G for Glam

There's a relatively new boutique hotel in Beijing called Hotel G.

It's tucked near the club district on the west side of Worker's Stadium near Sanlitun.

British architect Mark Lintott renovated a previously gaudy building into an ultra hip hotel. During the day it looks pretty much nondescript dark-coloured building, but at night, its windows light up in individual colours, with the intention of drawing in cool people.

However, on my visit it looked pretty empty.

The lobby has pieces of art work on the walls, but no bench or couch for people to sit around in. The lobby also leads to the bar and restaurant called 25 Degrees, also not really filled with customers, but I was promised served good burgers.

Upstairs in the hallways leading to the rooms, subtle club-like music is played, lulling guests into a party mood.

The rooms are pretty sleek -- looking like one cool bachelor pad -- with a glitzy chandelier, grey-silver satin bed cover, couch, HD TV and tall closets with mirrors.

The bathroom is modern too -- white with dark stone tiles, with a bathtub and a shower stall. All the bath products come from L'Occitane which adds a nice detail.

However, the heating system went haywire and I was hot -- really hot. There was no way to turn down the room temperature except open the windows. But that meant hearing sounds from outside -- residential sounds -- from kids running down the street to the garbage truck picking up refuse.

The health club is on the sixth floor but at the time the jacuzzi wasn't ready yet so I all I did was work out a bit in the cramped gym. Machines were shoved into a small almost windowless white room. A resistance machine is also set up which is kind of cool, but not really for those who want to pump some iron.

There are also lots of yoga mats, but not really much space to zone out.

Nevertheless, Hotel G offers the hip and cool an exclusive hang out that's a short walking distance to the clubs (both straight and gay) for fun all day and all night.

Hotel G
A7 Gongtixilu
Chaoyang District
Beijing