Yimi Hotel Jiajia Jie Deng Du Hui Branch

The location is superb, in the A Mall building, with lots of places to eat and a metro entrance there too. The map pin is off, though. It’s above exit E at Gongyuanqian metro station, and Beijing Lu, with its shopping and restaurants, is a short walk away. The hotel itself is nice and well appointed, and the view from our room was good. There was a long wait at the front desk during my stay, which was during Canton Fair, and the desk staff seemed overworked. After housekeeping came by, they hadn’t replaced the soap or other necessities. I assume these problems were tied to how busy the hotel was for the fair. Apart from that, it was a really good stay and I’d come back.

We could see the Nanyue Wang Museum grounds from our room. At the museum, we heard that only 1% of the royal grounds had been excavated, so maybe we were staying on the site of royal quarters. The location is very convenient, right above A Mall and a stone’s throw from Beijing Road Pedestrian Street and the museum. Google Maps shows the wrong spot, so look for 'Jiedeng Duhui Park Front MIX International Lingyu' instead. The shower drained extremely slowly. The first person could shower normally, but the second and third had to keep the flow at just the right 70% for the water to drain. We told reception, who said it was fixed, but the problem continued. The fridge wasn’t cold either. We booked for 3 people but were told we’d get only 2 towels because our room had 2 double beds, with towels counted by beds rather than guests. The lifts were slow and had no AC, though the room AC worked well. Remember to switch it from the default auto mode to cool. Breakfast was RMB39 per person, an adequate spread, though nothing like a fancy international buffet. It was a rather good stay, thank you.

One of our two rooms had a good view, but a sewage-like smell from somewhere made the toilet stink up the whole room. The other room was okay. The map has the location wrong and I couldn’t fix it, but the hotel is connected to Gong Yuan Qian MRT station and an underground mall network that mostly sells women’s fashion. The lift could take a while depending on when you used it. Apart from the smelly toilet, I thought it was okay.

It can take ages to get a lift, and it felt really hot inside. The location is very good, though, with a train station nearby and a mall right beside it, so it’s easy to go places and find food when you’re hungry.