Lakeview Hotel
This hotel opened in January 1996, is operated by an Australian company and designed as a "luxury hotel". Some comments from traveling families:
2005-09 - We stayed there last year (September, 2004) when we adopted our
second Chinese
daughter. One thing we found there that is relatively new is a very nice
restaurant located about 200 yards from the hotel. I don't remember the
Chinese name, but it translates to "Missing Trees". It is a bit like a
buffet, but instead of picking up your food, you view samples in a large glass
case at one end of the restaurant. You select what you'd like and they
cook it for you and bring it to your table. The food was excellent and we
were treated very well. We were among the very, very few Caucasian
families there so we stood out a bit, especially with our two daughters.
It gave us an opportunity to try some different Chinese dishes at a very
reasonable price (about $6 or $8 for the entire family and there was always
plenty of food). We all loved the rice noodles and our newest daughter was
able to have a dish that was apparently something like she was used to eating.
(Barry)
"At least as nice as the White Swan in Guangzhou. Most rooms had 3/4 size beds (a few with king-size), loveseat, coffee table, TV, minibar
and fridge, and a full bathroom. Cribs were provided and some strollers were
available. The building is round with the rooms on the outside and a giant atrium in
the center (this family was on the 21st floor). Great for walking laps with fussy
babies in the middle of the night. Breakfast buffet each morning had Western-style
and Chinese food and other meals were also quite good. There was a business center
where you could send and receive faxes."(3/96, CG)
"The Lake View Hotel was quite adequate in most respects. The food at dinner
was mediocre generally--especially the Chinese food--and a bit pricey. They do a
nightly buffet of Chinese and Western food and it is fairly typical of buffets (ie. second
rate). A Nanchang resident agreed with our food assessment and said there were a
number of good, better priced restaurants in Nanchang. I absolutely believe him.
Getting around by taxi is a snap and so there is no reason not to branch out of the
Lake View's culinary scene. The cokes in our hotel room refrigerator were six times
more expensive than the ones you could buy just outside the hotel grounds.
Obviously, the thing to do is buy your beverages off grounds and put them in your
frig." (5/97, HS)
"We stayed at the LakeView Hotel which I would highly recommend. At the time we
were there they had a special rate of $60 per night which included the buffet breakfast.
The hotel was a few minutes cab ride into the city where the official
adoption paperwork transpired. Well worth the inexpensive cab ride to be out of the
chaos of the city! The hotel had everything there you could need including a medical
person. I would go there again in a minute. I also liked being in an area
where you could walk with your baby and mingle with some of the native/local folks in a
calmer, more relaxed environment. There is a lake outside the hotel which we walked
around several times while we were there (8 miles!). This was one of the more
memorable parts of my trip." (5/97, KW)
The Lakeview is a fairly new hotel, built on a peninsula that juts into a lake. You have a splendid view, that is, when the humidity is not as thick as fog. We went in May; I don't know what it would be like at cooler times of year. The hotel is cylindrical with a hollow core. There is a lounge at the bottom of the hotel, and piano music wafts upward to the rooms above. My husband loves music, and it created a very special feeling for him. The hotel has a computer center for e-mailing, a restaurant, and next door (I think part of the hotel) is a bowling alley. The hotel is more isolated than some other hotels, being on a peninsula, so it's a little harder to get out to sightsee or shop. If you have a mind to, however, go ahead and take a taxi to go shopping. Your guide can give you a note in Chinese saying where you want to go and return to, or you can just show your hotel's electronic key to return home. (It has the hotel's name and address on it.) Taxis are cheap (just a few dollars to go quite a distance) and well worth using if you want to get out on your own. Next time I go, I am definitely going to take advantage of taxis for shopping. In the Lakeview restaurant, try the chicken cordon bleu. It is listed only on the room-service menu, but they will make it for you downstairs in the restaurant for less money. You get the chicken cordon bleu, french fries, and broccoli or other vegetable for about $5. It was my favorite meal, aside from the fruit plates that were very good. Sometimes my husband and I would order one of each, and then split the chicken and fruit. I read during my trip that the Jiangxi region is where porcelain originated, and Nanchang is considered the birthplace of china. Our agency only gave us about 40 minutes one day in a china store. You may want the concierge to write "porcelain shops" in Chinese and give it to a taxi to take you shopping. Unfortunately, I didn't learn about the history of china in the Jiangxi province until after I'd left the province. I wish I'd bought more there. (SS, adopted 5/00 from Guangchang)
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