Hengda Hotel Jinshazhou

From a distance it is an impressive hotel , but up close it is dated , or certainly not maintain well , falling to pieces , swimming pool tiles are missing making it dangerous for children , the beach is nice with the bay shame about he noisy truck going by frequently to being in the sand from else where, the rooms are large but again poorly maintains , bare wire on show in places , staff are friendly the food is average , with poor quality of food and drink , beer is just a stick of cans obviously bought from the local store , I booked this place for 4 nights during the August holiday , we check out a day early after having enough of it . Also the clients you have to share the hotel with , lots of pushing and shoving in queues , spitting and general poor manors and behavior, I told a gran mother lady not to touch my bag while I was swimming with my two kids , she had picked my bag up , and I told her to put it down , she then began to scream at me in Chinese that this is China and I am foreign I shoplifting leave China, as China is for Chinese , I have lived in China 16 years and my Chinese is good. I’m certain if I had pick up her bag she would of also told me to put it down, wouldn’t recommend this hotel to anyone , Chinese or foreign , everybody can find better than this in China

Big rooms, friendly staff, beautiful grounds. It has that Las Vegas feel to it. We were here on business but its not really a tourist destination. There are great walks along the river. The gym is in another building not far away. Food here is traditional and very good. free wifi but the connection isnt great. Excellent laundry service.

Let's start with the positives - nice big room, clean and friendly staff. very big reception and building itself is very attractive. The location is quiet so a nice relaxing sleep you will definitely get. Ok that's the niceties done. Let's move on to the reality - The photos on here are photoshopped as surrounding the back of the hotel are massive apartment blocks. The majestic fountains and gardens below are amidst roads that are bordered by millions of parked cars. We arrnaged a pick up from the metro station (which is very close) however the driver got lost in the middle of a residential area. Arriving at the hotel, as many people have said, I was impressed by the building. Check in was fine and the service was friendly. The room contained twin beds although I had requested a double/ queen bed. We decided to take a swim in the olympic pool that had been advertised - the pool is great, but it is in a sports centre a 10 minute walk away. This is not very convenient or comfortable, especially in a hotel that claims to be 7 stars! lol The pool is shared by the community of residents from the massive apartment blocks looming over the hotel and the changing rooms look equipped to deal with 15 people max. This said the pool was clean, big and the staff friendly. Please note that the although they say the pool closes at 10pm you have to leave the pool by 9:40. As this hotel is not very close to any restaurants your main choice will be the 2 restaurants in the Hotel. PLEASE DO NOT EAT IN THE WESTERN RESTAURANT. I have worked in / been involved with hospitality for over 15 years and this restaurant was awful. The buffet looked depressing and very overpriced - the price was 108 RMB but the food was sub standard chinese food that you can get in the city for under 20RMB. Having seen this I decided to order from the menu. We ordered a caesar salad, the pork knuckle and pasta. This took over 45 minutes to arrive, we had to re-request the salad as it had been missed off. What arrived was tragic - a ceaser salad with lettuce, bacon from a packet (those little horrible bacon bits that taste of nothing), powdered parmesan but NO egg, NO anchovies, NO seasoning and NO shaved parmesan - the salad was tasteless and badly presented. Next, the pork knuckle ...mmm how I love pork knuckle - slowly cooked and falling off the bone, with a nice crackling..... or in this case a burned bit of overcooked, tough pork which looked like it had been around a long time. Finally the pasta, now this could be my mistake as having Italian background I am a harsh crtic of pasta - but this was again very mediocre, overcooked pasta. The menu said a white wine and mussels. Now this makes me think of a lovely light sauce with a hint of lemon maybe, but instead they decided to added what must have been pesto from a jar. My heart sank just looking at it. The service was sub par and they seemed eager to get you sat down (wonder why?!! lol). Breakfast was slighly better but again overpriced and I could have used the bacon to tile a roof. We asked for a late check out but again this was not possible and then we asked for a taxi to the metro station, they said it was best to get the bus as it could take all day to get a taxi. Great way of selling the convenience of the hotel lol - but sadly this is true. We had to get two buses to get to the metro station. It seems that this hotel has misunderstood the point. You cant just decorate a place nicely, especially with the location. There is little to do there and little ambience, the backgroun music in the restaurant was the beeping of some kind of alarm. NB - WIFI ONLY WORKS IF YOU POINT YOUR PHONE AT THE DOOR, connection is terrible. The place has potential but they are misguided as to the priorities. They need to offer a great dining experience, have a pool and spa within the building, create more atmosphere and think a bit harder about the customer experience... as I left hungry, stressed and unhappy, carrying my family's bags to a bus stop from a supposedly 5 star hotel.....mmmm not great