New hotel in Shangyu

It is not often one gets to try a very new hotel, but that is what happened last Saturday. We went to Shangyu, which is not far from Shaoxing. It is a new city - still developing. It is reputed to have 1000 umbrella factories. I am sure they will be doing good business this week as it has barely stopped raining. The Chinese though use umbrellas all the time - to keep the rain or the sun off of them.

The Leidisen Winning Hotel was opened earlier this year, and our hosts had booked a room for lunch, but we had an hour or so to wander the shops etc which abound in this area of the city. Many of the shops were empty - but I guess that may not be the story after all the massive accommodation blocks around the place are taking in their new residents.

The hotel foyer had us gasping. It was beautiful. The staff were excellent - most able to converse with us in English. A feature flower arrangement - with a good mix of plastic and real flowers was a stunning welcome.

How I would love to stay there - and I may just do that next time I am here in China. There is a fabulous shopping nearby - but I was not aware of it until afterwards.

The foyer of the hotel features two exquisite hand carved elephant tusks. I'd say they were very old, and worth a small fortune now. Sad about the elephant I know, but it was part of culture years ago.

In one part of the foyer was a wonderful piano bar. No doubt when the sun goes down the pianist would arrive - but the grand piano was silent for our visit.

We did have coffee in the coffee bar adjacent to the restaurant. And full marks. The biscuits were great!

But it was the banquet upstairs that really impressed. The room was - well, it had a speechless, it was so beautiful. Right in the middle of the round table was a bowl of roses (you will see the photo on this page) that were fresh and glistening with what appeared to be dew, but of course, was probably from a mist of water.

The food was excellent. Treeeemendous. Wonderful. What can I say? Top marks. Now I wonder what the rooms would be like????