Shanxi Lihua Grand Hotel — Hotel in Taiyuan

As I was told that this is a state run hotel, I was quite surprised by the extraordinary services provided by the staff during our 3 day stay in this hotel. ||||Just a few examples, twice in a row in two days, my wife's used socks left in the room were washed by the cleaning staff, and placed on the heated towel hanger in the bathroom to dry. The cleaning staff actually wrote a short note apologizing for the taking the initiative without our consent.||||The first day when I went down to the restaurant for breakfast, as it was not very busy early morning, the manager actually handed me a warm plate, and introduced the different type of local food to me, as well as recommending what to try. Not only did he serve the food, he even personally brought the food being cooked to my table. All the staff at the restaurant were similarly attentive, which is so surprising even in a 5 star international hotel in China. One day, at the restaurant having breakfast, the waiter noticed that I got tired eyes, and he recommended what type of Chinese herbal tea I should have and made the tea for me. He even took my glasses to have them cleaned presumably in an ultrasonic tank used by the optometrist. How often does one get this kind of service when having breakfast in a hotel !||||Once we needed to get a cab at the hotel door. As it was peak hour and there was no cab to be seen, the doorman went out of the hotel and simply disappeared. After 5 minutes or so, a cab sped to the hotel door and out came the doorman. The door man literally went out of his way to hail a cab for us. That is great service. ||||The other outstanding feature are the facilities. I was very surprised to find that there is an Olympic size swimming pool (50 M) heated to 26C in the hotel. This is the first Olympic size hotel swimming pool that I have seen and used in China, including in major cities such as Beijing, Nanjing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shen Zhen, Guang Zhou, and Hong Kong. The adjoining gymnasium also has quite reasonable level of equipment.||||The room that I and my wife had was extremely comfortable, with fresh fruits ( and knife), as well as different varieties of little snacks replenished daily (free).||||Although the hotel is located at the corner of two busy main roads, it is actually not far from the Exhibition and Convention Centre, as well as the cultural hub of the city (museum, opera theatre, art gallery, library). These are all within 20 minutes of comfortable walking distance from the hotel. These modern architectures are stunning and well worth a visit if one has time. ||||One comment is the relative lack of Western food at breakfast. Since more than 90% of the guests are locals or Chinese, this is understandable. Perhaps the level of English may be somewhat lacking with the more junior staff. However, from my experience , I can't imagine guests receiving better...

This is the best hotel, I stay on my China trip. This hotel attends to every details I can imagine. In the room, there is fruit with real small knife to cut the fruit. Room amenities include five brand of toothpaste, wow, room slipper, toilet slipper, 8 bottles of mineral water, etc. The room is clean and bed is very comfortable with two kind of pillows. |Breakfast, full of varieties of food, local Chinese mixed with western food. The staff here is the most service mind group of people in China. I put my smeared reading glass on the table while eating breakfast. The waiter comes and ask " is it ok if she would clean my glass". Wow what a service!!! They even have machine to clean the glass. In public toilet, they is a note pad and pencil in toilet, in case you hv good idea while doing your business. Two thumps up for this hotel, very impressive. Oh p.s. The swimming pool use...

Very nice hotel. Very formal and spacious rooms. Clean and full of amenities. Wifi is free and pretty fast. The bed is rock hard and linen is definitely not of a high thread count. |I didn't use the restaurant or coffee shop facilities, mainly due to my client picking me up and us Eating out. ||The Hotel is about 10mins out from the main CBD area and shopping malls. ||Staff are very professional and service was excellent from my few interactions. English is spoken (or attempted) by all staff. ||During my two nights, there seemed to be a rather large government delegation stay there including military personal. I was told that is was a government preferred hotel. ||I found it nice and I would recommend it to business...