石岐街道 Shíqí Jiēdào and 东区街道 Dōngqū Jiēdào are the two faces of central Zhongshan – the old town on the 岐江 Qí Jiāng where the city’s hotels began, and the East-district CBD of malls and glass where its business now sleeps – and because 中山市 Zhōngshān Shì has no counties or districts, the subdistricts and their streets are the whole address. In 2026 the pairing has a plot: the 1986 Fuhua Hotel, closed since 2016, is scheduled to reopen in October 2026 with 195 rooms, across the river from a 459-room Hilton that already carries the CBD trade, with the 孙文西路 Sūnwén Xī Lù pedestrian street and a chain band from 224 yuan between them.
The Fuhua’s history is the city’s hotel history in one building. Its predecessor, the 华侨大厦 Huáqiáo Dàshà, the Overseas Chinese Building, was converted from a park exhibition hall in 1962; the hotel that replaced it opened on 11 November 1986 – the International Hotel followed the next day – with nineteen floors and, on top, the first revolving restaurant in China designed by its own engineers, built for 165,000 yuan against the International’s imported 250,000-dollar one, the two so close that Hong Kong radio called them a world record, a claim the archive reports as such. In the country’s first five-star scoring round the Fuhua took 339 points and the International 334 against a bar of 330; because the first five-star list was capped at seven houses and demanded 80-dollar room rates, both hotels applied down to four stars, making Zhongshan the only city in that first list with two four-stars, and in 1990 the Fuhua was named one of the country’s ten best hotels.
The return is scheduled, not yet real. The hotel closed in 2016; rebuilding started in 2024 on nearly 30 mu of riverside land with about 40,600 square metres of floor space, 195 rooms, more than 1,000 restaurant seats, a 700-seat banquet hall and six meeting spaces, described in the reports as a “high-quality city garden hotel” keeping the Lingnan mood. On 30 September 2026 nothing was bookable, which is correct: the phrase to carry is “scheduled to reopen in October 2026”, and until the doors open there is no price, no room list and no score.
The working flagship across the water is 中山利和希尔顿酒店 Zhōngshān Lìhé Xī’ěrdùn Jiǔdiàn, the Hilton Zhongshan Downtown, at 16 中山三路 Zhōngshān Sān Lù in the East district, joined directly to the 利和广场 Lìhé Guǎngchǎng mall. Its room count is 459 rooms and suites by the on-site check of the venue-verification platform 会小二 Huìxiǎo’èr – Trip.com’s blurb says “four hundred plus”, and both figures are printed here – with 255 kings and 170 twins, a heated pool and tennis courts, and 3,600 square metres of meeting space by Trip.com or seven venues and a largest hall of 1,323 square metres by the same checker. No confirmed opening year was found for it anywhere, so this article prints none. On 30 September 2026 同程 Tóngchéng rated it 4.8 from 498 yuan, Trip.com 9.4 out of 10 across about 6,390 reviews at first place on its own food-hotel list, and Meituan 4.7 averaging 511 yuan; the five-star tag is the platforms’ description.
What the Rooms Are Like
Between the two bookends the subdistricts run a dense chain band. Checked on 30 September 2026: the Atour at 20 中山二路 Zhōngshān Èrlù from 448 yuan at 4.6 across 2,656 reviews; the 雅好花园 Yǎhǎo Huāyuán at 11 中山二路 from 281 at 4.7; a 如家商旅 Rújiā Shānglǚ in the 石岐 lanes from 400; the 路易酒店 Lùyì Jiǔdiàn from 224 and 驿居 Yìjū from 248 – a working band of 224 to 448 yuan within walking distance of either mall. A room here is a business room, and the choice it offers is the view: the river and the 1986 skyline on the 石岐 side, the glass towers and the parks on the 东区 side, with the pedestrian street’s tiled fronts in between.
Practicalities
Price. On 30 September 2026 the Hilton quoted from 498 to 576 yuan across the platforms, the chain band ran 224 to 448, and the Fuhua quoted nothing at all – there is no room on sale until the scheduled October 2026 reopening. Holiday weeks firm the whole centre. Every figure is a snapshot that floats.
Address. The addresses anchor to subdistricts and streets, as Zhongshan addresses do: the Fuhua at 富华道 1 号 Fúhuá Dào 1 Hào on the west bank of the 岐江 Qí Jiāng, across 岐江桥 Qíjiāng Qiáo from the 孙文西路 Sūnwén Xī Lù pedestrian street in the old 石岐 core; the Hilton at 中山三路 16 号 Zhōngshān Sān Lù 16 Hào in 东区街道 Dōngqū Jiēdào, about 64 metres from the 利和广场 mall by Meituan’s measure and about 2.8 kilometres from the pedestrian street by Trip.com’s.
Rooms. At the Fuhua, wait for the reopening inventory and ask what the rebuild kept – the revolving restaurant above the nineteen floors is the question the whole city is asking. At the Hilton, ask for a high floor away from the road side and confirm which of the two published meeting-space counts applies to your event. In the chains, ask about breakfast and parking, because the malls take the kerbs at weekends.
Getting there. The rail points are 中山站 Zhōngshān Zhàn and 中山北站 Zhōngshān Běi Zhàn on the 广珠城际 Guǎngzhū Chéngjì: from Guangzhou South, second class about 40 yuan and 29 to 40 minutes on the timetable checked on 30 September 2026 – 12306 has the live version – and the hotel districts sit 15 to 25 minutes away by car, an estimate; navigate. From Shenzhen the 深中通道 Shēn-Zhōng Tōngdào, opened on 30 June 2024, about 24 kilometres and roughly thirty minutes to the Zhongshan side, then across town – about an hour door to door by the estimate here.
Where to stay: the Hilton Zhongshan Downtown if the mall and the meeting are the trip, a chain room on 中山二路 Zhōngshān Èrlù if the budget is, and – from October 2026, if the schedule holds – a room at the Fuhua Hotel, 富华道 1 号 Fúhuá Dào 1 Hào, to sleep inside the city’s own comeback story, all of it in the 石岐 and 东区 Dōngqū Jiēdào core of 中山市 Zhōngshān Shì.
flowcloud would say that a city which once talked itself down from five stars now keeps its best room dark on purpose, and that the correct way to sleep here is on whichever side of the river your week falls, because the Fuhua spent a decade being missed and will spend the next one being crowded.