Tianjin Xiangjiang Holiday Hotel

I was going to Tianjin with a friend who was able to translate the Chinese reviews for me, and based on those, I decided to stay here. The location is near the "Five Avenues" with lots of nice European style buildings. The street is very attractive and quiet at night. The room (and hotel) was oddly decorated in a faux European antique style, but this at least gave it some character! The room amenities were good - decent air conditioner, comfortable bed, water cooler, slippers and lots of powerpoints. Doors locked via a card system and were secure. No wi-fi, but there was an ethernet cable which provided a decent connection. You can buy cheap personal Wi-Fi routers (around ¥120) if you really need them from the BuyNow technology mall - get a taxi there. Housekeeping came to the room pretty early (around 8.30AM), so if you're not an early riser make use of your "Do not disturb" sign - they'll clean the room later while you're out. This is pretty common in China though. The rooms sometimes smelled of cigarette smoke, as the smoke from the neighbouring rooms wafted in. Unfortunately though, this is common to a lot of Chinese hotels. This is unfortunately something else that is common to China. It didn't bother me too much but some people might want to buy a can of air freshener or something. English is not really spoken by the front desk, and it's unfair to expect this as it is China after all - not America. They were able to speak enough to check me in/out and to do a load of laundry - so I was able to get by. It's about a 10 minute walk to a Binjiang Dao which is a major shopping area (where there is also the Yingkou Dao metro station), and taxis in Tianjin are extremely cheap and abundant, just make sure you have your destination written in Chinese if you can't speak it :) Also make sure you take the hotel's business card for your return taxi trip!