Nanyuan New City Hotel Ningbo Southern Business Area Romon Universal City

I was visiting on work and stayed 4 nights in this hotel, which our host (University) arranged for us. Left with no choice, I looked into the website, which revealed little and the reviews were not too convincing. Obviously, I was apprehensive, but was pleasantly surprised to see my room was spacious, and fairly clean. The bathroom and the shower cubicle were clean, a very important matter for me. Lots of toothbrush and paste are supplied, but no soaps or other toiletries. Ample space to store stuff, and also ample plug points and work space. There is also a small balcony, and nice view of the city; I was staying on the 14th floor. Of all, though, the most amazing part of the stay was the morning buffet breakfast. The quality, taste and variety of food just blew me away - extremely delicious, and 'home-cooked' taste - no comparison with the 'chinese' restaurants in 'far off foreign lands'. I am a vegetarian (I take eggs), and I found lots of choices for me, unlike the popular belief that Chinese food is all about non-veg. The hotel provided drinking water. If one needs more, as I did, there is a small local grocery shop just behind the hotel, and drinking water is available very cheap at 7 Chinese renminbi for a 2 litre bottle. The downsides of my stay were, first, although the front desk communication was fine (in terms of English as the accepted language for global communication), however, I felt the style of communication was very 'conservative', bordering on 'secretive'; it was annoying, and a bit silly, really. Second, I came in one afternoon to find mud all over in my bathroom - the room was otherwise cleaned up. I had to go down to the front desk to explain to them what was the problem (they misunderstood over the phone and sent in the wrong work person), and it was duly taken care of. Third, they suggest the in-hotel restaurant if one is looking for food late in the evening. However, the restaurant staff, while very kind and polite, were not at all keen to try and understand any other means of communications except Mandarin! I had a bit of a struggle on my last evening to get some food. Even then, the quality was fab! Overall, it was a comfortable stay