I wish this email to be addressed to the marketing department.
I had an enjoyable stay at the hotel but I wish to help.
Some of the information and brochures in the hotel room in the directory were well presented but the English printed in the articles was not always correct in grammar and punctuatuion. I would like to be helpful to the Hotel by assisting in the translation and presentation of the information in English. I am a retired school teacher and wish to help. I would be happy to do it via emails.
Many Thanks
Dianne Cecil

My first impressions of the hotel were not great ... it is a good distance from the train station and the center of town (and we got ripped off by the taxi driver from the train station), the exterior is very intimidating, and the massive gates were more disturbing than comforting--what exactly were we being protected from? Angry Maoists? Dinosaurs? But the interior is quite nice, the rooms are comfortable, and the restaurant menu is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen (more on that in a minute). The staff could've been a little more helpful and didn't speak very much English, but then again Datong (despite the wonderful sights in and around the city) is not exactly on the beaten tourist path and their English was better than my Chinese. I think we paid a little less than $50/night for our room, so it was a great deal.

I must second m2347m's comment that the menu is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I'll post some pictures below, but search "Datong Hotel" on flickr and you can see more of my pictures. Tears were rolling down my eyes the first time I laid eyes on this thing. I'm glad we were able to take one to our room so we could take pictures. Yes--it's that funny!

So to summarize, bad location (although taxis are always available) but a very nice hotel. Again, I'm a bit surprised by the negative reviews. Datong itself is kind of gritty town (the wave of modernization and prosperity that has hit Beijing, Shanghai, and even Xi'an has not reached here) but has a few interesting temples and a famous dragon wall. Outside of town are the real treasures though--the Yungang Caves and Hanging Temple are some of the best sights in China. Datong makes for a nice stopover between Xi'an and Beijing, so if you have time definitely stop here for a day or two! If you don't mind the location (and really, there's not that much to do in downtown Datong anyway), the Datong Hotel is a great value and the restaurant menu alone makes the stay worthwhile! I hope they never change it ...

Stayed at the Datong Hotel in May. The hotel is quite a distance from the airport. Most people here do not speak english. The tour CITS office is right outside the hotel but it was closed at 9AM. Check in took a very long time. Only one person works the counter. This hotel is about a 2 star hotel. The lobby looks nice but the rooms are very old. The linens and towels were clean. The beds are hard which is standard for most China hotels. Breakfast at the hotel is good if you go early. We got there sort of late in the morning so almost everything was cold. Rented a taxi for all day to go to the Hanging Temples and Yungang Caves. The costs was $300RMB. The hanging temples are far from the hotel. The caves are in the opposite direction from the temples but closer to hotel. In order to get to the caves you have to drive through town. The town is pretty run down. Not much to do other than see the caves and temples. After returning from being out all day we went to have dinner in the hotel. The dinner menu is a must see. Hilarious!!! We couldnt figure out what to order as the english translation was out of this world. Only regret was that we didnt have our cameras to take photos of it. The next morning we went to look for the menus to take pictures but they were put away. Check out took a very long time. They make sure you didnt take anything from the room and that you pay for any stuff they are selling that is set in the bathroom. The taxi ride to the airport was about $30RMB. No one at the airport spoke english.