Canton Mountain Villa

As some reviews mentioned already, this is a beautiful property. Deng Xiaoping and Ziang Zimin stayed here, and some serious modern Chinese history was made here. It is difficult to get to, but that's not the problem. If you want quiet, beauty, natural surroundings, you have to work a bit to get it. So the issue is not in its isolation - its in the fact that almost everything else about it, apart from the location is wrong. When we first checked in, it was raining. We noticed that there were bowls at the reception area to catch water droplets. Not a good sign. Then, we were told that double beds were not available and we had to pay for a bigger deluxe room costing almost RMB1400 (regular, we paid a discounted price). We bit the bullet, but when we checked in, the aircon wasnt working. We later realized that they didnt switch the airconditioning on until 6pm! They didnt bother to inform guests of that "minor" fact until we'd checked in. We then wanted to have lunch, only to be told that the restaurants did not open between 2pm and 5pm, and there was nothing else available within an 8km radius of the hotel! Why would guests have to go hungry in a hotel that charged international 5-star rates? True, there was room service, but there's only so much room service fare you can stomach. At night, the mosquitoes came, and the hotel-equipped mosquito killers were woefully inadequate. Worse still, the air cons switched themselves off at 2am (again something which they had neglected to inform customers)! On top of that, the occupants in the room upstairs scraped furniture on the floor like they were re-decorating, all through the night. Apparently they were playing overnight mahjong. We had to call the front desk to bring us a fan (a fan, for that price?) and inform the mahjong players to stop renovating their room. We managed to make it through the night, and vowed never to return to the hotel again. Which is a pity, because it truly is a lovely property (in an old, neglected, under-maintained sort of way).

This hotel is truly beautiful. Placing asinde the city's foggy weather, the hotel sits on top of a mountain hill. Great and clean room. Breakfast is made to order Chinese only. Western style of food is complicated even to order.For example, you ask for orange juice, and they bring FANTA. Cons: Far... very far. Very dificult to arrive when you first get in Guangzhou. Most taxis either do no know where the location is, or they do not want to take you there. It is truly a hassle to get here. Great staff willing to help (limited english), but very nice to guests. Always inform the front desk when you are to arrive by taxi. It is becaus the hotel stays in a park, where they charge the admission by car. If you ask them to call at the gate, they will not charge you. During trade fairs, they have a shutle that runs in the morning and at night. Again, if you want to come in early, let them know for the taxi cab arrangements. We spend aroun RMB60 during day and RMB100 at night to get from downtown to hotel. Remember that RMB is the Yen Local coin.