Yiyang Huatian Hotel

“Comfortable rooms, nice buffet”

Rooms had a large king sized bed, many pillows. Rooms were attractive but not "chinese" looking - if not for the chinese writing on the directory and phone, you could have been in a nice european hotel. I did not find any odor of smoking unlike other reviewers. I understand that one tower has w… more

Rooms had a large king sized bed, many pillows. Rooms were attractive but not "chinese" looking - if not for the chinese writing on the directory and phone, you could have been in a nice european hotel. I did not find any odor of smoking unlike other reviewers. I understand that one tower has western toilets and the other Chinese - if this is an issue, I would specificy with your reservation. My colleagues were very happy withe the buffet but be aware western does not mean croissants, scrambled eggs, etc. The token western items were coffeeand some generic cereal. The remainder of the food is chinese - western has to do with it being presented buffet and not served at a round table. One dinner we were at the Huation restaurant - fancy, more formal presentation. My only complaints is that the carpets were stained (not dirty - the room was very clean) and that the airconditioning is suboptimal. Plan on bringing a spare plastic card to run the air conditioner when you are out of the room, otherwise the room never gets cool.

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“Sweet rooms, recently renovated”

After reading a scary review of the place we booked in YiYang, we decided to upgrade to the Huatian based only on it's TripAdvisor ranking. Glad we did. As YiYang doesn't get many "lao wei" (foreigners) we weren't sure if this place would be as good as advertised on TripAdvisor. Some Chinese hot… more

After reading a scary review of the place we booked in YiYang, we decided to upgrade to the Huatian based only on it's TripAdvisor ranking. Glad we did. As YiYang doesn't get many "lao wei" (foreigners) we weren't sure if this place would be as good as advertised on TripAdvisor. Some Chinese hotels are highly rated by Chinese guests, but not frankly comparable to Western standards. That is not the case at the Huatian. Although we stayed in the lower rent "B" Tower, the rooms were immaculate and show signs of very recent (as of July 2011) renovations, with new carpeting and modern bathrooms. The air conditioning was excellent -- an important consideration in Hunan's heat -- and overall the rooms were clean and efficient. The beds were firm but comfortable with -- hallelujah! -- clean duvets and pillowcases. Great water pressure and lots of hot water in the shower. Ethernet-based Internet was a bit pokey but otherwise okay. TV received only one or two English channels. The buffet breakfast was fair to middling but far better than most you'd get in a Chinese hotel. Yes, this place is not right downtown in YiYang but it's very close. I'd make it a 5 minute cab ride and maybe a 30 minute walk to the boardwalk area along the river, which gets very busy at night with lots of street vendors and an amusement park for kids. Clearly, this place doesn't have the extras that would make it a five-star. There's no bowling alley like at the Dolton in Changsha. But really it's the rooms that counts, and these are great. Like all Chinese hotels, there's some smoking in the public areas. And we witnessed a bizarre drunken confrontation in the lobby that was either approaching violence or homo-erotic. We couldn't tell.

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“Great pool, comfy rooms, smokers paradise”

Third time staying at the Huatian Yiyang, and a pleasant trip had again. Unlike our trip earlier this year, this time the rooms were ready on time and were quite nice, obviously having been recently renovated (we stayed in the original "building A" on level 11). As per our last trip there was a c… more

Third time staying at the Huatian Yiyang, and a pleasant trip had again. Unlike our trip earlier this year, this time the rooms were ready on time and were quite nice, obviously having been recently renovated (we stayed in the original "building A" on level 11). As per our last trip there was a conference (or 2?) happening in the hotel, so a very busy place with important people smoking everywhere. The pool in the basement (building B) is great, perfect with kids, flotation rings, banana lounges and friendly staff. This time they charged to use it though. However each room we booked came with 1 free voucher & we pointed at the kids, and they handed over another voucher for each room so we had enough for the one night we stayed. The "Chinese western Mango" in the building next door (level 2) was a good spot for dinner, nice place to sit, reasonable price and a good array of local food, with some western bits if needed. Very easy menu to navigate too. Only downsides were: - smoking everywhere (which is not a surprise in a smaller town), however seemed to permeate the air system more at night when we were going to sleep (i.e. we were coughing a bit) so we turned off all the air systems even though it was winter & opened a window - breakfast buffet was a very busy affair, with a shortage of many bits at different times - Huatian restaurant. This is the fancy restaurant in the hotel, probably the fanciest place in town. for the second time we looked at eating there and were rebuffed and escorted down to the "food street" restaurant downstairs. We have a bit of Mandarin, they actually had an english menu, yet they wouldn't take a booking (maybe too hard to explain to us a minimum price for the private banquet rooms or who knows?) upshot being we ate a good meal next door. Staff were friendly and helpful. Haven't tried anywhere else in Yiyang yet, but this worked well, just don't be surprised if a smoky affair.

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“A modern and honest businessman's hotel”

We spent one night at the Huatian Hotel in mid-July, while on a trip to bring our daughter back to China to see the area from which she was adopted. From my understanding, the hotel is the “class act” for Yiyang, a smaller provincial town that is rapidly growing at present. The hotel is not in th… more

We spent one night at the Huatian Hotel in mid-July, while on a trip to bring our daughter back to China to see the area from which she was adopted. From my understanding, the hotel is the “class act” for Yiyang, a smaller provincial town that is rapidly growing at present. The hotel is not in the center of town but in a growing newer area but is not far away, with a major shopping building and bank across the street, and some restaurants nearby. We were in a VIP superior twin room on a top floor – the AC unit was not real efficient (in the July heat it only got the temperature down to basically comfortable – maybe 26C degrees (high 70s)), though I know that some other rooms were better. The room was fairly small but correct, and all worked well. We had breakfast included – as I recall it was not bad; the restaurant was I think on the 2nd floor. (There is another breakfast buffet in the hotel without western food, as I recall). The front desk staff was courteous and spoke a bit of English. They also had a massage/spa center that we did not use, with good prices – an 80 minute foot massage was I think 68 yuan. We had a computer hooked up to the internet for use in our room - all in Chinese Windows, making it hard to sign-in to gmail... We had no real complaints with the hotel, although it was not the same class (nor price) of the hotels we stayed in, in larger cities throughout China. Overall, it felt like a decent, large modern provincial hotel catering mainly to businessmen.

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