Cours Et Pavillons

A Private Courtyard House on an Old Hutong

Beijing's hutongs are dense grids of single-storey courtyard houses, siheyuan, built around one or more open-air courtyards, and most of what survives has been carved into shops, homes or small guesthouses rather than hotels of any size. Cours Et Pavillons keeps one intact on Weijia Hutong, in Dongcheng, a handful of suites arranged around their own courtyards and gardens rather than corridors, furnished with collections of antique pieces rather than a hotel supplier's catalogue. It has no lobby tower, no conference floor and no skyline view; what it offers instead is the chance to actually live inside the kind of building most visitors only see from the street.

Why It Works

We kept this one on the list because it solves a problem no large hotel can: it puts a guest inside a real siheyuan rather than a themed approximation of one, steps from Nanluoguxiang's hutong strip rather than a reconstructed heritage district. Suites run from 50 to 185 square metres, each built around its own courtyard or garden outlook, and the antique furniture throughout reads as a private collection rather than hotel decor. For a traveller who wants the old city as the experience itself, not a backdrop glimpsed from a hotel window, this is the address.

Why This Location

Cours Et Pavillons sits on Weijia Hutong in Dongcheng, about a kilometre from Nanluoguxiang, the hutong strip of shops, bars and cafes that has become the old city's best-known pedestrian corridor, and under two kilometres from Ghost Street's restaurant row. Beijing Capital Airport is 22 kilometres away, a reminder that this stay trades convenience for setting: it rewards a traveller on foot or by bike through the hutongs, not one working from a business district further out.

Fast Facts

• Prix: €€€€ (Luxe)

• Vibe: intimate, residential, antique-filled

• Chambres: a handful of suites, from 50 to 185 square metres, each built around a private courtyard or garden

• Best For: travellers who want to stay inside an authentic hutong courtyard house rather than view one from outside

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the North and South Courtyard Deluxe suites, each opening onto its own private courtyard

• Dining: a French-leaning restaurant and bar, a garden used for outdoor dining, and breakfast for two included with every stay

• Amenities: private courtyards and garden, antique furniture collections, 24-hour reception, airport shuttle, lounge

• Attractions: Nanluoguxiang (1 km), Ghost Street dining strip (under 2 km), the wider Dongcheng hutong district

Suites Built Around Their Own Courtyards

Each suite takes its name from its outlook rather than a floor plan: the North Courtyard Deluxe runs to 185 square metres with its own patio, bathrobe and spa bath, while the South Courtyard Deluxe, at 115 square metres, adds floor heating, a fresh-air system and a proper seating area around a super king bed. Smaller Superior and Executive rooms keep the same courtyard logic at a more modest scale. None of it reads as a standard hotel category: a guest books a courtyard and a garden view as much as a bed.

A French Table Inside a Siheyuan

The hotel's name gives away its kitchen's leaning: a restaurant and bar serving French-accented dishes inside a Qing-era courtyard house, an unlikely but deliberate pairing that extends to breakfast for two included with every stay. A garden fitted with outdoor furniture doubles as a dining room when the weather allows, putting a meal inside the same courtyard a guest wakes up to rather than a separate dining hall elsewhere in the building.

Before You Book: Scale and Access

This is a handful of rooms, not a hotel in the conventional sense, so book it for the setting and expect none of the conference space, large pool or big-brand concierge desk of Beijing's tower hotels. Check-in runs from 2pm, check-out between 7:30am and noon, and rooms take up to three guests with an extra-bed surcharge for a third. An airport shuttle is available for the 22-kilometre run from Beijing Capital, though the hutong setting itself, reached mostly on foot or by bike, is the main reason to stay.