In July, 2010, preliminary surveys on #65 Baochao Hutong were completed and full construction began. Thousands of photos were taken during the 10 month construction period, and small set were uploaded to this website along with some commentary about the whole gradual process (ordeal). As you go through it, you might notice it abruptly ending, roughly around the time that interior decoration began taking place. That’s cause we were bored of documenting it, and simultaneously 100% overworked!

Still, it is fun for us to keep online and we hope our guests can use this to help build a better connection to the place they will be staying in, or stayed in previously.

Please keep in mind, newest posts are at the top!

Best room in the house

Walls are up finally, on what should also become our most well-placed and secluded large room. You can see five huge gaps – those are all massive double-pane glass windows. The first is for the bathroom and the rest for the room itself, with the furthest one acting also as a door for entering the long and spacious garden.


Main entrance to the room facing the central garden facade

North-west room's got a new floor

Here’s a fun one. It took only one day for these walls and the facade of the stairwell to come up. Still a ways away from having stairs though, so views from up top will have to wait.

Central garden facade goes up!

Today the workers have built up the main facade bordering our central garden from the South. The facade also creates a main floor alleyway separating the two south bedrooms.


A worker standing on a make-shift platform for placing the bricks


Two hours later — Done.

Brand new North-west Room

Oh – look at that — A new room has been made!

In only two days the structural walls have come up and all the support beams are in place to hold up the concrete ceiling. The grey brick facade has also been placed around the private garden. If we wall in the room with glass at the front as planned then this room will have a total area of 20 square meters. That’s a nice size room for a hotel, but a very generous room considering it will exist within a traditional courtyard in the hutongs of Beijing.


Siuming and Mr. Guo discussing the plans


Private garden space facing the room


Large bathroom area facing the stairs up to the unbuilt second floor


From the bathroom facing the unfinished wall and stairs


Looking out of the room towards the small private garden.

The Lookout

A 10th room has been recovered. Loosely defined public space on the second floor has been repurposed into a wonderfully positioned luxury room with a generous amount of space, a superb view and a unique 2nd floor entrance. It would have made a great lounge space, but we feel we might have enough with the restaurant/bar and main floor lobby area. We hope you agree.


Seeing both South-west rooms – a garden room below and the Lookout above it


Another view from the main yard.


Here’s why it’s called the Lookout. That’s the bell tower right there..