Dalian Huigu Sunshine Hotel

The building feels almost out of place: lots of marble, a grand entrance, and big rooms that might suggest a luxury hotel in the city center. Instead, it's tucked away on a back street in a suburban fishing village. I stayed because I was visiting the foreign language university nearby. The gate is less than 1 km away, but walking that distance in minus 10 degrees Celsius, as it was in December 2018, felt long. Finding the hotel was tricky. There's another hotel on the nearby corner, and this one is on a back street. When I arrived at the metro station about 4 km away around 10 pm, the taxi driver seemed to pretend he didn't know the hotel and took me to a neighboring apartment block with a nearly identical name, where his parents lived. I was facing the prospect of being left outside there in minus 10 degree weather, until I paid him another 20 USD to take me the short distance to the actual hotel on the other side of the block. That wasn't the hotel's fault, though its location may make this sort of trick easier. I plan to stay at the other hotel next time, partly because it's slightly cheaper. At reception, the nice young man couldn't speak English, so we used Google Translate, which worked okay. Another hassle was having to go to a nearby police station with one of the cleaners (?) to get permission to stay. I don't know whether all hotels in China require this, or whether hotel staff sometimes handle the paperwork for guests. The hotel itself was fine, but it was hard to find and the staff didn't speak English.