Empark Grand Hotel Changsha — Hotel in Changsha

I will preface the review by saying Changsha is a second city and Empark a Chinese hotel chain, seasoned China Travellers should stop reading now as they probably could guess the rest. The hotel is about a 40 minute taxi ride from the train station and 1.5 hours when the traffic is bad. It is located in an upmarket residential area and surrounded by high-rise apartment blocks. Fortunately for us most were empty as the blind in the bathroom of our room was broken and quite exposed to the outside World. The hotel is not near the business district so you would need a taxi, which are fairly scarce. If you book a car expect to be ripped off, that said relative to what people would pay in there home country it is not that big a deal i.e. A 25 RMB ride (USD 4) would cost 80 RMB (USD 12). Very little English is spoken by staff at the hotel plus they are generally quite abrupt to the point of rudeness. The clientele are mainly Chinese business people or delegates/guests for the multiple conferences and wedding dinners that are held there. Look out for people lurching around drunk later in the evening vomiting everywhere! The hotel is rated 5 stars, not sure by whose definition as it would not be that level in Europe or the US. The room was fairly large but there are signs of a lot of 'wear and tear' with the carpet a beige mustard colour covered in multiple dirty marks. In the bathroom besides the blind being broken, there was a fancy set of bathroom scales that were rusted solid. The hotel provides two small complimentary bottles of water and if you buy any extra expect to pay dearly for it. My advice is to walk about 10 minutes up the road to a shopping mall that has a large supermarket in the basement and stock up on provisions there. Breakfast had a large selection of items but of very varied quality I thought perhaps it was just the Western food, but my wife found the local cuisine equally disappointing, even more so as Changsha is famed for its food. On the second morning I saw a waitress pick up two items off the floor and put them back on the tray next to where I was taking some food from the buffet and walk off as if all quite normal. As the local food is generally quite spicy we struggled a bit finding meals for our son. We ordered room service a couple of times for him and even though my wife is a fluent Mandarin speaker even she was totally confused by the person taking the order. We'd ordered a sandwich and she had asked whether it came with fries, what turned up was two lots of fries and a sandwich with fries all wrapped in cling film so quite soggy! One lot of fries were so undercooked that they were basically raw potato. Another was about right but very soggy and the third very overcooked. Also we had been provided chop sticks as eating utensils this also happened when we ordered a burger, which actually was what the Americans would call a minute steak. All-in-all not a great experience, if I return to Changsha hear that the Intercontinental is good so will give that a...

Very busy hotel located next to the river but well away from the city centre. During my 8 day stay there were at least 4 trade shows meaning the public areas were always busy. My room was spacious and well equipped with a view over the river. Don’t bother with the dinner buffet, the quality was poor and extortionately priced. Breakfast was very limited for western tastes but understandable as the number of western visitors is very low. English language skills are limited and a change to my booking was not made even though the receptionist said it had been. A check by my Chinese colleague with the hotel was the only way I knew my booking had not been amended. Avoid the swimming pool. A surprise to find an Olympic sized pool in the basement but I picked up an ear and foot infection on a single visit. The pool area is badly maintained and the changing area is positively disgusting. In summary, a lovely room but little else to commend this...

Very busy hotel located next to the river but well away from the city centre. During my 8 day stay there were at least 4 trade shows meaning the public areas were always busy. My room was spacious and well equipped with a view over the river. Don’t bother with the dinner buffet, the quality was poor and extortionately priced. Breakfast was very limited for western tastes but understandable as the number of western visitors is very low. English language skills are limited and a change to my booking was not made even though the receptionist said it had been. A check by my Chinese colleague with the hotel was the only way I knew my booking had not been amended. Avoid the swimming pool. A surprise to find an Olympic sized pool in the basement but I picked up an ear and foot infection on a single visit. The pool area is badly maintained and the changing area is positively disgusting. In summary, a lovely room but little else to commend this...