Yes, I admit it, we’re both of the age where we remember the big orange roofs. I vaguely remember milkshakes and floats but not more than that.
I went to college in Hyde Park New York in 1981 and remember seeing one up the road from the school. I think my parents stayed there when they dropped me off.
When we saw the accommodations in Chengdu, China were going to be at a Howard Johnson’s I wasn’t all that excited and then as we researched a little more it really showed promise.
From what we could see they are part of the Wyndham chain. The Chengdu hotel we were booked into was in the Hi-Tech Center. It’s a newer section of Chengdu that is exactly as the name implies a Hi-Tech Center with lots of newer sleek buildings, tech businesses and a very young, tech-savvy Chinese population.
We were dropped off out front of this tall, polished building with underground parking and by the time I got to the lobby I thought we were at the wrong place.
The open lobby was big and open with an escalator going to the second-floor mezzanine, across the lobby was a lounge area and a sushi bar.
And then you look up at the ceiling there was an amazing art installment, a pod of whales swimming. All made of glass beads on filament hung at different levels. really beautifully done.
All of the art in the hotel was magnificently done with colored glass panels.
This was the entrance to this awesome dining space installed on the third floor opposite the hotel’s restaurants, the space above it in an open atrium of rooms looking down into the dining space. The area was a small lagoon, about 8 inches deep with floating lilies. In the middle were these INSANE ‘floating’ boats, each with an individual walkway leading to a private dining experience.
Around the corner near the fitness center, there was this great lounge space.
Our room was a beautiful and modern as the rest of the building, plenty of light ( which had been an issue at many other hotels), modern bathroom with lots of space and probably the most comfortable bed of our trip. Most Chinese beds are notoriously hard.
With our busy sightseeing schedule and adventuring in the neighborhood, we spent most of our breakfast time in the buffet restaurant. This space was HUGE, modern with awesome stations. Much like most of the hotels we had espresso/coffee machines that would grind the beans and brew to order. One of my favorite perks.
They had a wonderful mix of Chinese food with fried dough and soy milk, grilled dumplings /dim sum, a soup/noodle/dumpling station, congee with toppings, and a few soups.
The western station had fried eggs, pancakes, french toast ( but no maple syrup, which we found is pretty common), bacon, sausage and fried potatoes, fresh fruit and yogurt.
But, way down at the far end of the dining room they also had a KILLER bread, juice and cereal station.
About six kinds of cereal, fresh juices like carrot and apple, and other veggie fruit mixes. A dozen or so types of pasty and bread. While the green tea muffins were just ok they had some of the best French baguettes I’ve had in ages… AND CHEESE! Most hotels had a sliced processed cheese and maybe some swiss. This had Camembert, Emmenthaler and Gouda… I was in heaven.
They also decorated this food station with some beautiful sugar flower sculptures.
On the second night there Chuck and I both did acupressure foot massages at the hotel spa, which helped our tired aching feet. I also used the sauna which was nice and relaxing and being midday I had it to myself.
Not only did we really like this hotel, we decided that if we were to ever move to China, Chengdu would be a great option.
