If you are organizing a weekend trip to the Huairou district of Beijing, there is now another good choice for one or two nights' stay.

Spring Legend Holiday Hotel can often surprise first-comers. The whole complex is built in classic European style, creating an illusion you are not in Beijing but in an ancient part of Europe, especially on a bright sunny day.

The hotel is just minutes away from central Huairou district. It is only 2 kilometers away from the Jingjia Lu exit of the Jingmi Elevated Expressway, which links directly with Jingcheng Expressway.

The location is just 10 minutes away from the famous Yanqi Lake tourist area, which has various recreational equipment and a good, natural view.

It is 15 minutes' ride from Hongluo Temple, 20 minutes from Qinglongxia, or the Green Dragon Valley, and 30 minutes away from the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. More practically for the winter, it is just 15 minutes' drive from Huaibei Ski Resort, located in the Jiugukou Natural Scenic Spot in Huairou. It is one of Beijing's biggest international ski parks.

The design concept of Spring Legend Holiday Hotel pays tribute to Princess Sissi, or Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie, wife of Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I (1830-1916). A movie about the legendary princess was shown in China in 1989 and became very popular.

The hotel lobby has a portrait of Austrian princess Sissi. The neighboring street has a statue of Austrian musician Johann Strauss, European-style bell towers, and a windmill square.

The entire five-floor building is designed in European style - fireplaces, chandeliers, classic-style high-back sofas and wooden furniture. The living space is comfortable, stylish and compact, with a family atmosphere.

The facade of the hotel is impressive, with a signature fountain with a goddess riding on two lions.

Spring Legend Holiday Hotel is located just outside the central area of Huairou district, 40 kilometers north of Beijing downtown. As the 2014 APEC meeting will be held in October near the Yanqi Lake area, the Jingmi elevated highway has been built across the area, to ease the traffic congestion.

The hotel is built at the entrance of a small "town" with the same name. It is a real estate project targeting people who like the large-open spaces and good air of Beijing's outskirts. In the evening there are not so many people on the street. But a manager at the hotel says about half of the houses in the compound have been taken.

With 191 rooms in different styles, the hotel has many facilities for business meetings, great restaurants and many entertainment options.

There is a small but good 3-D cinema with adjustable leather seats, which can shift to stretch like a first-class seat on an airplane, but even more comfortably. There are KTV rooms, a cigar bar, mahjong rooms and a wine cellar.

The hotel offers meeting rooms, and functional halls suitable for parties or business meetings of different sizes.

Apart from a buffet restaurant on the first floor, the hotel has five restaurants of different cuisine styles. The five restaurants are five-minute walk from the hotel.

The Fragrant Village Restaurant offers typical Chinese dishes that are more or less country style, such as long-simmered meats and fresh vegetables with brown dipping sauce. Elischer Western Restaurant provides French delicacies and Bailily Pastoral Hot Pot offers beef imported from Australia and organic vegetables in a Hong Kong-style presentation.

In summer, the restaurant will provide an outdoor barbeque accompanied by German beer and live music. But for winter, it will be a comfortable stopover during a visit to the nearby scenic spots, or just a weekend away from the hustle of downtown Beijing.

yejun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/22/2014 page13)