Hotel dengan Sarapan Pagi di Shiyan

This hotel/retreat is an incredibly special place, and I feel so grateful to have come across it in my travels, as it will hold a special place in my memory! I have a strong feeling that I will be back (possibly many times!) in the future. I cannot say enough good things about it, whether it be the beautiful architectural design of the buildings and landscaping of the property, the gorgeous cafe, the zen-like room aesthetic, the calm and nourishing atmosphere of the whole place, the incredibly kind staff, and the nourishing and delicious food (which is made with great attention and care paid to the ingredients (most of which are grown on the farm), and their healing principles according to the elements and Chinese medicine nutrition)). There are free evening healing offerings too, including sound healing, card reading, and other thing, which bring guests together to experience collectively as well, in a beautiful retreat center room. The cafe/lobby building is such a pretty and welcoming space, one could easily spend hours enjoying a conversation or reading a book, or petting one of the many adorable cats that roam the property. Even walking along the meandering path to the hotel from the main road is a beautiful experience, winding through tea fields in this magical valley at the base of steep mountains surrounding it. I have stayed at a number of hotels in China during my travels, but this place is by far my favorite of all of them, for its authentic feel and heartfelt warmth. It truly is a uniquely powerful place for healing and restoration, nestled in such a picturesque, quiet hillside of Wudang mountain!!

If you don’t speak the local language, I do not recommend staying at this hotel. It was incredibly difficult getting both on, and off the mountain “scenic area”. Some hotels in Trip reached out to us in advance to help coordinate transportation, this one does not. Your only way to contact the hotel is by calling, which isn’t feasible if you don’t speak the language. The hotel website showed that parking was available, so I thought we would be able to get there by DiDi, as long as I paid the fee to get the car into the park. This was not the case. We did see private vehicles, but I’m not sure what goes into that, but I believe 4 wheel drive is one requirement. So with our luggage, he dropped us off at the base of the mountain. It took a little while to get to the ticket office, you have to walk up several stairs and through a cobblestone market to get there, so we got nice and sweaty and uncomfortable. From there, you take a bus (ours had no underside luggage stowage) about halfway up to another stop. We had to awkwardly hold our luggage in the aisle of a full bus, while going up-hill and doing switch-backs. Everyone gets off about halfway-way up, at a station with several different buses. We asked for help and someone pointed us to the correct one. From the final bus stop up top, it was a short walk to the hotel. We figured going down would be much smoother, but after getting off the first bus, we accidentally got on the wrong one and started going back up. Overall, took us about 2.5 hours from the airport to the hotel, then just over three hours from hotel to the HSR station. Minor descriptions for the room were inaccurate. Ours was listed as on floor 3 or 4, it was actually basement level. The hotel is in the edge of the mountain, so it still had a scenic view. The window in our room was dirty (I expected more for what we were paying). The hand soap in the bathroom was in a re-used bottle and was watered down. Listed amenities said sauna and massage room, there are neither here (nor was there an offer of other local places to go when I asked). The breakfast food was amazing, including a hot, fresh bar with a chef making eggs and noodles. I wasn’t able to partake in the noodles one day because of the language barrier. Hotel staff was more hesitant than other places we’ve stayed in using translation tools and I felt like too much of an inconvenience in using them to ask for noodles. There is bottled water in the rooms, you can ask for more for free (they friended me via WeChat on Check-In and is largely how we communicated). There is free tea and snacks in the afternoon, the hotel was quiet so we were able to take up one of two seats that had an amazing view outside. The staff working the tea time was great and super courteous. You can hike to South Crag Palace and Nanyan Palace by foot, both are absolutely stunning. In summary, if we were to visit the area again, I would stay at a hotel at the bottom of the mountain (not in the scenic area) and use the day exploring/getting lost on the bus. While the view was great, it simply wasn’t worth the high price and the difficulty in getting there for non-locals. If I knew a hotel in the scenic area would reach out to me in advance to assist, then I would go for it. But unfortunately, with the way Trip.com works right now, hotels have to initiate that, guests cannot. I don’t recommend this hotel for non-native speakers.

The second time that I booked a room at the top of the Wudang Mountains. Again I had a beautiful room with a nice view of the sunrise. Rooms are clean, not very spacious, but easily big enough for two persons. One thing most of the rooms have is an extra tea table, at the window. So you can sit there and enjoy the view and a cup of tea. The restaurant serves a variety of food, for breakfast there is a buffet with a variety of stir-fried vegetables, sausages, noodles, congee, buns soy milk and more. A good breakfast is important, if you hike then for a whole day in the Wudang Mountains. The staff was friendly and helpful and welcomed me warmly.