diff --git a/docxtpl/__init__.py b/docxtpl/__init__.py
index 1f57b24..23f622d 100644
--- a/docxtpl/__init__.py
+++ b/docxtpl/__init__.py
@@ -267,9 +267,9 @@ class DocxTemplate(object):
                         identities.add(identity)
                         escape_recursively(v, identities)
                 else:
-                    # Avoid dict, Listing, InlineImage, RichText, etc. classes
-                    #  by comparing `v` to `str`. Do not use try-except.
-                    if isinstance(v, str):
+                    # Avoid dict, Listing, InlineImage, RichText, etc classes
+                    # Do not use try-except.
+                    if isinstance(v, six.string_types):
                         # Unescape at first to avoid secondary escaping
                         d[k] = escape(unescape(v))
 
diff --git a/tests/escape_auto.py b/tests/escape_auto.py
index 7fea908..bafbfc2 100644
--- a/tests/escape_auto.py
+++ b/tests/escape_auto.py
@@ -1,13 +1,28 @@
-from docxtpl import *
+"""
+@author: Max Podolskii
+"""
+
+import os
+from unicodedata import name
+
+from six import iteritems, text_type
+
+from docxtpl import DocxTemplate
+
+
+XML_RESERVED = """<"&'>"""
 
 tpl = DocxTemplate('templates/escape_tpl_auto.docx')
 
-context = {'myvar': R('"less than" must be escaped : <, this can be done with RichText() or R()'),
-           'myescvar': 'It can be escaped with a "|e" jinja filter in the template too : < ',
-           'nlnp': R('Here is a multiple\nlines\nstring\aand some\aother\aparagraphs\aNOTE: the current character styling is removed'),
-           'mylisting': Listing('the listing\nwith\nsome\nlines\nand special chars : <>&'),
-           'autoescape': """<, >, &, ", and '."""
+context = {'nested_dict': {name(text_type(c)): c for c in XML_RESERVED},
+           'autoescape': 'Escaped "str & ing"!',
+           'autoescape_unicode': u'This is an escaped <unicode> example \u4f60 & \u6211',
+           'iteritems': iteritems,
            }
 
 tpl.render(context, autoescape=True)
-tpl.save('output/escape_auto.docx')
+
+OUTPUT = 'output'
+if not os.path.exists(OUTPUT):
+    os.makedirs(OUTPUT)
+tpl.save(OUTPUT + '/escape_auto.docx')
diff --git a/tests/templates/escape_tpl_auto.docx b/tests/templates/escape_tpl_auto.docx
index 4d59e55..df5f361 100644
Binary files a/tests/templates/escape_tpl_auto.docx and b/tests/templates/escape_tpl_auto.docx differ