongHua Men street. It intersects with a pedestrian mall anchored by Beijing APM mall.

All in all, a great place, a great find, and very reasonably priced!