Zen Garden Hotel, Lijiang
jldBeijing
While it is certainly more expensive than the other Zen Garden location (US$143/night), the Lion Hill site is truly wonderful. As soon as we stepped into the courtyard, we knew we were in a very special place. It is superbly designed to take advantage of the hillside, with water running and falling into a lovely pond with bright fish.
Our room had no windows but the view over the Old Town from the walkway outside was lovely, even though the late August weather was terrible the entire time, ranging from mist to outright downpour. The antique furnishings in the room (and the entire hotel) were lovely, and we found that the firm futon on the old-fashioned platform bed was actually more comfortable than the modern style mattress. The bathroom was entirely new fittings, and the room’s TV was a large wide flat screen (not that we hung around much to watch it).
There was always someone around who spoke enough English to help us out when we needed directions. They sent a taxi to the airport to pick us up when we arrived, and we did not have to pay for this trip. A staff member met us at the place the taxi dropped us off (as it is not accessible to vehicles). We did have to pay for the taxi ride back to the airport when we left.
The only small drawbacks to the hotel were not enough to subtract from my five-star rating. The plumbing in the bathroom was rather noisy – certainly a light sleeper would never get through someone else taking a shower, and even flushing was pretty loud. When we were there it got a little chilly, and they liked to keep all the windows open for the breeze, and there was not heat as far as we could tell. There was also a maniac rooster next door that started crowing at about 5am each day.
Still, it was a wonderful place, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
