The Expo gardens hotel is situated within 20 minutes of the airport; is close to Yuan Tong Temple and only 5 minutes walk from the entrance to the Expo Gardens. It is however quite a way from the centre of Kunming city.

It is a curious place split over two sites; about five minutes walk apart, with an electric buggy running between the two. In retrospect, it is curious because there is little English spoken here and it took us a while to find our way around. For instance, it would have helped a lot to know that the bar, which is located near the reception desk, does serve food and drink throughout the day. There was no one at the bar when we arrived at 1pm and it took us quite some time being shuffled between the two locations before we found it was open and it even had a Western (albeit limited) menu. The barman suddenly appeared from nowhere and turned out to have quite good English, which proved to be quite useful here. This bar incidentally, also turns into quite a lively restaurant in the evenings, offering Chinese a-la-carte and a wide selection buffet menu. You can ask for a western menu for dinner but beware, as you will have to wait a while for a very Chinese interpretation of your order. The buffet is fine.

It seems that most of the bedrooms are located at the other site which consists of three story blocks arranged around a very attractive covered courtyard garden. Our room was clean and comfortable, with a separate sofa and, if it were not for a cracked sink, it would be up to good western three star standards. The mini-bar was almost empty, as is usual in Chinese hotels. However, there were three English language channels on the TV. We also had the bonus of a lovely view of the Expo Gardens (well worth the visit) from our bedroom window.

Breakfast is served at the Chinese restaurant in the bedroom complex, where a European selection is on offer.

This hotel is perfectly adequate for a two nights stay.

We were firstly impressed by the position out of the town centre (which is a big building site), close to the Garden Expo- Not to be missed even if you don't garden.
The indoor tennis courts, swimming pool and yes- 3 lane ten pin bowling alley - were all in first class order and woefully under-used when we were there, so we enjoyed them. The restaurant was 5*, the evening buffet meals cost less than 15 US and the breakfasts were high international standard. The room was fine, if a little unusual with window shutters separating the bathroom from the main room. We used the laundry service, the Business centre( they stayed till 11pm helping me one night and still smiled!) and their guides and the car service which were all excellent. The guides spoke good English.
They were slow on check out, but after many hotels in the last 3 years in China I can recommend this one easily. The room price we paid inc. full breakfast for 2 was about 60 US- great value for money. If you visit, go to the Stone forest first thing in the morning to avoid the crowds, the Garden Expo deserves a day, downtown was in August 2009 better ignored, hopefully it will improve.