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Rose Garden Inn
Hostel Name: Rose Garden Inn 大理玫瑰客栈 (dali men gui kezhan)
Hostel Address: No。114 Nan Sheng Jiuzhaigou Village, Longkan, Dali, 671003 龙龛南生久村114号（大理671003）
Hostel Price: 28 rmb/night for Dorm Room
Dates of Stay: March 15 – March 19
Hey all, so as some of you know I was in Dali for a few days. I chose this place because of its positive reviews on Booking.com and it was the cheapest price available. Little did I realize how much more valuable my experience would be than what I was paying for. While there are a few negatives, the positives are very memorable for me.
Panda Negatives: Difficult Location. Honestly the only negative about the Rose Garden Inn is that it is difficult to find. Unlike all of the other hostels and hotels, this one does not have a big sign nor a specific address on Booking.com. However, they do have a phone number which I gave to my taxi driver. After a fifteen minute conversation, driving around the villages and talking to local people, we made it to the village and the owner came to meet me. He helped me carry my suitcase and lead me down to an alleyway where his inn, his family’s home is hidden.Because of my positive experience at the Rose Garden Inn, I want to help future guests find this place easily. The specific village this place is in is 南生久村 (nan2 sheng1 jiu3 cun1, pronounced “nan sheng gee-oh t-sun”) and most residents know about the Rose Garden Inn, especially shopkeepers.I recently took photos of the surroundings so if you’re having trouble finding this place, locals or drivers can probably help.
If you have problems finding the specific spot, you can show these pictures to the villagers. They’ll point it out to you and help you.
If you want to be in the old village of Dali, there are several hostels you can find. However, enjoyed my experience staying in the villages. It is not only near the Erhai lake but this inn lets me physically experience the life of Dali villagers, culture of China peoplecan rarely see.
Panda Plus 1: Service. Zhao Fan is the owner of the Rose Garden Inn and is one of the nicest, most unique bosses I have met. He is very warm-hearted and extremely helpful to his guests.
Warm-heartedness – One night I returned to the inn without anyone seeing me, at around midnight he knocked on the door. It was the owner making sure I returned home safely. That short interaction made me feel almost like a family member. He even upgraded me to a twin room with the same price as I was one of few guests there.
My main memory of this place though is that it was my first time being an art model. Zhao Fan is also artistic and asked me on my second day if in exchange for home cooked food that he could draw a self-portrait of me. We went to his art studio and after a couple of hours, he presented his work.
While he said this was not his best work, I was blown away by his drawing technique. It is much different from how I use charcoal. The way he drew gave me so much inspiration.
Check out his website for more. www.colour-cn.comwww.xieshengdali.com
Helpfulness – As Zhao Fan is a Dali local and receives many guests, both foreign and Chinese, he knows how to take care of his guests. Not only is a top-notch innkeeper but he is actually fluent in English. It Itook me until the second night of my stay to discover this because despite his ability, we spent our conversations only speaking Mandarin. Once I asked him about it, he told me “I know English but you need to practice Chinese.” Usually I remain frustrated as most Chinese people only speak English with me despite how much I try to push Mandarin. To have someone from China actually commit to speaking Mandarin with me is rare, giving me the language motivation I had lacked since September 2015.
Panda Plus 2: Atmosphere
As I said, this is in a village and the Rose Garden inn is Zhao Fan’s home. As it home to his family, the rooms, the bedding, everything were all clean. In addition, the wifi was outstanding compared to most other places I’ve stayed at.
It was a comfortable inn, and as Zhao Fan is an artist, the Rose Garden inn was decorated very beautifully.
Conclusion: I intended to stay for two nights in Dali but I quickly changed my mind after my first night of stay. If you want to be in the middle of Dali’s attractions, I’ll probably recommend staying in the old town of Dali. However, if you are ok with taking a bus for about half an hour and want to see the life of real Chinese villagers, I’m going to recommend the Rose Garden inn. Here you can escape the crazy Dali tourism and see the peaceful, casual lives of real Dali people.
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