阆中 Lángzhōng Photos: Post #1 of 15: Wharf Inn 水码头客栈
I definitely wanted us to stay in one of the courtyard mansion with their wooden rooms, gorgeous courtyards and traditional furniture. 阆中 Lángzhōng is famous for them after all!
The beautiful courtyard mansions have been owned by one family for generations. They were somehow able to survive the cultural revolution. You can visit them by paying RMB4 each and the homes are so beautiful and reminiscent of a bygone era. In many cases, original family members are there watching television, hanging out or happy to explain their past to you :) The National Day holidays meant that many of them were booked out :'(
In the end, we stayed at the Wharf Inn 水码头客栈 (shui matou kezhan) which was beautiful. My jaw dropped the night we arrived and stood at the entrance.
As I've mentioned, notwithstanding how absolutely gorgeous the courtyard mansions are, ambience and history do not necessarily equal comfort :)
The problems with our room:
1. The room key never worked so we always had to ask the front counter staff to let us in
2. Mozzies Argh! I'm allergic to them
3. They never gave us new toilet paper or new tea bags, which is fine because I always buy a new roll of toilet paper upon arrive in any Chinese hotel :D
4. Spiders and cockroaches
5. Our room was near the front desk and so was exposed to a lot of noise. The inn was also the Water Museum so every day we received a lot of tourist traffic. From about 6 in the morning until about 11pm every day there was constant noise. Furthermore the soundproofing is non-existent and we could hear the person snoring in the room next door. One evening, we heard a very loud hocccchh pttt! and could have sworn that the person was standing in OUR room spitting :)
6. There was frequently no hot water :D
The upside:
1. The room was very quaint
2. It was newer and better equipped than some other places we saw
3. The hotel was conveniently located
4. The hotel was reasonably priced
5. The staff are very friendly
6. Most of all, it was a gorgeous, gorgeous old building just oozing history and charm.
It was dark when we walked through the first courtyard.
But it was no less beautiful for it. Perhaps even more because it was so atmospheric.
Each doorway required us to step over a highish step. We crossed through approximately 10 doorways
Each courtyard leading to yet another courtyard
A really beautiful building
There was an upstairs as well
We finally arrived at our room - room 103. The incredibly friendly staff ran to our room each time to let us in - always with a smile.
We had twin beds which they pushed together for us.
The room was very, very squishy :) And extremely dark! The shower is poised almost directly over the toilet :D
It looked much more spacious with the windows open.
I kept joking that we should leave the windows open so that the tourists could gawk at The Canadian with impunity. I said I'd charge them for photos ;)
The locks were hilarious. I liked the sliding bits of wood to lock the door.
The noise was in part generated by a bird who could talk.
Tourists would stand near the cage and keep trying to make it talk.
The sound carried and as the rooms weren't soundproofed in the slightest, we could hear everything. I mused that it must have been interesting back in the old days when every sound carried so much - no one would have been able to sleep in and you would have been awoken each day by the sounds of the morning and the other members of the house.
The side street leading up to our inn was wonderful as well.
People leave their doors open and you can look in
Return to Langzhong intro/index post
The beautiful courtyard mansions have been owned by one family for generations. They were somehow able to survive the cultural revolution. You can visit them by paying RMB4 each and the homes are so beautiful and reminiscent of a bygone era. In many cases, original family members are there watching television, hanging out or happy to explain their past to you :) The National Day holidays meant that many of them were booked out :'(
In the end, we stayed at the Wharf Inn 水码头客栈 (shui matou kezhan) which was beautiful. My jaw dropped the night we arrived and stood at the entrance.
As I've mentioned, notwithstanding how absolutely gorgeous the courtyard mansions are, ambience and history do not necessarily equal comfort :)
The problems with our room:
1. The room key never worked so we always had to ask the front counter staff to let us in
2. Mozzies Argh! I'm allergic to them
3. They never gave us new toilet paper or new tea bags, which is fine because I always buy a new roll of toilet paper upon arrive in any Chinese hotel :D
4. Spiders and cockroaches
5. Our room was near the front desk and so was exposed to a lot of noise. The inn was also the Water Museum so every day we received a lot of tourist traffic. From about 6 in the morning until about 11pm every day there was constant noise. Furthermore the soundproofing is non-existent and we could hear the person snoring in the room next door. One evening, we heard a very loud hocccchh pttt! and could have sworn that the person was standing in OUR room spitting :)
6. There was frequently no hot water :D
The upside:
1. The room was very quaint
2. It was newer and better equipped than some other places we saw
3. The hotel was conveniently located
4. The hotel was reasonably priced
5. The staff are very friendly
6. Most of all, it was a gorgeous, gorgeous old building just oozing history and charm.
It was dark when we walked through the first courtyard.
But it was no less beautiful for it. Perhaps even more because it was so atmospheric.
Each doorway required us to step over a highish step. We crossed through approximately 10 doorways
Each courtyard leading to yet another courtyard
A really beautiful building
There was an upstairs as well
We finally arrived at our room - room 103. The incredibly friendly staff ran to our room each time to let us in - always with a smile.
We had twin beds which they pushed together for us.
The room was very, very squishy :) And extremely dark! The shower is poised almost directly over the toilet :D
It looked much more spacious with the windows open.
I kept joking that we should leave the windows open so that the tourists could gawk at The Canadian with impunity. I said I'd charge them for photos ;)
The locks were hilarious. I liked the sliding bits of wood to lock the door.
The noise was in part generated by a bird who could talk.
Tourists would stand near the cage and keep trying to make it talk.
The sound carried and as the rooms weren't soundproofed in the slightest, we could hear everything. I mused that it must have been interesting back in the old days when every sound carried so much - no one would have been able to sleep in and you would have been awoken each day by the sounds of the morning and the other members of the house.
The side street leading up to our inn was wonderful as well.
People leave their doors open and you can look in
Return to Langzhong intro/index post