This may well be a good hotel for someone who can speak Mandarin, or perhaps Uygur or Russian. But for an English speaker like me, traveling solo, staying here turned out to be an unwise decision.

During my three night stay here, I met only two people working for the hotel who could speak any English at all: a manager, who was on duty for a short time on one night of my visit, and a bellboy, without whose help I wouldn't have survived my stay. The restaurant menu is entirely in Chinese (no pictures) and my bill at checkout was printed only in Chinese. This made for a challenging stay. This isn't necessarily a failing of the hotel since this is, after all, far western China, but visitors without local language skills are probably best advised to avoid this hotel.

Some other problems: the women who called my room at 11 pm nightly offering a "massage" and more; the lack of hot water in my bathroom in the early mornings; and the fact that I was asked to move to another (smaller) room for the third night of my stay, without apology or a commensurate reduction in my rate.

On the positive side, my room (the first one) was sumptuous. Not only did it have broadband internet access (for a fee) but it also had a computer, complete with webcam and headphones. Both of my rooms had stereo systems, and television sets showing a wide variety of Chinese programs (plus the National Geographic and Star movies channels.) The bathroom was large and very well appointed, with separate shower and deep bath tub, and a separate room for the toilet. It's just a pity that there wasn't any hot water in the mornings to fill the tub, or to use the multi-headed shower.

All in all, an okay hotel. But given my inadequacies as a Chinese speaker, I think I will stay somewhere else if I isit Urumqi again.