China Hotel Review: Yueerxuan Secret Garden Beautiful Stay in LiJiang, Yunnan

It’s my first trip to China — and our first hotel/guesthouse check-in was at Lijiang Ancient Town.

If you’re planning a stay here too, just a little tip: no cars can drive directly into the ancient town. That means quite a bit of walking and dragging luggage, depending on how far your hotel is and how much help they provide. For us, it was quite an experience — they sent us in by a small motorbike when we arrived, but during checkout, it was completely self-service, so we had to drag everything out ourselves. 

(If you have kids traveling with you or heavy, bulky luggage, staying in Lijiang Ancient Town isn’t ideal. But if you’re feeling adventurous and fit, exploring the higher-altitude areas can be a different experience altogether. For me, I have to stop every few minutes while dragging my luggage on rocky texture and steep slope)

We stayed at Yueerxuan Secret Garden Beautiful Stay (The entrance was another name). The host greeted us warmly and even offered to show us around their rooms. Since it was off-season with fewer guests, they kindly upgraded us for free, which was a nice gesture.

However, the check-in process took a turn when they asked us to cancel our Trip.com booking and pay directly because they hadn’t received the payment from trip on their end. We were tired and hungry at the time of checking in, so it was quite confusing and fustrating to handle this kind of issue right upon arrival. Trip.com also had cancellation penalties, so there was quite a bit of back-and-forth about fees and charges — not exactly how we expected to start our trip.

We stayed for two nights, though we didn’t interact much with the hosts after that as our itinerary was quite packed. I did notice some small details — like used toothbrushes and leftover toothpaste in the bathroom — which made me wonder about their cleaning consistency. There was also no housekeeping offered even for the second day.

The architecture and design were beautiful, very much in line with the traditional charm of Lijiang, but the overall vibe didn’t quite match the photos online. The listing looked bright, elegant, and a little luxurious. In reality, the hotel felt rather quiet and empty — we didn’t see other guests or staff at all. The only time we saw the lights on in the entrance and reception was the night we checked in. Later that night, when we returned, everything was dark — even the entrance and reception lights were off — and we actually got lost because it looked like an abandoned house! And we didn't thought it was the hotel we saw when the lights were on.

We eventually got used to it, but it definitely wasn’t what we expected. They didn’t provide the welcome gift mentioned in the Trip listing as well, though they did offer us some rose cake casually, which was sweet of them.

Overall, it was a mix of good intentions and missed details. I still appreciate the effort from the host and the charm of the place, but I think consistency and clearer communication would’ve made the stay more memorable — in a good way.

Details for your reference:

PRICES 

SGD$56.00/- per night

Location Address: 

📍Yueerxuan Secret Garden Beautiful Stay

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