Hanling Old Street is a well-developed historic street along Dongqian Lake with excellent commercial offerings. However, the roads by the lake get extremely congested during holidays, making it difficult to drive there. Both hotels share a parking lot with Hanling Old Street, but the hotel has its own dedicated parking area, which is quite useful during peak times. On non-holiday days, you don’t necessarily need to park inside, as entering requires finding security to open the gate. Additionally, there is only one elevator from the underground parking garage to ground level, and the distance is considerable. JUN Hotel can be accessed directly via stairs, which is more convenient than Blossom Hill.
Blossom Hill Hanling
This hotel opened in 2018 and is reasonably priced, featuring a total of 24 rooms. The property is divided into three sections: one comprises the lobby/restaurant and second-floor guest rooms; another consists of basic room types located in a two-story courtyard; and the third offers river-facing, pet-friendly duplex rooms. The basic rooms are 32-square-meter twin rooms with no view. Overall maintenance is average; the ground floor tends to be damp and prone to insects.
The architectural style is quintessentially traditional Jiangnan water town. The hardware is decent, but given the climate in this region, you should be very cautious about booking ground-floor rooms.
The restaurant also features an Instagram-worthy design, though it didn’t seem to be in use during my stay. Instead, breakfast was served as a buffet at the adjacent JUN Hotel restaurant.
This section features pet-friendly duplex rooms with a private courtyard. Being river-facing, they offer lovely views and come highly recommended.
Dongqian Lake JUN Hotel
Dongqian Lake JUN Hotel and the neighboring Blossom Hill Hanling share the same owner and are both situated right next to Hanling Old Street—stepping out of the hotel puts you directly on the old street, which is incredibly convenient. Significantly more upscale than Blossom Hill, it opened in 2021 and offers a total of 23 rooms.
For this visit, I stayed in their Deluxe View Room, a 52-square-meter space on the second floor. The room boasts high-end amenities, including a smart toilet, coffee machine, instant hot water dispenser, double sinks, Dyson hair dryer, and even a B&&O Beosound 2 speaker. Strangely, however, there was no hand soap or bar soap provided—I’m not sure if they simply forgot…
Additionally, the hot water supply wasn’t very reliable on the day of check-in; there were often periods in the afternoon with no hot water at all, and the cleaning could have been more thorough upon closer inspection.
Although it’s located right next to Blossom Hill, the comfort level here is noticeably higher, and the rooms are far less damp.
The window overlooks the guest rooms of Blossom Hill.
The lobby is adorned with oil paintings, and the building is equipped with an elevator. Since I visited mid-week, breakfast wasn’t served buffet-style but rather as set menus that you could order repeatedly. It was acceptable, though for this price point, there are certainly better options available elsewhere.
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