Guilin JinWan Hotel

I ended up in this hotel as part of a 30 day wander round China. It was Chinese holiday time so most affordable places were full when my interpreter tried to book accommodation at short notice, she managed to negotiate a very good price and the clincher was when they agreed to send a car to the airport to collect us as part of the deal. Having stayed in some pretty bizarre places in other parts of China off the beaten track I was perhaps more forgiving of the place than some other western reviewers have been. The area around the hotel was certainly an experience at night, and, as previously noted, the hotel is right in the middle of the red light area, it even has a discrete side entrance should you wish to quietly return to your room with any new found friends! The rooms contain a number of interesting optional-to-purchase personal items which a couple having a short romantic stay might find useful! Strolling around the area I felt fairly safe despite the periodic pestering but friendly unmistakable but incomprehensible (in Chinese) offers of temporary friendship. I stopped near the next road junction for a beer at a street stall but when I sat down to drink it I was joined by a couple of rather effeminate boys who took a lot of convincing that I would rather they went away! However, if you persevere you can find some very nice places to eat on roads behind the opposite side of the main road but be ready to take your life in your hands crossing back as they lock up all the pedestrian underpasses at night. So yes the beds are hard - but so are many others in China and yes the rooms could be smarter - but i have stayed in much worse places and at least the showers work so if you are stuck this place is well worth considering for one night if only for the experience of walking round past the gambling dens and other night-time street life!

Ditto on TrueBrit2's comments, and then some. We got what we were told was a steep discount for a four-star hotel (176 RMB each for a block of five rooms), which would have been a great price had Jin Wan really been what it claimed to be. It's important for foreigners who don't speak Mandarin or the Guangxi dialect to know that the surly, unresponsive staff speak neither English nor Cantonese. It's impossible to overstate how dirty the rooms were, plus the plumbing leaked! Aside from the spotty internet connection, there were none of the usual amenities we'd seen in the other Chinese hotels where we'd stayed: drinking water, refrigerator, and room safe. The complimentary breakfast was terrible to the point where we didn't bother going back after the first morning, and at night, we unexpectedly found ourselves in the red light district simply by walking out a side door. Which leads to its one meager positive -- we felt safe inside the hotel.