After a couple of nights in Guilin, we went to Lemandi (Merryland Resort) for a break. I was visiting the area with my wife and son in August 2009 and she booked this place between our visits to Guilin and Yangshou. I was impressed by the speed of check-in (can use US credit cards) and the price back then was very reasonable for the Japanese style room.

After looking around the hotel and seeing where everything was, I decided to play nine holes (it's all I could talk my wife into letting me play). I had to rent clubs, buy a glove, balls, pay for her to ride along, and tees. I rented a cart (middle of August in Guilin is HOT) and had to have a caddie. I think the golf was more expensive then the room was! I really didn't care though, the opportunity to play in China was there and I took it. Carts were path only, but not a problem as long as you can keep the ball in play. The caddie was wonderful, really didn't speak much English, but having my wife along made things easy (she speaks Mandarin). I found the fairways baked (again it was August and around 115 degrees F), but the greens were very true and quick. I didn't find the course exceptionally challenging, but with the rental clubs, really took me some time to find my distance.

After golf, time to hit the pool, it was nice, music was Chinese and everyone seemed to have fun. Due to the heat of the season, the water was warm, but still enjoyable after baking in the sun. After that, it was time for Chinese bbq, not what I was expecting, but very delicious. It is a "hot pot" style of bbq so be ready for that. A short walk around the property after that and time to turn in.

The breakfast buffet is great, something for everyone. It was time for the amusement park. My son had fun on the rides, we enjoyed some of the shows (the western show is a lot of fun to experience). I would think that any family would enjoy a day spent here.

Overall, I think a 5 star rating is correct, but it would be helpful to have more English speaking team members on the property. The place is aesthetically fantastic, service was wonderful and overall, we all had a wonderful experience on the property.

Getting there, as all travel in China, is a little tricky. We took a bus from Guilin to the gate of the property and their car picked us up and saved us the half-mile walk up the hill. The bus ride is about an hour or hour and a half, the view is nice but make sure to be in a bus with a/c or you'll be sorry.

The hotel and themepark was very quiet and isolated during our stay there. Maybe it's not peak season. There's nothing much to do during the night except going to the massage centre or sitting around the lounge. Hotel lobby is very big but the restaurant staff don't understand English. Knowing how to speak in Mandarin would be an advantage to travellers. The room is clean and landscape is beautiful with flowers in full bloom during early cold spring.

I am writing this review from the place itself.

Basically my problem is that this hotel claims to be a five star when it's barely a 3 star hotel.

Very difficult to find anyone speaking English
Empty fridge (but I could go and buy whatever I want and put it in, so they say)
No welcome fruit basket or flower
They have a swimming pool but it's empty
They have three restaurant, we chose the one who closed at 9.30pm, arrived there at 8.45pm and it was already closed
Clients are smoking everywhere (and throwing the cigarettes on the carpet)
We had a party going on in the room next door and had to call the reception three times before anything was done to stop the noise.

Appart from that, the place is clean, staff is nice and friendly and the golf course is beautifull.

Stayed there with a few friends over a long weekend, mainly for the golf. Well, totally for the golf. The rooms were nice and clean, and the staff was quite helpful. We did have some problems locating English speakers, but it didn't make anything impossible. Not a lot of stuff to do after a long day on the course though. But, we didn't have a lot of energy to do anything after baking in the sun for 6 or 7 hours anyway.

The golf was pretty good - the courses were nice and were plenty challenging for different skill levels. The caddies were helpful and had workable English-speaking ability.

I would definitely stay there again, and would recommend this hotel/resort to anyone visiting that area.