Best Food In China

Location

As I live in Shanghai, the quickest way to Ningbo, for those without a car, is to hopped on a bus at the Shanghai South Railways Station’s long distance bus terminal and head across the newly built Hangzhou bridge. This journey should take about three hours (or two and a half if you’re lucky with traffic) and the proximity makes Ningbo a nice place for a weekend break.

After arriving in Ningbo, we jumped into a taxi and headed to our destination. Opened just before the Olympics in 2008, the 40-story pea-green Ningbo Marriott Hotel stands in the centre of town and has been built at the junction of the Fenghua, Yao and Yong rivers that run through the city.

The first thing to catch your eye when you walk into the hotel is the grand piano, sitting in the middle of the foyer, and the impressive, modern, chandelier hanging from above, which is a feature of many of the hotel’s larger rooms.

These rooms, costing between 700 - 20,000RMB a night, occupy the top twenty floors of the building and, as such, all the rooms, on a clear day, have a great view over the city. The ground to the third floor encompasses what you would expect a 5 star hotel to have. On the ground floor there is a buffet restaurant, the location for breakfast, that serves a mix of Chinese and international cuisine along with a champagne Sunday brunch, a small Japanese restaurant and, in the foyer, there is a lounge bar. On the second floor there is a large private function room for weddings and such like. The third floor is home to a Chinese restaurant, the spa and the always important swimming pool and gym.

After checking in, we headed up to our executive room on the 38th floor. The room was a standard single room with a large, very soft double bed, plenty of pillows, a lightly stocked mini bar, a desk and big flat screen TV complete with cable and Chinese television channels. There was also the nice touch of some fruit and a glass full of jelly sweets. The bathroom contained a separate shower and bath, next to which was a full-walled window looking into the room. For those wanting a bit of privacy, there was also a blind that can be lowered.

If you choose to stay in an executive room, you have access to the executive lounge on the 40th floor, which has a small buffet and a free flow of drinks every evening. There are also a few other perks, such as a 100rmb washing allowance.

The gym and swimming pool were excellent. The gym is stocked with a wide range top-end of cardio and weight machine. All the cardio machines have their own television, a bottle of water and a towel, and disposable headsets are also available free of charge. The 10 meter pool is also good and the changing rooms have a sauna and steam room along with a hot and cold plunge pool. The spa also has all the treatment you could possibly need and plenty more besides, such as a foot massage that starts at 160RMB.

If you’re heading to Ningbo - whether for business or pleasure - and you want somewhere nice to stay, the Marriott Hotel, with its nice modern rooms, good restaurants and central location, has everything you could need and is an excellent option.

Room starting price RMB: 700 Yuan/each night

- by David Evans

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