Thirty-one years on from when it opened as the Chinese capital’s only hotel with any plausible claim to luxury, the Peninsula has not so much upped its game as put it on fast-forward. Whether fellow guests are high-society Beijingers or international players, they will relish the neatly juxtaposed hairy crab and minced pork dumplings in the Cantonese restaurant; the hotel’s heavy-hitting collection of artworks, including an abstract painting by Gao Shangxiao; the blue oasis that is the indoor pool; and the electric nail dryers that are standard in the suites’ bulging armory of home comforts. Doubles from $260.