This hotel has the most impressive lobby! It also has a choice of restaurants for the traveller. The beds are hard in China, so be aware of that. Also, we stayed on the 19th floor, but we could clearly hear all the street noise below our window, so it's not well insulated. Our room had an odd smell that concerned me. I was afraid of mold. The worst part was all the smoking all over the hotel, even in the elevators.
It was close to many amenities, but the hotel itself wasn't the best.

My wife and I were at the Grand Sun City in Nov. 2003 when we were adopting our daughter.

Let me start with the good to great: the staff is fabulous. Not many could speak English passably (though the front desk had some who were quite good) but everyone was incredibly helpful. They really went the extra mile.

Also very good: the Chinese food restaurant. Seemed authentic, which meant pretty darned spicy. Very good quality. And fabulous breakfast buffet there that included Western and some Chinese foods.

The conference rooms were very nice, and again, the staff was warm and wonderful.

Also of note, the bathrooms we used throughout the facilities (including our room) were totally updated. Beautiful.

Two other things I want to mention: The hotel did a GREAT job decorating for Christmas! Some really outlandish decor in the lobby, including a big rocket, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower (which looked more like an oil derrick), many toy Santas, tinselly artificial Christmas trees and real poinsettias, and a small Santa house or workshop. Outside the main restaurant was an animatronic Santa that sang "Yellow Rose of Texas" when you got near enough to trigger some sort of sensor. Hilarious!!

I also want to HIGHLY recommend the Whacko Market just a few blocks down the street. Funny name, but very convenient and, most importantly, wonderful staff.

Now for the not-so-great: The hotel rooms in general are very tidy BUT the carpets were somewhat disgusting. They had a damp feel, and smelled musty. Bring slippers. Unless the carpets have been torn out and burned since we left.

For some reason, the room was always crazy warm. When we turned the thermostat down and left the room, we would return to find it had been turned up again! We began to wonder if it was to keep the carpets as dry as possible.

The beds were OK, but not what you would expect in a Western hotel. The sheets were pretty coarse. Do not expect luxury and you will be just fine.

OK, the coup de grace: While my wife and I were dining in the hotel's American-style tavern (food there BTW was passable but not very good. Frozen fries, bland burger) a VERY large rodent ran across the dining room. We looked at each other with jaws dropped ... but never told a soul in our adoption travel group. I guess we felt utterly embarrassed for the staff and our guides (who had raved about the hotel), and just did not want to cause problems when our adoption was not going to be finalized until we reached Guangzhou.

I want to mention that we were the only ones eating there at the time, while the Chinese-style restaurant was always fairly busy. But after more than a week in China, my wife just HAD to have a burger!!!

I stayed at this hotel for 6 days in April 2001 when I travelled to China to adopt my daughter. I thought the hotel was very nice. The entire staff was very attentive, even though they spoke very little English. The room was nice and the bed was very comfortable compared to some of the other hotels I stayed at while in China. The business center had up to date computers with easy access to the internet and reasonable rates. The food in the hotel restaurant was very good. The neighboring area had several shops, stores and restaurants within walking distance. If I ever have the opportunity to travel to Changsha again, I would definitely stay at this hotel.