The window is full of water and the water is full of lights after dark. 千灯湖 Qiāndēng Hú, Thousand Lantern Lake, is the artificial centrepiece of 南海 Nánhǎi, the district of 佛山 Fóshān that has grown fastest, and the hotels along its edge are the newest and tallest in the city. From an upper floor you look down on a park with a lake in it, a ring of towers, and the municipal buildings and convention halls that make up the new downtown. There is no history in the view and the hotels do not pretend otherwise; what they sell is space, quiet, a proper desk and a ten-minute walk to a metro line that will take you into the old town of Foshan or to Guangzhou.
The district is the reason this part of the city exists in its current form. Nanhai is one of the oldest names in the region and one of the wealthiest manufacturing counties in China, and the lake and its surrounding offices were built in the last two decades to give that economy a centre that the old town could not provide. The result is a district of new towers, wide roads and landscaped water, with the older towns and villages of Nanhai still sitting around it within a short drive. For a visitor the practical effect is that the hotels here are better equipped than anything in the old core and considerably cheaper than the equivalent in Guangzhou, at the cost of being a metro ride from the sights.
What the Rooms Are Like
These are modern business hotels and the rooms follow the template: a large bed, a desk with proper lighting, a bathroom in tile or stone, blackout curtains that actually work, and a window wall. The lake side is what you pay for, and it is worth paying for because the alternative is a view of a road or another tower. Height matters less than orientation here, since the lake is open and the roads around it are wide; anything above the eighth floor clears the treeline. The upper floors of the tallest properties hold executive rooms and a lounge, which is a reasonable upgrade in a district with few alternatives for an evening. Breakfast is usually included and usually extensive.
Practicalities
Price. Lake-facing doubles run from about ¥350 in the low season to ¥900 or more on a peak weekend during the 国庆 Guóqìng week or when the convention centre is hosting something large. City-facing rooms are typically twenty to thirty per cent cheaper. Rates here are lower than comparable Guangzhou hotels, which is the main commercial argument for staying on this side of the boundary.
Address. The hotels line 灯湖东路 Dēnghú Dōng Lù and the streets around 千灯湖 Qiāndēng Hú in 南海 Nánhǎi, 佛山 Fóshān, a few minutes’ walk from the 千灯湖 metro station on the Guangzhou-Foshan line.
Rooms. Specify lake-facing, and ask which side of the building the room is on, because a corner room can face the lake at an angle. Ask for a floor above the treeline and away from the lift lobby. Sound insulation in the new towers is generally good, but the park hosts events in summer and a room directly above the lake stage will hear them.
Getting there. The 广佛线 Guǎngfó xiàn, the Guangzhou-Foshan metro, runs from the district into central Guangzhou in around forty minutes, and 广州南站 Guǎngzhōu Nán Zhàn, the high-speed rail station, is a short metro ride away, which makes this the most convenient base in the city for anyone arriving by train. 广州白云国际机场 Guǎngzhōu Báiyún Guójì Jīchǎng is around an hour by road. 佛山沙堤机场 Fóshān Shātí Jīchǎng is within the city.
flowcloud would say that a lake-view business hotel is the right base for a city with a two-thousand-year-old centre and a twenty-year-old one, since it puts the metro, the desk and the quiet in the same room and leaves the old town as a destination rather than an address.
Where to stay: on the lake side of 千灯湖 Qiāndēng Hú in 南海 Nánhǎi, on the eighth floor or above, facing the water rather than the road. Confirm the room is lake-facing rather than merely lake-area, ask for a floor away from any event space, and check the walking distance to the 千灯湖 metro station before booking, because the convenience of this district is entirely a function of how close you are to that line.