I stayed at the Victoria Grand Hotel over the Easter weekend 2007 for 3 nights. It was part of a flight/room travel package I booked with a local travel agent in Hong Kong (where I live).

The Victoria is located close to the heart of the beautiful partly pedestrian shopping area (shoes! leatherware!) and the old city quarters of Wenzhou (15 min walk) in a quite buzzling street full of small Chinese restaurants and shops. It takes about 45 min from the airport to get there by taxi (you should have the address in Chinese to show to the taxi driver, else you are doomed if you don't speak Mandarin).

It is a quite typical standard Chinese "grand hotel" with the charm of the late sixties, and is frequented by Chinese business travellers. Hardly any western face, but this is true for all of Wenzhou and beyond. I might have seen 2 more westerners during my whole stay - and I first was sightseeing in Wenzhou the first day on my own and then took two full guided private day tours to the beautiful surroundings of Wenzhou (along Nanxi River and through Yandang Mountains - highly recommendable!).

Staff at the reception is friendly and helpful when it comes to taxi bookings etc., but don't expect anything beyond very basic English skills if at all. (This is true for all of Wenzhou and surroundings - you are deep in China!). However, there is an English-speaking guest manager (speaking "ok" English) who can be summoned, and also the hotel provides an English room service menu, and other information, incl. tourism prospects and city maps, in English.

Upon arrival, same as the traveller who wrote the review here about his deposit having been retained/stolen by the hotel, I was asked to deposit 1,500 Yuan cash or by credit card. Since I never do credit card slip deposits in most of Asia, I negotiated this down to a 400 Yuan cash deposit which, considering that the hotel room rates were already covered by the travel agent voucher I had handed over, appeared more than sufficient given that the prices for minibar or hotel food are local level (with the usual hotel levy of course) and 400 Yuan could buy you the whole content of the minibar plus a number of hotel meals. I got a receipt, and upon my departure, was instantaneously handed back the full amount with no problem.

The rooms are not big and average for a Chinese hotel of this class, but well maintained and bright, and with good lightning. Mine came with central air condition/heating, a small TV, a large enough and comfortable double bed (I am over 6 ft), which is not a given in Asia, a small seating area, a closet with enough hangers, a safe, and a clean standard bathroom with some basic amenities being provided. The room was quiet as it did not go to the street, but to the rear with an unspectecular view of houses and into some backyard. Thick curtains could be drawn i front of the windows. As in most of hotels, the curtains were not the cleanest part of the room.

The minibar was well stocked with canned teas, water, Western sodas, beers and wines. Prices are of course well above local standard, but not exaggerated. I did not try the room service, which offered a small range of Chinese and also Western food (pizza, sandwich).

It somewhere on the internet said the hotel had a swimming pool, however, this is not true. They have a small gym though.

There is a small Western restaurant/cafe on ground level (and some Chinese outlet I think as well), which I did not try though, as there are plenty of other authentic food options just outside the hotel.

Breakfast buffet offered a good and delicious range of Chinese and also Western food - from muesli over croissants to dim sum and congee. Expect to be surrounded by the usual crowd of mainlainders noisily enjoying their meals. Service staff replenished coffee or tea at reasonable intervals, and used plates were removed eagerly.

Hotel staff was helpful with ordering taxis, advising directions etc. They also held back the prebooked cab I was supposed to take to the airport very early in the morning and rang after me when I did not wake up in time (due to a wake-up call not coming, I have to add, but I cannot swear, maybe I sleepy-head answered it without waking up).

I caught the taxi and my plane back, and all in all, it was a pleasant and problem-free stay at a nice enough hotel well located to explore Wenzhou's city center and shops.

The Victoria Grand Hotel is a solid choice for tourists and budget business travellers.