While I understand how difficult it is to build and maintain a hotel at the top of the mountain, this hotel is barely acceptable. It is very overpriced for what it offers and the maintenance is abysmal. Some of the rooms have a wonderful view of the mountain, some of the rooms have a view of a rotting and mildewed wall. When you book, you have no idea which one you'll get. The rooms all smell of smoke and mold and the bathroom fixtures are dirty and, in our case, falling apart.

We originally booked a 4 bed dorm through elong for the Xihai Hotel, but were told by an agent in Tunxi that only a 6 bed room was available and we would need to pay for all beds. So we cancelled and went up the mountain without a booking and ended up staying at the Xihai Villa (opposite the Xihai hotel but same group). We got a triple (a twin with extra bed) for 1090 Rmb. To their credit, elong later contacted me and said we could stay in the Xihai hotel for the original price, but by then we had already checked into the Xihai Villas.

Good points- location - fairly close to the Taiping cable car. Fairly clean and comfortable. Lots of hot water.Room heater. Internet connection.

Bad points. Room we had was noisy. Lost of tour groups stay there, and they head up to see the sunrise at 4 am. Expect to be woken when they leave, when they come back , and when they go for breakfast. However, this might be the same with all hotels! Expense for what you get - ditto the same for all hotels. Food - ok but expensive for what you get. Smoking - most of the mountain is a non smoking zone. This means the lobby is a smoking zone!

If you are going at a weekend / holiday - book in advance. If you can get a cheap room by booking do so. If the price is 800 Rmb for a simple double (no view) and you are going on a week day, then wait till you get there.Maybe you can get a better price /room.

Huangshan is one of the few famous mountains in China to have actual hotels at its peak. One must keep that in mind when booking. The 4 stars really only reflect the overpriced restaurant and private event facilities. The rooms are very simple, but are okay for a night. If you want luxury, I wouldn't stay overnight on the peak and go straight to the nice resort hotels at the base near the hotsprings.
We were able to get a very good discount by booking this hotel and the Best Western Hotspring Hotel at the base together through CITS ([-])

I have to say, overall this place is pretty ordinary. We state at the hotel on 31 Dec 2008, new years eve for us, but just another night in China. we checked into the hotel about 3pm & what become immediatelty obvious was the paper thin walls & the noise that bellowd through these walls. Rooms are very basic, heater barely worked but took chill out of air - we slept in our themal underware!
We went for dinner at 7pm for $110 rmb per person & the buffet was very ordinary. staff began changing tables for breakfast at 7.30 which made us feel pretty uncomfortable & basically switched off the buffet hotpots at same time!!

we went back to room & couldnt beleive the noise. We had a twin room with a great view of the mountain however we were on the ground floor. the noise from the opposite & above rooms was unbeleivable. there was no need to have our tv on, we could clearly hear next doors!!

however place did quieten down just after 10pm which was ok, however it started up again at 4.30am as everyone gets up to see the sunrise.

overall, room was relatively clean but very, very basic. it is worth staying on ther summitt, however i would check out the Belhai & Shilin hotels first, as i couldnt believe they would be worse then the Xihai.

The yellow mountain are mind-blowing so overall the hotel was a small blimp on our overall radar.