Rooms are nice and amenities are good however the service was not up to our expecations. On check-in, the front desk agent did not really speak english and was slightly obnoxious. The western restaurant on the lobby level is large but crowded (we had to wait in line 5 minutes in the morning for breakfast). It is also quite expensive compared to other restaurants in town (e.g. 380 Yuan for two for dinner, compared to less than 150 in the touristy area of Harbin).

Still, the Shangri la is probably a good deal within Harbin, since there are few hotels of international standards

Traveled to Harbin specifically to visit the Snow and Ice venues. I choose the Shangri_La, becuase it's the closest hotel to the venues across the river, and because I had a positive stay at one of their hotels in Beijing on a previous visit to China two years ago. Even though their rooms are a bit "plain" for a five-star hotel, the service from all the staff is first-rate. Everyone from the airport driver to the bell boys, were very helpful and spoke just enough English. They were especially good at talking to the taxi drivers, and negotiating rates with them. As there are no restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, I has both my evenings meal at the hotel restaurant. There was a choice of a-la carte and a buffet; I'm not a big fan of buffets so I ordered off the menu. Selection was large with dishes from around the world, portions were large and the food very tasty. I was upgraded to the club room, the room was a bit small, but very clean and modern, but nothing splashy. LAN broadband internet was free and very fast. If I return to Harbin I wouldn't hesitate to stay again.

I few tips if you plan to visit Harbin:

The Snow and Ice festivals are amazing! You will not be disappointed! According to the staff, Taxis waiting at the snow and ice venues will rip off people returning to their hotels. So it's best to have the taxi that takes you from the hotel to wait for you, and drive you back. The hotel will negotiate a rate of 60 yuan for an hour, which is very reasonable as it works out to about 7 US dollars. The city center is also worth visiting there is lots of shopping along the main pedestrian shopping street. Also nearby is the Sofia Russian Orthodox Church, and the newly restore Jewish Synagogue. The Synagogue contains an excellent Jewish history museum of Harbin- well explained in English. In the city center there was also a Disney Ice festival, it's smaller than the regular venues across the river but kids would get a kick out of it. Try not to be caught in the city center during the evening rush hour, it's very hard to get a taxi. The best place to get a taxi back to the hotel is next to the bus stop in front of the Wal-Mart near the Flood Monument. One final and important tip, be sure to carry some toilet paper with you, it's not available at any of the public facilities. Even the high-end malls don't have any paper!

If you do go there during the winter season please eat at Ice Palace. Ice Palace is a shabu shabu restaurant it is built during winter season made of ice and it looks like an igloo. We had a marvelous time when we dined there. We ordered good for 4 sets (we were 3 adults & 1 child) and our leftover were close to 2 orders. So try to order less. Go to the Ice Bar too. Ice Bar is made out of ice totally, the table, bar, chairs are all made of ice. Wonderful wonderful!

We were there during New Years Eve and the celebration was kinda lame :( Was hoping for a more festive countdown.

Spent a great weekend at the Shangri-La in Harbin duing the Ice & Snow Festival. We were pleased to find a bowl of fresh fruit waiting for us in the room upon check-in. The views over the frozen river were nice ... could see the festival lit up at night in the distance. The hotel was in a good location and was a short trip to both festival grounds and Central Street. The breakfast buffet in the morning was fantastic and had a great selection of food to choose from (both local & Western food).

My only complaint from our stay was the smell of cigarette smoke in many of the hallways and open areas. This was not a problem in our room.

We have stayed at several Shangri-Las in the past and have always been pleased. Their hotel in Harbin, while arguably not as refined as those in more touristed locations, certainly provided a pleasant place to stay during the festival. I would not hesitate to stay there next time!

The hotel is in a good location, and some nice resturant nearby.

The lobby is beautiful, and the room at the Horizontal Club level is very nice. Very comfortable bed.

This seems to be a very bust hotel with a lot of people checking in and checking out at the same time. The staff was very helpful, and I can understand they can be overwhelmed sometimes. Again they serve with a smile and very professional. So have patience, and go a few minutes early when checking out if you have a plane to catch.

I have stayed at many Shanghri-La hotels worldwide. To me, it meets the high standard, although I would not list it as the best Shangri-La. However it is still a notch way above other hotels in town.

