Tianzhi

I visited the hotel during the Ice & Snow Festival. the room was nice with two beds. the front desk were nice and helpful, although they didn't speak English very well (but that's true for all of China). the hotel is VERY central, right in the middle of the pedestrian zone main street which all through the day until the evening is filled with Chinese tourists and has a nice atmosphere. for example if you like western food, there's Burger King a few meters away, and Mc'Donalds, Pizza-Hut, and KFC all within 2 minutes walking from the hotel. The hotel is also a short distance walk from the frozen river (with nice activities like slides and horse carts), and from the park with the Zhaolin Park which contains beautiful ice sculptures.

We arrive at the hotel at around 01:00 to find the receptionist sleeping on three chairs placed together behind the reception, topped with a mattress and covered in a nice purple quilt. We are required to pay a deposit of 400 Yuan which we will get back on checking out. Getting 400 Yuan in cash just as we are on our way to the airport to leave the country is not exactly useful to us and they refuse to accept my credit card as surety, but after some negotiation via a translator, I manage to knock that down to 200 Yuan. It is still a bit of a nuisance though, and I now have that cash sitting in my safe at home, awaiting my next trip to China. The receptionist spoke absolutely no English whatsoever, which to be fair, I didn't expect her to, as this is China after all. What was a little more confusing was that she also seemed unable to write western numerals, and it took us three attempts to understand which rooms we should actually be in. Finally the three of us took the lift up to the third floor to get some much-wanted sleep after a long flight. We were in room number 507 and Alan in 504. We followed the signs outside the lift to the direction we thought we should go. No number 507 to be seen anywhere, and Alan tried several times to gain access to his allocated room, to no avail. Eventually the door was opened from the inside by a very sleepy and understandably unhappy guest. It seems either the room had been double booked or the receptionist had written down the wrong number. We went down to reception to get this rectified, and after much gesticulation and questioning in English by us – which the receptionist didn't appear to understand – and much explanation in Chinese by the receptionist, which I am sure was very helpful but we didn't understand a single word – she grabs our key cards, reprograms them and hands them back to us. Alan was given a different room number this time, 509, but ours was still the same. Up we went again, by now getting quite frustrated and tired, anxious to catch a few hours sleep in what was left of the night. However, we still can't find the rooms. Logically they would be down the end of the corridor, but even numbers go down to 502 on one side of the corridor and the other side of the corridor has odd numbers starting at 501 and finishing at 505. No 507. No 509. On the other side of the lift lobby, the room numbers go upwards from 514 to 549. No sign of 507 or 509 at all. We go back down to the reception again and try to explain this. Long – and I am sure helpful if we could only understand – reply from the receptionist in Chinese. Eventually, after not getting anywhere for several minutes, I gesture that she should come with us by pointing at her and raising my hand in an upward motion. She has to wake the snoring security guard who is sleeping on the piano stool before she can leave the reception, and she takes us to the fifth floor. She heads off in the same direction that we had walked up and down several times a few minutes earlier, and it seems she is equally surprised when she doesn't find the two rooms she has allocated, being faced with a dead end where our rooms should logically be. She walks up and down the corridor a couple of times, just as we did. She looks at us with a confused and embarrassed expression before heading off in the opposite direction. Just like we did, she looks at the signs saying rooms up to 549, and again hesitates with a confused look on her face, before heading for the broom cupboard where a member of staff (I am assuming someone from Housekeeping or the Russian style 'floor lady') is sleeping. More explanations and gesticulations, and finally she takes us off to the far end of the corridor, past room number 549 and around the corner, where our two rooms (507 and 509) and located. Not exactly logical! We thank her and retire to the room. The room is disappointingly small, with barely enough space for a double bed, upon which is placed a huge, orange exercise ball. Why???? I have never in my 500+ hotel stays ever come across that – very different! There is a small desk, but no closet or wardrobe, in fact not a single hook to hang any clothes on, and nowhere to place luggage without falling over it. The cover on the desk chair is threadbare and the wallpaper is coming off the walls. The room is very old, tired and grubby and extremely small. The bathroom is much more modern and quite nice and clean with modern fittings. The bed is softer than is usual in Chinese hotels which is the only redeeming feature of the room. After three nights in the this hotel, we travel to Jilin for a couple of nights and return to Tianzhi Hotel for our last night in China. This time we arrive at a more civilised time of the day and are given different rooms, on a different floor. And what a difference! These rooms are much larger, much more modern and have many more facilities. They are nicely decorated with nice little touches. The wall between the bedroom and the bathroom consists of two panes of glass with plastic palm trees between, giving a very nice tropical (albeit chintzy) feel when lit from behind. There is a curtain on the bathroom side for privacy. The room has a nice view down Central Street. At 01:30 in the morning we are woken from a deep sleep by someone trying their key card on our door. We can hear them try other doors along the corridor too so we assume they have returned from a night out and after a few drinks have got out of the lift on the wrong floor. All goes quiet and we go back to sleep, only to be woken again a few minutes later by the same scenario. Again we go back to sleep after they have tried a few doors and decided they can't get in – we'd put the safety latch on our door so weren't worried about any intruders. Ten minutes later we are woken yet again, this time by a knock on the door. Outside is the receptionist who appears very confused – and embarrassed - when we open the door. The next morning we are told (by a translator) that the receptionist who checked us in forgot to mark off that the rooms were taken so when the new guests arrived in the night, they were given our room by mistake. That's the saga out our stay there. Now for some information about the hotel itself: The hotel is extremely conveniently positioned in the middle of Central Street, close to all the action in town. We were there for the Ice and Snow Festival, and all along Central Street there are snow and ice carvings (essentially frozen adverts) which are beautifully lit at night. There are many shops and restaurants within walking distance. The hotel serves breakfast in an adjoining restaurant (accessed either from the outside down a side street, or a more complicated route through the hotel: up one floor, then along a corridor, turning into another corridor and down some stairs) where you can also eat lunch or dinner. Breakfast is buffet style and feature almost exclusively Chinese food. The lunch/dinner menu has helpful photos of the food and short (with sometimes amusing translations) descriptions of each dish in English. They also have one young lad who speaks a few words of English. The staff are very friendly and the food is tasty and reasonably priced. Also adjoining the hotel is a cellar bar, although we did not go there so cannot comment on what it is like. A few yards down the same side street is a convenience store where you can buy water and some snacks – it is open late into the night. Right across the road is a Burger King. Central Street is a pedestrianised road, so no cars can drive right up to the hotel entrance, but it is just a short walk along the side street to the nearest vehicular access point. Bear in mind, however, that the streets of Harbin have restrictions on driving down certain streets on certain days, depending on the registration number of the vehicle. If you are going for the Ice Festival, bear in mind that the temperatures can drop well into the -30°C range – dress in layers and take boots with good grip. Snow chains for shoes are ideal for around the parks!

Good location on main tourist street. Need to leave 200RMB on arrival as deposit. Litle English spoken at reception. Room good size and comfortable and clean although the carpet was well and truely marked- well heated and plenty of hot watet but very tired furnishings. My safe was broken. However did provide toiletries and hair dryer. Breakfast in cafe 20m along street. Mainly Chinese buffet. Had dumplings and custard tart first day but not on offer second. Coffee is the 3 in one instant variety.