Our friends who have been to the resort highly recommended us to visit, we were not dissappointed. We booked a family suite, the room is big and clean. The circus is well worth the price paid. Our children really enjoyed it very very much! We also visited the safari and to see everything, you have to go early. Sadly we didn't manage to cover the whole safari in a day. As we only stayed 2 nights, we didn't visit the theme park and water park. It was also very cold the two days we were there. We had all our meals at the Butterfly Gourmet Restaurant, a little expensive but not as crowded as the theme restaurant that provides buffet style meals.

As the location of the hotel is quite far from downtown or any shops, it would be great if the management could have some vending machines that sells cookies or warm food and drinks in hotel premises for the convenience of family with young children who tends to get hungry day and night!

We have heard many positive things about Chime Long so we really looked forward to this trip. I called and booked the hotel directly and bought round trip bus tickets from Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon (Hong Kong) from CTS. CTS told me that the bus ride was going to take 3 hours. We had a super slow driver from Eternal East? Travels and the ride to Chime Long took 4 full hours. He made stops at Humen and Panyu and no one was even getting off or on the bus. (I doubt we will make a return trip to Chime Long but if we do we will probably opt to hire a car from Shenzhen Bay instead of taking the bus. A taxi drive in Chime Long quoted me RMB550 per taxi for picking up or droppin off at Shenzhen Bay). In any event, after a very long drive we finally arrived at the hotel around noon time on a Saturday.

Check-in took less than 10 minutes. We were asked to pay for the night's stay upfront which we did. I paid RMB1,348 for a 'hunter family room' in tower 5 (new wing). Breakfast was not included. The room is spacious, with a king sized bed and a bunk bed for our two kids. A small desk, one chair. And there was no other furniture even though there was plenty room to put in at least an arm chair so there is a place to sit other than on the bed. There is a shower and a separate stall for a toilet. Our kids were disappointed that there is no bathtub. Even though the shower comes with a detachable shower head that I found easy to use when washing the kids, they should have provided a bathtub as this is a higher priced family sized room. In addition, the room faces some ugly buildings and there was no view. There was a small fridge with no freezer section. No minibar items whatsoever.

Chime Long Hotel has a water spa and pool facilities but we were told to use the swimming pool would cost RMB150 per person extra.

On the plus side, the room and lobby have easy wifi access. The beds were comfortable to sleep in. 4 small bottles of water were provided free of charge. We also found child sized bathrobes and slippers in the closet which was a pleasant surprise.

In general, we found the service at the hotel subpar. I would not rate this a 5 star hotel. We had problems with the safe in the room and when we called for help, someone came quickly and managed to 'fix' it but a few minutes after, we had the same problem again and was unable to use the safe. In addition, the toilet gets easily clogged and water came out. Housekeeping did manage to unclog it but did not wipe the area or make any effort to clean it so we had to put up with a stinky toilet for the few hours prior to checking out.

Another problem we experienced was with ticketing - when I booked the hotel by phone I was told that with RMB300 extra we could have two adults' tickets to both the Chimelong circus and the Xiangjiang Safari Park. But when we arrived at the hotel, we were told that the RMB300 extra only covers one of the two. I thought it was strange that with the booking they did not send me any confirmation email, and I blame myself for not having confirmed everything in writing prior to the trip. But in any event, no effort was made by the ticketing counter to clear up the misunderstanding, and no apologies offered.

As to dining, the Cantonese restaurant in Building No. 5 did a good job in feeding us very quickly for dinner so we could make it to the circus on time. The food was reasonably priced and the dishes tasted decent enough. We also tried out the White Tiger restaurant breakfast buffet. We arrived at the restaurant on a Sunday morning at around 840ish. The place was very crowded. All of the tables around the tiger enclosure and flamingo enclosure were occupied so we took a table in the back area. Please note that THERE IS NO SERVICE at this restaurant. They don't seat you or bring you any food or drink. You are pretty much on your own after stepping in. You need to find your own table, and sort out your own food options. Even though there was an adequate amount of food, the quality was very average. The orange juice tasted funny.

After we finished eating, the crowd was thinning out so we grabbed a table facing the tiger enclosure, and just sat for about 15 minutes to watch the animals. The tigers were pretty lethargic, as one would expect of animals in perpetual captivity. There was still magnificent animals to look at and we enjoyed watching their every move.

In any event, this hotel is efficient run in the sense that the management seemed to have figured out the very minimum amount of service they would provide to keep things running. Don't expect any extra effort or perks to make guests happy. I suppose if you are a family with young kids and you do want to take the kids to the circus at night (btw the show starts at 730 and ends close to 9pm), this is the best option in terms of proximity. But in any other type of scenario, I would choose to stay elsewhere.

A very big complex incorporating not only a large hotel, shops, restaurants and conference centre but a circus with excellent human performers; watching performing large 'wild' animals is not to my taste but each to his/her own. We got a room upgrade as our rooms were not ready when we arrived and the staff remained equally eager to please throughout our short visit. The room was spacious with good, natural light and thoughfully appointed. The food in the restaurant we visited was good but very expensive and much better can be found at reasonable prices in local restaurants, if you take the trouble to find them. The breakfast buffet, however, especially the Chinese food was excellent. Our table was next to one of the resident flamingo enclosures which provided early morning entertainment as part of the safari theme of the hotel. All in all, our stay at this unusual hotel was a pleasure.

After staying in many hotels downtown and getting tired of how the aging rooms lack maintenance, I was glad to try this one out.
Even though the rooms were not as fresh as expected, it was overall a great experience with not only a good bed but a spacious room with all the necessities.
In the safari ambiance, the restaurants are quite interesting, especially the Petrus.

This is quite far away from the downtown area (a good 30 mn) but worth it. And if you are coming with kids, there are plenty of activities (zoo, park, etc...).