Lijiang is beautiful. Totally beyond my expectation. I had the good fortune to stay in the Banyan Tree, Lijiang. The Hotel is divine and I was blown away by the high standards of food & beverage!

One will never think to find man's simplest comfort food in this remote location of China. Crispy bacon, hot fresh aromatic coffee served with warm milk, freshly baked croissant, well-seasoned grilled-right salmon, I could go on.

The hotel is light-stoned wall, teamed with plenty of chinese bamboos, weeping willows and water features exudes a peaceful landscaped and with the jade snow mountain as it's backdrop. Every photographer's dream.

The people of Lijiang is friendly, and helpful. The place and air were clean too. Definitely a must go destination.

Banyan Tree is a beautiful resort with breathtaking views but there are major service issues. One night at dinner in the dining room we waited over an hour to get served the glass of wine we had ordered and two hours to be served the first course of our dinner.
Changing money was also a problem. When we were there they were not set up for cashing travelers' checks. It was a real pain.
Laptops are available for guests to use free of charge but the connection is some of the slowest dial-up I have ever encountered.
We were on a tour and had requested king rather than twin beds. At Banyan Tree we were given a villa with a king bed, but the bed platform and reading lights were all set up for twin beds. I would rather have dealt with twin beds--at least then we could have read in bed and not wacked myself on the edge of the platform!
We were in China for three weeks and mailed postcards by buying stamps from our hotels' reception desk and asking them to mail the cards for us. The only cards that didn't arrive were the ones mailed from the Banyan Tree! And they charged us more for stamps than any other hotel in china!!!

We spent 3 nights in Banyan Tree Lijiang in late March 2007. The villas were very "banyan tree" (e.g. they place electric blankets underneath mattresses for extra comfort if needed) and we enjoyed the outdoor whirlpool very much (although the water temperature could have been hotter given the outside temperature).

Although the food in the Chinese restaurant was mediocre at best, their in-room breakfast is worth mentioning in particular as it exceeded our expectation. We didn't and couldn't go to the breakfast room coz we had to leave early (0630) to catch a flight. They prepared and delivered our breakfast slightly earlier than the scheduled opening hour of the kitchen which was impressive. The tray was also full of food ranging from fruits, boiled eggs, congee to cereals and toast.

However, some of the staff were rather green and lacked expertise in what goes on both within and outside the hotel. This could be because they were young and not locals (they have staff from Thailand, Taiwan and other developing countries).

The hotel is also quite far away from city centre which means we had to take taxis everywhere we went. Although the hotel staff was very helpful and would call taxis for ius, the taxis often took a long time to arrive which could be annoying at times.

All in all, Lijiang is worth visiting and the hotel is worth staying at.

A quite sublime architectural world awaits inside the Banyan Tree doors. This is a hotel like none other, with wonderful spacious rooms, each with a view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The hotel has tremendous attention to room details including heated shower area floors and toilet floors in the winter where the temperature even in March when we went can be in the low single digits in the evening.

Each room's courtyard was a private recluse, where one could have written an epic poem or simply sit with a loved one to talk about anything. The air is clean and pure and a far cry from almost any major city in China.

There are two disappointments however. For a resort of this billing, the food is good but not excellent. The second issue was the Spa where the masseuses need to undergo further training, especially for the type of prices that they charge. In addition, Banyan Tree should get rid of its practice where it cites a 60 minute massage but in reality the massage is 30 minutes and you have 30 minutes in their relaxation areas which is time you pay for but where no one is actually doing any spa treatments on you physically. This to me is a bit of a con job and thus impacted my giving a full five stars to the resort.

If they fix this practice, this is certainly a gem of a resort to stay at.