Review of: Taijia Hotel, Datong, Shanxi Province, China

1/5 (minimum 1)

by tom on 19 May 2008

This is probably the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. OK, so I've stayed in some real dumps, but this place takes the biscuit as it seems to promise something and then catastrophically fails to deliver. Like Fawlty Towers, without the humour. Or even the competence.

At face value this place looks alright, and at 140RMB for a double room seems to be quite a bargain. It's down a side alley to the right hand side of the square as you exit the main station in Datong, and is the new location for the well-known Datong office of CITS (worthy of a separate review). Your first experience of this place may be when the CITS guy meets you at the station and brings you back to the cool, light and airy reception to help fix you up with tours, onward travel etc.

If you're thinking of staying here, have a look at the room first, but look closely. We looked at the room and it seemed fine - we were more worried about the noise from the trains nearby (not too bad in the end). What we didn't notice from a quick look was the leaking toilet, with resulting scum around the base (gross), or the sink waste pipe that overflowed, sending waste water, scum and hair all over the floor. Once we had moved in and spotted this, along with the general dirtiness of the place, we asked to change room.

The gang of teenage girls who nonchalantly roam the place and seem to be responsible for the rooms seemed genuinely shocked when we showed them the leaks, but I didn't get the impression anything would change.

The new room was even dirtier (sunflower seed husks all over the floor), and the loo still leaked when flushed, but at least the sink didn't empty all over the floor. No idea when the sink bowl itself had last been cleaned, or the bathroom last saw a mop.

These things aside, the biggest issue in the second room was the mosquitos. The squashed bugs all over the walls should have been a warning sign, but a quick scan over the walls before bed showed nothing up. Then, sure enough, just around dawn we woke up to the wining buzz in our ears and I added to the mosquito road kill effect on the ceiling. There were two more in the bathroom. I have no idea if they were just loitering there from months before, getting in through the gap by the aircon unit, or breading in the disgusting drain behind the loo.

The CITS guy told us everywhere else reasonably cheap in town was full, otherwise we'd have moved the next morning. No idea if he was telling the truth or not, but we stayed out our two nights, then got the hell out of the Taijia. You've been warned.

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Taijia Hotel, Datong, Shanxi Province, China

Tags: accommodation china cits datong hotel shanxi