The lake is shallow and the light comes off it in the late afternoon like a sheet of pale metal. 洋沙湖 Yángshā Hú lies south of 湘阴县城 Xiāngyīn xiànchéng, the county town of 湘阴县 Xiāngyīn Xiàn, on the western side of Dongting Lake, and the resort built along its shore is a low, spreading thing of white walls and dark timber that is deliberately hard to see from the road. Rooms face the water. From a balcony the view is reeds, open water, a long low ridge of hills on the far side, and boats that are either fishing or taking visitors out, depending on the hour. It is not a mountain landscape and it does not pretend to be; it is a wetland landscape, wide and quiet, and the pleasure of it is horizontal.
The building itself is the newest thing in a county that is mostly fields, and it is arranged so that almost every room gets water. Balconies are the point of the better rooms; the cheapest rooms face the garden and the car park, which is fine at night and less so at breakfast. The grounds are large and walkable, with boardwalks out over the shallow margins, a beach of pale sand that appears and disappears with the level of the lake, and enough planting between the buildings that children can be let loose without much supervision. There is a pool, a spa that leans on the local hot spring claims, and a restaurant that does the lake fish well and everything else adequately.
Who It Suits
This is a resort for people who want a base in the Dongting lowlands rather than a destination in itself. It works very well for two nights with children, because the water is shallow, the grounds are enclosed and the pace is slow, and it works for anyone using Xiangyin as a stopping point on the road between 长沙 Chángshā and 岳阳市 Yuèyáng. It is less good for travellers who want to walk out of the door into a town, because there is nothing within walking distance: the nearest village is a drive away, and the county town is fifteen minutes by car.
Practicalities
Price. A standard double starts around ¥400 and runs to ¥900 or more for a lake-facing room with a balcony on a weekend. The resort is busiest from May to October, peaks on public holidays, and drops sharply between November and March, when the lake is grey, the reeds are brown and rates fall by half or more. Rates usually include breakfast, and packages bundling dinner and a boat trip are common.
Address. The resort sits on the southern shore of 洋沙湖 in 湘阴县 Xiāngyīn Xiàn, roughly forty minutes by car from 岳阳市 Yuèyáng Shì and about an hour and a half from 长沙 Chángshā; the turning off the main road is signposted rather than obvious.
Rooms. Take a lake-facing room or do not bother. Ask specifically for a balcony, and ask which floor, because the first floor looks out at the reeds at eye level while the third sees over them to the water. Families should ask about connecting rooms and about how far the room is from the pool; light sleepers should ask to be away from the function hall, which hosts weddings and company dinners on weekends.
Getting there. By car is simplest and there is ample parking; the resort is a straightforward drive off the 京港澳 Jīng-Gǎng-Ào expressway corridor via Xiangyin. The nearest high-speed rail station is 汨罗东站 Mìluó Dōng Zhàn on the Wuhan-Guangzhou line, from which it is around forty minutes by taxi; 岳阳东站 Yuèyáng Dōng Zhàn is further but has more services. There is no convenient public bus connection to the resort itself.
flowcloud would say that the pleasure of Yangshahu is that nothing in the view is tall, and that a place which offers you a horizon instead of an attraction has done more than it looks like it has.
Where to stay: on an upper floor facing the water, away from the function hall, on a weeknight if you can arrange it, because weekends here are for parties and the lake is better without them. Confirm the balcony and the floor when you book, and check whether the rate includes both breakfast and the boat trip.