Lanting Youth Hostel

The showers were a mess: in one, the shower head couldn't be moved and sprayed the wall instead of you. The water took around 15 minutes to heat up and wasn't reliably hot. They were dirty too, with lots of hair, and someone in my group saw insects. You also have to buy soap for the toilet in your bedroom. The beds were insanely hard, without proper mattresses, and some bedding was very dirty and stained. Our 8-person room felt like it should only hold 4-6 people. It was crammed, with no room to move or put bags. There were no individual lockers in the rooms apart from the one with a bike lock, and staff were very reluctant to give out locker keys. One room's only lock was a bike lock. The 8-person room had just one key card for everyone, and staff were reluctant to provide more. It's a 17-minute walk to the metro, and the location didn't feel nice. There were no restaurants or bars nearby and no easy access to the main tourist attractions. Staff spoke no English, so everything was handled through Google Translate. They were slow with every request, especially check-in. A few times, they acted inappropriately, play-fighting and ignoring customers. I'm certain there are much better options in Beijing for the same price. Since I was on a pre-booked group tour, I couldn't switch hostels before even spending the first night, though I would have.