I've been there for 2 days in May 2008. Close to the main shopping area. The hotel is surrounded by dingy stinking shops. Shady rooms screaming for renovation. Pros: - Close to the city centre - Good food (but stay away from ice cream refrigerator - disgusting stale ice cream) - English speaking staff Cons: - stinking hotel surrounding - old-fashion rooms - NO free WiFi Internet access

I stayed at this hotel in May 2008. Altogether its a pretty reasonable place. The location is excellent in downtown Harbin, right opposite the main shopping street and a few blocks from St Sofia church and the Jewish temple is down the street. The hotel is only 2 stops from the station on Jingwei Jie, the bus stop is directly opposite the hotel. Alternatively taking a taxi should only cost around 8 yuan. I mention this because the taxi we got took us on a panoramic tour of harbin costing 28 yuan!!!! well, it could happen anywhere i guess, but it helps to be prepared. the place is quite gay friendly - we are two males and requested a king size bed and there were no questions from the staff. Service is good, we borrowed umbrellas daily from the concierge and got directions and information as well. the room was a bit on the worn side as is the whole hotel. its acceptable but not luxurious and certainly not fashionable, the whole decor scheme is from the 70s. breakfast was good, no complaints there. there is no pool but there is a small gym, barely adequate though for a thorough workout. altogether the hotel is a safe choice but theres just not many frills to justify the price. if you are looking for just basic comfort level plus cleanliness you might be better off at one of the chinese budget chains. certainly home inn and jinjiang inn are also centrally located and would be half the price of holiday inn. definitely make the effort to visit the 731 concentration camp in pingfang, it is chilling. buses leave from the right hand side of the station, takes about 40 mins to get there. last entry is at 3pm and you should be prepared to wait for enough people to arrive in order to enter as a group.

This hotel is NOT a short walk to the Ice Festival, as noted in this hotel's description. I have lived in Harbin for four years. I was looking for a hotel to book some friends in. I noticed that the main page of this hotel indicates it is a 5 minute walk from the Ice Festival in Zhaolin Park. That is a mini-festival, but NOT the one people come to Harbin for. The main festival is on the other side of the river, definitely not a walking distance from anything. However, it is a good hotel in a great location (better location than the Shangri La, even though the Shangri La is closer to the main Ice Festival)). A taxi to the main ice festival will be about 25 rmb from the Holiday Inn.