Stayed here for 2 nights with wife and 2 kids. Booked through ctrip.com and was given a standard room in the "Flower" block.

Room was big and clean with 2 large double beds. Family had very good sleep. Beds were so comfortable I wished I had them at home. Bottled mineral water was NOT free but there was a water dispenser. Just top up your bottle.

Bathtub's stopper was not doing its job perfectly so water drained out slowly. But there was a seperate shower.

Hotel tried to impress with tech gizmos. Door bell was touch screen. "Do not disturb" sign was electronic and disabled the door bell. All lights were controlled through a touch sensitive control panel. Kids had lots of fun playing with the lights.

Breakfast spread was dissapointing and kids had to pay 19 RMB each. But the noodles was fantastic and that really was more than enough for me.

A group of cabbies were always waiting outside the hotel. A full day tour for RMB 60 to 80. Ancient city for RMB 5 is only 1 minute away.

Convenient stores and restaurants are available about 100m away. Had the best claypot fish at this family run restaurant called Bai Zhu Yu Zhuang (hmm, the Bai-tribe Fish House).

Showing many signs of wear, the Regent, like many "5 star" hotels in Yunnan, is a decent enough place to stay, but not quite up to international standards. The public areas are large and nicely decorated, with two large dining rooms, one of which you must enter through the jewelry and jade store.

Our large nonsmoking room smelled OK but there were scorch marks in the scruffy carpet. Our front door and rear window each faced a courtyard under construction. The room heat was inadequate but staff supplied electric heater. However the hot water was instant; the hotel must have a recirculating pump, which many a five star hotel could benefit from.

One night table sported a befuddling 19 button bedside panel controlling the TV and every electrical function in the room, including many that didn't exist. The buttons operate by just touching, not pressing, so if you are feeling around for the right one in the dark, you won't be in the dark long. This can be annoying to your roommate, who is already at a disadvantage because their side of the bed lacks both a control and even a nighttable lamp.

Prepare to be nickel and dimed - or at least jiaoed. The in-room tea service provides tea bags, instant coffee & bottled water - all for a charge. (The condoms in the nighttable, however, are free.) Laundry was a tad pricey by local standards, even before they "upgraded" my undershirts to t-shirts, at a higher charge. Neighborhood maps are unavailable at front desk but poor ones can be purchased at the Business Center. There are large, reasonably priced shops on both sides of an attractive little canal leading to the lobby.

Good English is spoken by the front desk staff but not elsewhere. Like all the hotels we stayed at in Yunnan, breakfast had little to offer Westerners, other than a fried egg station (scrambled available by pantomimed order), and wheat waffles and syrup that appeared one morning.

Our guide recommended the local show, "Butterfly Dreams". Most Chinese shows have variety, talent, spectacular costumes and good choreography. This one is 0 for 4. Skip it.