Ming Lu Hotel

We visited Minglu Hotel in October of 2012. We got two twin rooms, each with two twin beds. The rooms were beautiful, tibetan style and overall in very good shape. Very authentic, warmly decorated and in a way buddhist style. Very nice. The bathroom was also beautiful, basic but beautiful, very natural looking but it could have been cleaner. The beds were very comfy and soft for Asian standards. The hallways were appealing with red lantern lights and teak wood, but a little ran down. The reception area is in dire need of repair and renewal and so is the elevator. The breakfast room is purely Asian and a complete joke. What a disappointment. Completely non-appealing, dirty looking with greasy looking food on old ratty bedsheets for table clothes. The front desk ladies do not or barely speak any English at all, but with your and their online digital translator you can get a long way. The check-in procedure is long and inefficient though. The in-house travel agent is useless to people from outside of China, since I was told they can not serve foreigners. The hotel location is excellent if you like being close to some restaurants and a Carrefour for fruit, drinks and breakfast items. Overall our stay was pleasant and the rooms memorable, but the lousy breakfast will make us decide not to return to this property.

I thought I had booked a hotel in the center of Chengdu, but Minglu is not! It is located in an area with big furniture malls. Not my idea of a central location! Every time you have to take a taxi or bus. The rooms in this chinese hotel are traditionally styled. I stayed at the top floor, which I found a bit smokey. The internet connection is very good. Breakfast is very very poor. No coffee, no toast, nothing. Just Chinese food. The staff does not speak English at all. They cannot provide a map of the city, so at first you don't have a clue where you are. For this kind of accommodation the price is far too high!

We stayed in this hotel for one night, with our 15 month old daughter. We booked on the basis of great ratings from tripadvisor (although there were no reviews in English!). We booked through the hotel's own website (again, only in Chinese), with the help of google-translate: it was definitely worth it. The room was lovely - traditional ming-dynasty style, with a very low bed, traditional furnishings, a rainforest-style shower and lots of incense. The reception staff were exceptionally helpful, and we were particularly grateful to one receptionist who not only gave us directions to the nearest supermarket but even accompanied us there so that we wouldn't get lost. Her English was very good and she also very kindly gave us gifts of mooncakes, to celebrate the autumn festival. One word of caution - the hotel doesn't accept foreign credit cards, which means paying for the room and the local 600 yuan deposit in cash - the nearest ATM doesn't take foreign cards but the receptionists will gladly point you in the direction (or accompany you) to one that does. We would thoroughly recommend this hotel.