South Union Hotel — Hotel in Shenzhen

When Shenzhen exploded as an economic free zone in the 1980s, the South Union Hotel was one of the first big hotels built when this street was the main street in Shenzhen. Time has marched on and this hotel really comes across as dated.||||My room itself was perfectly adequate: spacious with a comfortable bed, good working desk, and decent bathroom. The housekeeping was very good. My housekeeper on the 18th floor was friendly. ||||But there were so many other things that brought down the quality for me:||1. The room is woefully lacking in enough lighting. The main ceiling has no lights in it at all except for some around the side that were more ambient. More than once I thought "I have to turn the lights on" then realized that they were already on.||2. The bathroom too has very little light. Just one small light over the sink/mirror area.||3. There is one overhead light in the entryway by the closet but when you open the closet door, it blocks the light thus making the closet completely dark.||4. The wifi was TERRIBLE. Almost never worked.||5. The breakfast room is on the top floor of the hotel. I thought this was a nice idea but when I went up there, the tables with the food were completely blocking the view!! To eat you just sat in an otherwise dismal room being denied what would have been a decent view. Who thought of this??||6. The workout room is really pathetic. A few sad, old pieces of equipment. I tried the treadmill but the tread would unexpectedly go in the opposite direction without warning. I almost fell the first time and then just gave up after a while. It's unlikely these machines are ever cleaned. ||7. The hotel staff is friendly enough but none of the ones I encountered during my week there actually spoke English. I don't expect everyone to English, but at least thought I would encounter one who did.||||All of these really need to be addressed and it can be a good hotel. I'm planning to be back in Shenzhen but I will be requesting to stay in a...

This is the first and last time I am staying in this hotel. To start with, they refused to look at my copy of the confirmed reservation via Expedia and refused to get in touch with Expedia until I demanded them to. They made me wait for more than two hours before finally giving me a room. Then, the room they gave was drafty, had dirty carpeting, peeling paint, dust bunnies in A/C duct and elsewhere, and worst of all, smelled of smoke. I could not turn the A/C unit on because the smell cigarette smoke was coming from its vents. The smell was also coming from the corridor and the door had no bottom seal. Thus, I had to improvise and make one by stuffing the gaping hole between the door bottom and floor with paper and...

the hotel and its rooms are neither pretty nor special, but if you are just looking for a place to get some sleep and do not plan on spending any time in the room it is just fine and serves its purpose. the room was clean enough, though a little bit dusty at some "unimportant" parts like topshelves, but the furniture looked old around the edges and the so called "non-smoking" room came with an ashtray and was smelling like one, too. but for the price i didn't expect anything else and got what i had signed up for. nothing special, but a fair enough product for the price. next time though i have to spend more time in the city, i will try to find a different...