新北海賓館（大同南環路明堂公園店）

The hotel was the priciest that we stayed at during our 45 days in China, though the beds, space, and bathroom were the nicest out of them all. For the price, I would’ve hoped that the staff would’ve been a bit more helpful—no elevator and many bags to carry up the three flights of stairs was really quite difficult. The staff also don’t speak any English at all, and my friend doesn’t speak any Chinese, and we didn’t really understand that you needed to put down a deposit of 100rmb that would then be refunded to you (or that they needed a Chinese phone number too; I didn’t have one, and as a foreigner traveling through China, if I had been by myself or didn’t know or have any Chinese friends with Chinese numbers, I would’ve been unable to check-in). The hotel was very nice nonetheless. Fantastic location, very close to everything. The walk to the old city wall took about an hour, and would’ve been a ten minute taxi ride. The street the hotel is located on is full of lots of local shops and restaurants, and feels very lively during the day. The staff was also very friendly and enjoyed speaking with the foreigner at the hotel (although I had some trouble understanding the Shanxi accent! Jin Chinese is not my strongest!). The WiFi was a bit slow. But the beds were incredible. Huge, clean, soft. Pillows were lovely. Bathroom was huge. Just wish there’d been a bit more service from the front desk. Was a tad weird to get up at 5:50am to go to the Hanging Temple 悬空寺, which is very normal, to see the woman at the front desk asleep… it was fine, but still a bit weird.