Anshun Villen

This hotel gives the guest a warm and personal touch. The best part of the hotel is that the owners are so friendly, treating the guests like family. On the first night I asked for a hot water bottle (热水袋) because I prefer to sleep with that rather than use the AC heating, and the ”mom” of the hotel went out of her way to find me one. On the last day when I was leaving early in the morning before the official breakfast time, she also made sure to give me a prepared breakfast so that I wouldn't be hungry on my day's journey. By the way, the normal breakfast of noodles/mixian is very tasty and nourishing with high quality ingredients. Anyways, the family that runs this hotel really want to make sure you have a comfortable stay, so they are always there to greet you and answer any questions and help you with whatever you need. Even when I asked for clues about where to find batik (蜡染) artists, they found me the phone number of batik artist in a nearby village. They are so eager to help guests squeeze the most out of all of Guizhou's wonders! In my case, as a foreigner and someone who doesn't speak Chinese too well, I found them very patient and helpful. The rooms of the hotel are really elegant... simple, aesthetically pleasing design. The amenities are all comfortable: the bed mattress was a perfect balance of firm and soft, the shower had high pressure and hot water, etc. The wifi was strong and stable. I should point out that some of the hotel rooms only have a squat toilet, so if you need a seated toilet you should probably contact the hotel in advance to make sure that they have such a room for you before booking. I should also point out the special location of this hotel. If you, like me, do not have a car and rely on didi or public transportation, then you should know that this hotel is quite a way into the countryside. In fact, on the road to the hotel, the taxi driver asked me, ”Why would you stay in such a remote hotel when there are good hotels in downtown Anshun?” Well, one of the reasons is because I do prefer personal hotels rather than corporate hotels. But also because my primary goal for my stay in Anshun was to see the old garrison villages (屯堡) in the area, not to see other sites like the famous waterfalls. If your goal is to see the old villages, then I think this is the perfect hotel for you. For one reason, one of the original garrison villages is just 5 minutes walk from the hotel. It's little-visited by tourists and so you'll have the whole place to yourself and get really great photographs. That village (called BenZhai [本寨]) is of great historical importance and is very photogenic, and it's so neat to live so close to it. There's another even bigger and more commercialized (and absolutely beautiful) garrison village, also within walking distance (15-20 minutes by walking), called YunShanTun (云山屯). You're also not too far from the most famous villages, namely JiuZhou and Tianlong. Those are at least an hour by walking, so you'll want to get a car. I found it to be nearly impossible to get a Didi driver to accept such rides in this countryside area, but the good news is that the hotel manager found a friendly guy from the village to drive me to those villages and also later to the airport, for the same prices that Didi predicted it would charge. If you do have your own car, then I don't think you have to worry about anything, as this villages in near the highway and thus you can readily access any of the sites of interest in Anshun from this hotel. Overall, if you are looking for a hotel with warm and human experiences that is near to the places of great historical interest, this is the right hotel for you!