桥头三正半山酒店 — Hotel in Dongguan

I have stayed here many times. I am currently coming to the end of a one week visit. If you have traveled to China you can find many hotels which are literally dumps yet somehow they show a 4 star rating. The Goodview is not one of them. Yes, they do have different grades of rooms. I always stay in building 8 which has good size rooms. ||||The staff is very friendly and helpful. They do not all speak English but if there is a problem they can find someone who does. many also want to try and learn it so you can be a teacher.||||The Western breakfast buffet is a cross of both cultures. Every time I go they have added something trying to make it better. I can also get into the negatives which generally gets around to lukewarm food or not so hot tea. In the end it is not bad, but certainly not gourmet.||||The Chinese restaurant is very good. The service is usually very good. We bring our staff as well as guests here. There appears to be a good mix of Chinese cuisines.||||There is a gym which would rate as average but you generally do not find a lot of people using it. It is next to the pool which is actually in a very nice setting. ||||There is a massage and sauna on the site. I can't rate these as I have only had a foot massage there. It took about two hours (big feet?) but was worth every penny I spent. ||||Overall this hotel is set up as a resort and the setting is like that. You are definitely in a nice oasis in the middle...

I have stayed here many times. I am currently coming to the end of a one week visit. If you have traveled to China you can find many hotels which are literally dumps yet somehow they show a 4 star rating. The Goodview is not one of them. Yes, they do have different grades of rooms. I always stay in building 8 which has good size rooms. ||||The staff is very friendly and helpful. They do not all speak English but if there is a problem they can find someone who does. many also want to try and learn it so you can be a teacher.||||The Western breakfast buffet is a cross of both cultures. Every time I go they have added something trying to make it better. I can also get into the negatives which generally gets around to lukewarm food or not so hot tea. In the end it is not bad, but certainly not gourmet.||||The Chinese restaurant is very good. The service is usually very good. We bring our staff as well as guests here. There appears to be a good mix of Chinese cuisines.||||There is a gym which would rate as average but you generally do not find a lot of people using it. It is next to the pool which is actually in a very nice setting. ||||There is a massage and sauna on the site. I can't rate these as I have only had a foot massage there. It took about two hours (big feet?) but was worth every penny I spent. ||||Overall this hotel is set up as a resort and the setting is like that. You are definitely in a nice oasis in the middle...

Perspective this from a first time visitor to China. This area is not glamorous. It's a rather bland industrial town, and this is the best hotel in town (it seems). Prices are low - $50 per night - but it's very much a Chinese 5* hotel rather than an international one. It's hard to put your finger on why. Everything is quite lavish. Rooms large (in the poolside block 8), marble and gilt everywhere. Breakfast was lavish, but almost entirely Chinese food. The rooms are very luxurious - but still a bit off. Swimming pool is VAST yet I didn't want to get in it. The staff are warm and kind but I still found it rather depressing, even if all travel is an experience. I wonder if part of it is the fact that there is a linger of smoking. Part is just that it's just quite foreign. But the stay was sandwiched between a hotel in Hong Kong and a Sheraton in a major Chinese city, and there was a big difference. Made me wonder if I am too inflexibly Western - but worth being warned if you...