China Hotel, Guangzhou

After 26 hours of flights from Florida, my first impression of China wasn’t great. Once I’d rested, though, the place started growing on me. The hotel might be a little dated, but the beds and bedding are so comfortable. Breakfast has a great selection of European and Chinese food. I wasn’t impressed with the bar, the choices were pretty poor and it was pricey. There’s a bar across the street called Boombax. The pool is nice for doing laps, just be ready to wear a rubber hat. The gym isn’t suited to a serious workout. The staff are very nice, but don’t expect fluent English anywhere. The location is amazing, and China is an absolutely amazing country!

There are some nice displays around the building and a range of shops on site. The hotel is conveniently located near Metro Line 2, with clean, comfortable rooms at a reasonable price. You can find some good deals if you keep an eye on rates. Customer service is excellent throughout, and there’s a good gym and an outdoor pool. Breakfast starts at 0630 and has a wide choice of food from around the world.

China Hotel Guangzhou has perhaps the deepest history of Guangzhou’s three legendary hotels, though its reputation today is less prominent than that of the White Swan Hotel and The Garden Hotel. It sits between the White Swan’s classic status and The Garden Hotel’s prestige, and carries an imposing, magnificent name. Its origins lie in the early years of China’s reform and opening-up, when Guangzhou lacked tourist accommodation. During the Canton Fair, rooms near Liuhua were nearly impossible to find. Foreign businessmen sometimes slept in the lobby or corridors of the Dongfang Hotel, or were sent to distant suburbs. To address the shortage, then Vice Governor of Guangdong Yang Shangkun and Vice Mayor of Guangzhou Liang Shangli pushed for foreign investment in a group of modern hotels. China Hotel was built in that context. In 1980, six major Hong Kong property groups worked together on a development for the first and only time in history. The group included New World Development, Cheung Kong Holdings, Henderson Land Development, Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hopewell Holdings, and Sun Hung Kai Securities Investment. Gordon Wu, Cheng Yu-tung, Li Ka-shing, Fung King Hey, Kwok Tak-seng, and Lee Shau-kee jointly invested US$125 million to build the hotel on Liuhua Road. This arrangement pioneered the BOT model in China’s hotel industry. The Guangzhou municipal government provided the land, while the Hong Kong side funded the project, managed the hotel, and shared profits equally. Ownership was to return to the Guangzhou municipal government after 20 years. New World Hotels managed China Hotel in its early years, and in 1990 it became one of China’s first three five-star hotels. New World transferred management rights to the Marriott Group in 1998, making it Marriott’s largest hotel at the time. Ownership passed to the Guangzhou municipal government in 2004, changing it from a joint venture to a state-owned sole proprietorship, while Marriott remained manager. When Marriott’s 20-year management contract ended in 2018, Lingnan Group took over. The property now covers 19,000 square meters, with a total floor area of 168,000 square meters. Its 19-story main building reaches 62 meters and includes the hotel, residences, offices, and a shopping mall. The hotel has 1,013 guest rooms. At its peak, it had 11 restaurants with more than 2,100 seats, suited to large banquets and high-end conferences.

The service is fast, breakfast is good, and the location makes it easy to get around. There are also lots of fast food places connected to the hotel. But in December, when Guangzhou was around 22 degrees, the hotel shut off the air conditioning. Our rooms got up to 26 degrees, and changing rooms three times didn’t help. The amenities are low quality, not five-star.