We stayed here during the ice festival, and experienced similar problems to the previous reviewer who visited at that time. We were put in the wrong rooms, experienced difficulties ordering a la carte and had difficulties booking a car for a reasonable price. The restaurant handled their shortcomings very professionally but the hotel staff and concierge service was not quite at the level of the “best hotel in Harbin.” I think that the hotel staff just gets too overwhelmed during this time, but that doesn’t mean that customer service should be sacrificed. Some of our service encounters left us wondering if we were the victims of a bait and switch. (And let me add that this was not a language issue as our group spoke Chinese and English.)

The room was on the small side especially considering that this hotel is in Harbin not Tokyo! But the room was spotless - the cleaning staff was highly professional with many thoughtful touches. The DVD player came in handy once we tired of gazing out over the river at the lights of the ice festival. The ice festival was fantastic and this hotel is very close to those attractions but away from the action in the center of town. (A quick taxi can take you there.)

I find the previous reviews a bit unfair. Haerbin is not an international destination like Shanghai or Beijing, and you just can't expect all the staff to be fluent in English as if you were back home.

For about RMB 800 you can stay at a very modern and clean hotel -- this certainly is good value (rooms on the river side are recommended).

As for the comparison to other Shangri-La's: the rooms are much nicer than those of the Cebu Shangri-la, or the Montreal Shangri-La (when there was one long ago).

While I stayed there they had a visiting French chef and the evening buffet had plenty of delicious French dishes. The restaurant was decorated with French themes and French music was played. It was all extremely well done.

The gym and sauna are among the best I've seen in Chinese hotels (and I've stayed at more than 50).

The only reason I don't give 5 stars to this hotel:

I was sleeping I got woken up by a very large group of people screaming and shouting. Obviously there was a party going on. Nothing wrong with that, but this is hotel, people are in their rooms, if you want to party there are places for that. Dozens of people smoking in the corridor -- on a non-smoking floor of course.

I complained to the hotel assistant manager (a foreigner by the way) but he was unwilling to do anything and the party went on. And I am quite sure this is not an isolated problem.

Stayed here with a group of 10 for the 2006 Harbin Ice festival. The Shangri-La is supposed to be the best hotel in Harbin and has a great location for the Ice festival and was packed with foreigners.

The overall generall appearance is nice and the staff is throughout very friendly, polite and helpful. The command of English though is very low, with nearly all the staff, from receptionist to waiter having difficulties to understand. I requested a high floor, non smoking with my booking, which was simply ignored. All members of our group got a higher floor, and smokers got a non smoking room which they didn't request at all.

We arrived late we had dinner in the Coffee Garden Buffet Restaurant. We were the only guests, but a group of 10 still seemed to be too much for the staff. The appetizers came long time after the main courses, the food was cold, cutlery was missing, drinks didn't come and even asking for it a few times nothing happened. The taste and quality of the food was ok, but simply not worth the money.

Considering the high amount of foreigners staying here, breakfast is not really a thrill for western taste. One type of bread only, croissants, very dodgy coloured and dry meat cuts, one type of cheese. The usual things for a fry up is available and of course a big range of asian things like congee, rice, miso soup, dumplings, spring rolls, vegetable fry ups, a noodle soup station... I requested some ketchup with my eggs and sausage, it took 20 minutes and finally I got concentrated tomato puree. The service in the lobby is, as all the staff, very friendly but also veeery slow. We were there several times, but our drinks never came faster than 15 - 20 minutes (for e.g. two simple beers that is).

The health club and the swimming pool are really great though. The gym is very spacious and big, a sauna and a steam room is available (divided facilities for men and women), two jacuzzis (one was advertised with 24C but was friggin freezing) and a 20m swimming pool. Everything was very clean.

Overall the Shangri-La is a good choice to stay in (compared to the other choices you'd have in Harbin), but is simply not woth 1400 RMB per night (lower avarage rate during Ice festival). The chinese management clearly doesn't pay much attention to the needs or requests of their foreign guests (a lot of signs and leaflets are in Chinese only). I could also have done without the extensive cleaning and very loud vaccuming at 7am on Sunday morning in front of my door...

Overall I expected more from the Shangri-La Harbin.