One of the best highlight in North Xinjiang is Kanas Lake. We travelled for over 8 hours to reach our hotel for 2 nights Hongfu Lake Kanas Resort Aletai. We will be departing early next morning to go Kanas Lake so we have a whole day to spend in Kanas Lake. It is about 1 hour to reach the Kanas Lake from where we stayed tonight. When we arrived in the Hongfu Lake Resort, it was almost 7-8pm but the sky is still very bright due to summer.
Registration at the Police Station Before Check in
As usual before entering the resort area, we needed to register all our passport documents at the gate and there is a police stations at the entrance of the resort.
Halal Restaurant
We dine at the Chinese buffet dining restaurant which can sit up to 200 people. The food aren’t that great and mostly are Chinese food. The restaurant buffet looks like dormitory canteen food. This hotel resort usually cater for business conference meeting for either government official or company team building events. So the dining hall is very big, like a school canteen because the decoration is very simple and the food is very basic too. The restaurant is also serve no pork as you see the word “qingzhen / 清真 written at the signboard. If you want to eat your own cup noodles, eat it in your room and not inside the Halal restaurant here as Halal restaurant is strictly no outside food as your food / cup noodles may contain pork.
If you don’t prefer the food in the buffet restaurant, you can visit the groceries shop next to the restaurant and get some instant noodles. In Kanas Lake scenic area, you can’t be too choosy on the food as most places offer very basic food but the price are charged at very high. Another way is to bring your own instant noodles from Buerqin town before coming up to Jiadengyu or Kanas Lake, that way you can save money too.
European Style Villa
The hotel resort is very huge, in total there are 52 European style villas built along the mountains. All villas have 2 story. I am glad to stay at the first floor as my luggage are quite heavy. There are female helpers, ( most are Kazakhs minority ) who helped to carry our huge luggage to our room. We greeted them “As-salamu alaykum” and they were so happy thought we could speak their languages. We were just pretending but we did make them very happy and all giggles. These Kazakh women speak with very heavy Chinese accent but sounded super cute.
Hotel Room Review
Well, the room is very basic. There is no air-conditional in the room. Since the hotel resort is located in the middle of the mountain, it was very cold at night despite summer season. I slept with my big jackets and few of our tour members cough the following day. I think they catch a cold.
Water is not safe to drink even after boiling
There is no free mineral water but there is a kettle for you to boil the water before drinking. Do not drink from the tap as China tap water are not drinkable. We also have other tour members vomiting because of not use to the water here, even after boiling. To be safe, get your own mineral water and boil them. That would be very safer. The water in Altay mountain region has plenty of minerals and not suitable for city people. When the nomads who lives here feel like having detox, they would go to a special place in the mountain to get the spring water to drink. After drinking, they will experience diarrhoea for few days and this works as a detox to their body 🙂
The bathroom comes with toilet and shower room. The hot shower may not run so well. Please let it run for 1-2 mins before you shower yourself, to make sure the water is warm enough.
There is no dryer in the room, you need to go to housekeeper to ask for one. I heard the dryer are shared among first floor. There are about 5-6 rooms in first floor.
Take picture with the Chinese Military Jacket!
There are two thick military jackets in the closet. I think they provide thick military jackets instead of air-conditional. Cost saving and environmental friendly. Please use this military jacket and shoot few pictures as this military jacket is also an icon in China.
Separate Building for different Groups – Privacy
The best things about this hotel resort is there are separate buildings which cater for different groups, that way you have your own privacy among your own group of people. The view outside the window room are just spectacular. The vast land with greenery accompany with horses and cows.
The blue little flowers and white dandelion.
We stayed in Block 27.
Breakfast is pretty much the same as the dinner we had.
The hotel also provide horse riding.
Final thoughts :
Hongfu Lake Kanas Resort Aletai is a beautiful resort hotel situated at Jiadengyu, the tourist reception for Kanas Lake. Tourists usually stayover here before making up to Kanas Lake ( 1 hr ).
