[venam71]

Has anyone stayed at the China Hotel in Guangzhou?

What are the pros and cons of this hotel?

Thanks,

[sak9645]

I stayed at the China in 1997, before it was taken over by Marriott.

At that time, the hotel had very opulent common areas, with beautiful mirrors, furniture, etc. A chamber music ensemble sometimes played Western and Chinese favorites in the lobby.

The hotel had an excellent main dining room, which served Western and Chinese fare. The Western breakfast buffets were terrific, even if you were not an adventurous eater and wanted to stick with eggs, pancakes, juice, coffee, yogurt, etc.

The hotel also housed a branch of the Hard Rock Cafe, where I was pleased to celebrate my first Mother's Day as a Mom!

The hotel was like a small city, with apartments, shops, and so on. There was even a grocery store, although I found too many items that had passed their expiration date, and although my daughter got a tummyache from some banana flavored milk we bought there.

Unfortunately, the ordinary sleeping rooms were smallish, with the typical Chinese rock-hard twin beds that made me feel like I was sleeping on my dining table. (In my daughter's province, I had enjoyed American-quality double beds, and in Hong Kong I'd had the most comfortable king sized bed I'd ever slept in.) The bathrooms were fine, but nothing fancy. The cribs were old fashioned wooden ones, and I had to return one when the drop-side wouldn't stay up.

At the time, renovations were under way, and, alas, some of them were going on rather noisily when our children were trying to nap. We complained, and were met the next day in the lobby by a very apologetic member of management. With much bowing and saying, "I'm sorry," he offered to upgrade anyone who wished to the Executive Floor.

I was one of those who took advantage of the offer. The rooms were much quieter and slightly bigger. The beds, alas, were only marginally more comfortable. There were no hairdryers in the rooms -- a surprise, as the other rooms had been equipped with them. I guess that the executives who usually used the rooms were all short-haired men!

I will say that the hotel service was outstanding. The staff spoke very good English, and truly tried to be helpful. Instead of in-room safes, there were safe deposit boxes at the cashier's office, which worked very well. The laundry service was good. The business center was good. The rooms were quite clean. And so on.

The China is in Guangzhou's business district, not on beautiful Shamian Island. This was a bit of a drawback. However, very close to the hotel, I found a wonderful, upscale store featuring European children's clothing and shoes. As my toddler was walking, and had come to me in too-small sneakers, I was glad to be able to find some nice leather shoes with Velcro closings for her.

I was sick, and so was Becca, when I was in Guangzhou, so I didn't do much exploring on my own. I understand that there was a nice park nearby, where some of our group members saw people doing early morning exercises and such. I didn't use it, but there was a McDonald's next to the hotel, for folks who got a junk food craving. And, of course, you could easily get a cab if you wanted to go elsewhere in the city.

My guess is that a lot has changed at the China since I was there, and that much of it has been for the better. For example, I would bet that Marriott has upgraded the guest rooms, especially the ones most often offered to Western travelers. I would also bet that the whole place has been given a more modern look, and that some of the shops, including the grocery store, have been upgraded.

However, I don't think that Marriott could have done much to improve the service, which was already good. And it obviously couldn't have moved the hotel to a prettier part of Guangzhou.

Sharon