Precious Memories: Guanfang Hotel (Garden Villa), Lijiang, Yunnan, China

Guanfang (Garden Villa) Hotel, Lijiang, Yunnan, China

I have stayed in many hotels around the world but this is surely a unique experience here in Lijiang. Our tour used Guanfang Hotel as our two-night stop here and I think that was a smart choice and it certainly was the best hotel that we had on this trip.

This hotel has a very interesting set up. Buildings like town houses are spread out in this beeautiful compound and guests were split up into groups and sent to a building with three or four guest rooms each. A housekeeper takes care of everything inside the house plus preparing scrmptious breakfasts in the morning. We were assigned to a room with a balcony on the 2nd floor of a building pretty close to the parking lot. Very convenient. True, the extra roll-away bed was really low and squeaky but the room itself was decent. Each room comes with its own good-size bathroom. We were kind of stuck with having to carry the heavy luggage upstairs but the housekeeper came to the rescue. She brought our luggage up to the room all by herself and then got us three glasses of warm milk before we were ready to hit the sack. Son said the milk served was the best that he has ever had. Unfortunately we cannot tolerate milk product and missed out on the special treat. This was a nightly ritual that many visitors appreciated.

The whole compound was well-designed, worth your time walking around a bit and enjoy the quaint settings. It seemed like some villas are occupied by individuals. I wouldn't mind living here long term or as a vacation home. We were told that these villas were selling for less than USD $80,000.00 seven years ago, and of course they are worth much much more now.