Most of the buildings here are resort which built in European style. This place attracted many mainland local Chinese tourists. You may have to compete with the mainland Chinese in the buffet restaurant for the food 🙂
You may like :
- Buerqin – Little Russian town, 3 hours from Kanas Lake
- Heavenly Lake of Tianshan
- Top 20 things to know in Kanas Lake – the Oriental Switzerland! 新疆喀纳斯
- Hemu Village 新疆禾木村
- Jiadengyu Glassland – Learn about the Kazakh minority 贾登峪 & 哈萨克毡房
28 comments
What a stunning little hotel! It looks so lovely and simple. How beautiful!
Dear Amanda,
The facilities in the hotel is basic but the view is just stunning when you walk outside, surrounded by nature.
Good to know about the water!! Thank you for your awesome review!! I really want to visit there now!
Dear Ashley,
Yes, we have tour members who fell sick due to the water, despite boiling them. It is best to purchased the bottle water and boil them, to be extra cautious and not falling sick.
It certainly looks like a beautiful resort. I would love to visit China one day.
The place seems great!the ambiance is relaxing. I’m thinking in travelling to china.
I liked how honest you were on your review – I had no idea you had to boil water before drinking it. The resort looks really pretty and peaceful. Thanks for sharing
The hotel looks really good and the place really have a very stunning view, it feel so relaxing and peaceful.
The views here are awesome and the food looks delicious! I don’t know if I could handle being that cold at night, but my husband would love it!
Dear Kristy,
In the summer is still ok but not sure if in the winter they will have the heater turn on. If not, I dont think I could survive that cold in winter without the heater.
I would never guess that this resort is located in China. It looks and sounds like a great resort to stay at. I thought all water was safe if you boiled it. I’m glad to find out it’s not, at least over there. But I don’t really see myself making that trip anytime soon. Thanks for the interesting blog post.
Dear Kristen,
Thanks for your comment. The hotel is for people who is going up to Kanas Lake. Kanas Lake is one of the tourist must see in Northern Xinjiang. Since there is no accomodation in Kanas Lake as it is a nature reserve, Jiadengyu works as a reception for tourist base to go up Kanas Lake.
I love the vibe of this place. It definitely looks like an ideal place to stay. The pictures you have taken are lovely!
This looks like such a beautiful resort. The food look delicious. Thanks for your amazing review..!!
Good to know about the water – getting sick from drinking water is the last thing you want when traveling!
Many tourists do not know about the special extra minerals in the water from this mountain area and boil the water from the tap and fall sick. This actually happen to a lot of our tour mates, they experienced diarrhea and vomitting.
This looks like such a beautiful place to go horseback riding! I love charming hotels.
Dear Christa,
Horse riding is perfect in this area as it is surrounded by mountains and grassland.
The scenery is so pretty! I love the military jacket in the closet for use by visitors! That’s genius in an area that may have changing weather and tourists not prepared.
Dear Noel,
I totally agree, that is also an icon communist winter fashion in China. Lol, take a picture and wear like people during Mao Cultural Revolution. 🙂
The villa is beautiful, and so is the scenery! I would like to try that jacket on, too. 🙂
It looks like such a quaint, idyllic setting for a hotel. The horses are beautiful, too! I didn’t know you couldn’t drink the water; that takes away from the charm of the place, if people get sick from drinking the water.
Dear Dr KL,
Well, people from the city aren’t used to the extra minerals found in the water here. One way to get around is to drink water from the bottles. 🙂
Wow, This place looks stunning although I don’t know how I would have managed at night. I like it to be super warm.
I visited China last summer and I liked it a lot. A very different civilisation – from the European one, I mean – though I couldn’t adapt myself to the Chinese food, full of carbs. Anyway, I have many memories from Beijing, Shanghai and XIan, where I saw the terracotta army.
Dear Johanna,
Great to learn that you enjoyed your trip to China and it is pretty amazing you have done the 100 years old (Shanghai), 1000 years old (Beijing) and 3000 years old (Xian) of China. I seen terracotta army few years back in Xian and that was pretty amazing site. However in Xinjiang, you have more of scenery and minority culture of the nomadic and Central Asia. I have to agree China include Asia include more carbs to their daily diet 🙂
This place is so beautiful! I have always wanted to go to China and this spot looks incredible!
I love your photos. These views are so beautiful. I would like to visit China.