Qingyuan Jiantaoyu the Garden Hotel — Hotel in Qingyuan City

This hotel has 18 floors but only one of them, floor 16 - an executive level is designated non-smoking. When I first arrived I didn't know this. I said I wanted a non-smoking room. I went to my room and there was an ashtray. I returned to the front desk and they said they had called housekeeping. I returned to my room, the ashtray had been exchanged for a sign which said "This is a non-smoking room". After some asking they did take me round to sniff a couple of rooms, but any room where people have been smoking will smell bad to a non-smoker. I ended up being given a room on the non-smoking floor for which I was very grateful. Unfortunately, for a couple of nights the people across the hall left their door constantly open to allow their friends who were in all the rooms around me to go in and smoke and party. When I complained to the front desk about the smoking and the noise, the hotel did nothing. Other than that the hotel was okay and the staff were helpful. ||||If there are no noisy guests in nearby rooms the hotel is actually very quiet, which is nice. My room was on the city side, but I went up to the 18th floor bar to look out the window and the view was very nice, so I imagine the river view rooms would also be very pleasant. It is nice to walk by the river of an evening.||||The breakfast and dinner buffets are both quite decent. Again smoking is a problem but you can sit slightly outside of the main restaurant area to minimise this. ||||I found the indoor pool slightly chilly, but it is a lovely big pool and there was a hot tub type pool, sauna and steam room segregated by gender. There is an outdoor pool, but it is only open in the summer so I...

This is a very good Sofitel, especially for the price. In fact, it's typically equal to, or a bit cheaper, than some of the more down-at-the-heel local options.||||Rooms are clean, comfortable, and totally up to the Sofitel standard. The hotel itself is quiet - eerily so, in fact. It sometimes felt like the place was only 10% full. Not a bad thing, so long as it doesn't put you in the mind of the Shining.||||Hotel buffet, breakfast and dinner, is reasonably priced compared to Sofitels in bigger cities, and very good.||||The indoor and outdoor pools are terrific, and big. The gym, however, though stocked with more than enough equipment, is a bit out-dated and feels like an afterthought. Could use a bit of an upgrade.||||Also, the selection of television stations in the rooms is almost entirely Chinese. No HBO or CNN. Two english-language stations, total, I believe. This is nuts: surely, Sofitel is capable of springing for more? In any case, pack your own entertainment.||||But all in all, this is the place you want to stay in Qingyuan. For the money, the local options...

This is a very beautiful hotel. our room was exceptionally large and great value for the price. he young front desk staff tried to be helpful but gave us totally conflicting advice about our planned trip to Feilai Xia & Feilai Si. First we were told it was impssible to go there as it was off peak season and there were no boats running; next we were told that the river was too high and it was dangerous to go there; a third person phoned his tour guide friend and assured us that the road was also closed by landslides. Deeply disappointed after travelling for 3 hours to get there, we tried one more time. This time, Andy, the bellhop didn't hesitate - called and booked us a boat & 5 minutes later we were in a taxi to the pier. He even gave us his number so we could arrange a taxi to get back to the hotel as the pier is in a rather out-of-the-way place. There was no sign of the river being dangerous. The trip was...