Beihai Zelin Hotel

We stayed here the last few days in April 2013 and it is probably the worst hotel I've ever seen. They previously had a fire on the 3rd floor and all the rooms had mildew in the air and walls. The stench will wake you up at night if not the bed coils from the mattress that impale your ribs. Stay at your own peril. You've been warned.

As part of a recent self arranged holiday in China, my wife and I booked 2 nights at the Beihai Zelin hoel after reading TripAdvisor reviews and checking the locations. The hotel is in the old part of the city, a long way from the 'new areas (including highrise hotels, apartments etc. Baihai is a still developing smaller (by Chinese standards) city, in a region that has been historically poor and backward throughout Chinese history. Today it has been booming (like all of China), but particularly because it inlcudes the mainland port from which the dayly overnight ferries sail to Hainan Island. The hotel review weere not red hot, but we took the chance and found a very reasonable standard hotel that was comfortable and quiet. The hotel and its location was ideal for walking about and seeing remnants of the rapidly disappearing 'old Baihai'