This may have been the first time I wish I had gone with a hotel rated less on tripadvisor, and a reminder that more than just acting needs to be taken into consideration when selecting a hotel.
First off, this looks like a shiny polished hotel on the surface, but that's about where it ends. The room was not memorable (can barely remember what it looks like and it's just been 2 months since I've been there).
The amenities are what I had a problem with. There were few western choices for dinner. I knew choices would be limited, and I realize we ARE in China, and I live in China so am used to the food, but there was very little we found palatable (especially since we had kids with us). We ended up walking over to the Pullman for lunches and dinners. I should have gone with the Western hotel chain. If you are more adventurous, then this may not bother you.
The bar and drinks in the hotel were the other things that really bugged me. For a 4-5 star hotel, one should be able to get a drink by the glass that isn't beer. At the Chinese restaurant, I asked for the wine menu. All it had were wines by the bottle, highly inflated prices, and all Chinese wines. when I asked if they had any French wine, they came back with a bottle that was over $100. Really, I just want A glass of wine with dinner.
So, ok, no wine for me. How about a cocktail? Surely, they would offer a cocktail. When I asked, they provided me with the cocktail menu that had scotch, bourbon, and whiskey ... All by the bottle. I'm guessing that their bread and butter customers are Chinese men who are a different type of drinker that the average Western woman. So, coca cola lite it was. Grrrrrr!!!
I couldn't believe this, and seemed to remember seeing a bar (quite empty) in the lobby. So I trekked on down to see if the menu was the same. Sure enough, exact same bottles of hard liquor were on the menu. Not a single person at the bar (except for the quite bored waitstaff).
I will mention that the Pullman offered drinks by the glass, both wine and cocktails. I really regret not booking the Pullman.
A few other notes. There is a small kids playroom for the kiddos. We were the only ones in there most of the time. Clean and brightly lit. It was also right next door to the ping pong room, which my husband and I used with enthusiasm.
We also tried out some massages. Not only did I find them strange (a whole lot of slapping goes on, and I'm not exaggerating at all), but I followed out another group of Chinese tourists who had just had massages as well, and I know enough Chinese and can read body language well enough to know that they thought it was strange as well. You could hear the slapping upand down the hall in the "spa" area (if you could call it that). It was rather funny.
While I didn't visit the pool myself, my husband checked it out and chose not to swim on account that it was small and had a funny smell.
