So when I arrived at the hotel, the main areas smelled fine, but the room smelled like a combination of sewer back up and chemicals. There was a note on the desk indicating that work on the rooms may cause some inconvenience and odor. The hotel offered me another room, it smelled just as bad. The smell persisted throughout the 3 day stay.

The room itself was large, with a really nice bath area. Standard Western amenities throughout. Cleaning could have been better, I kept stepping on peanuts left by a previous guest. Breakfast and dinner buffets were plentiful and had a great selection. Other restaurants in the hotel required reservations, which was inconvenient. Good location across from a Hebei museum.

We stayed for 5 days to visit a factory in Shijiazhuang, and the factory booked this hotel for us. Normally we use the high speed train from Beijing but found the rules had changed from the 1st June so that they will not book you with a faxe copy of your passport but only book you in person with your passport. So only 2 of 3 of us arrived very late late by car because we came on the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, our 3rd person had to come early the next day. Bu it was no fuss or bother for the receptions staff who checked us into the rooms very quickly.

The foyer is very impressive and there is a grand piano which a young lady played each night

The second floor is the restaurant which was were a good buffet breakfast was served. On the first 2 nights we were tired, not hungary, just wanted a la carte and found the Italian selection was really good. The lasagne tasted authentic and not super sweet as in most Asian restaurants. The buffet looked good and very reasoably priced but the problem with bufffets is eating too much.

The bedrooms are large and very modern with a large working area, modern desk and chair and free high speed internet.

As with all Chinese hotels expect to pay a substantial deposit on arrival which is refunded on checkout.

One hiccup was that on check out I had to pay for 2 rooms for 2 of us but the hotel spent 10 minutes trying to get me 2 invoices for 2 rooms for 2 people. They kept printing out only one invoice. Should have been easy but it wasn't.

However, I would highly recomend this hotel.

Hotel was recommended to me as the "best place" in Shijiazhuang. I found the hotel to be quite good.
Rooms are spacious, the bed quite soft, meaning not the usual park bench like in other Chinese hotels and clean. Electric plugs are next to the bed and the light on and off switch are easy to reach. I stayed on the 7th floor and the problem was that my window was covered with some paper, so that I cannot see anything on the outside. After opening the window, I saw the reason: Air-conditioners and other utilities......
Bathroom has only a walk-in shower, which is perfect for me. Otherwise it is quite large and the lightning was good. Hot water came after some time, but the water pressure was not very good.
TV had all the big channels, such as CNN, BBC, Discovery, HBO, Cinemax and I think also Star Movie.
Internet was at night very fast, but during the day it came nearly to a halt. And it was free of charge. Skype worked, iChat not too well and Facetime did not work. The VPN also worked.
Breakfast was quite OK, one of the few places in China I found actual Blue Cheese. Otherwise the western dishes were not too good, with a lot of them simply cold - hash-browns simply taste better when they are hot.
Dinner looked very chinese, I went outside.
A KFC and a McDonalds are about about 100 m on the left of the hotel. (hard to see, actually behind the International Hotel)
One thing, try not to choose room 15, as this one is next to the elevators, which are going all night long... it is not too bad, but if you have the choice....

I wasn't a guest at the hotel, but the hotel staff helped me out with a situation. They were amazing, helping with translation, pointing me in the right direction, helping me as much as they could. So although I wasn't a guest, their service amazed me.