Here is one of the official announcements which links to the website.
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Excellent, thanks!!!
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Some notes on the hotel.
The elevators to the lobby on the 23rd floor are directly to the left of Starbucks (when facing the counter). The lobby has additional elevators on the other side of the building going to the rooms.
The leftmost elevator goes directly from the ground floor to the rooms during the day without having to go trough the lobby. Some red text indicates when it is closed.
Iâm on the 32nd floor if you want to try and get the same one (but it wonât matter too much).
The minibar with 4 items in the room is free (according to the night staff using a translation app).
There is a laundromat to do your own laundry. Havenât tried it yet.
Delivery robots roam the halls delivering from a vending machine. I also saw the front desk staff trying to figure out what room to send some takeout to so it is probably possible to have them deliver other orders as well.
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A friend stayed there a few weeks back. I asked him about the laundry âThe dryer is the let down, use the drier on the left side I think, the combo drier on the right did squat"
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Filled in my arrival card for tomorrow, it even handles walking across the border at Lohu as an option
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Some more notes.
When I used the online arrival card I didnât have to show the QR code but was pointed directly to immigration which seemed to have access to the information. This could be different at another location. In one video there was a machine printing the card from the QR code.
The hotel is at exit A of Huaqiang North station. It is also possible to reach the hotel elevators directly from the metro and vice versa by instead of turning to take the escalators at exit A go straight in to Loto Underground Shopping Street and turn right a few times following the signs to the toilets. This may be more confusing than useful.
There is a parcel area in the lobby of the hotel. I asked for the address and was given the one below with 1234 being your room number. Just tried ordering a few items from Taobao.
æ·±ćłćžçŠç°ćșććŒșćè·Ż1019ć·ććŒșćčżćșé ćș23æ„Œćć°1234æż
Luckin Coffee is everywhere and some around the hotel. With the coupons itâs 8 - 12 RMB for a drink that has to be ordered in the WeChat or AliPay miniprogram (or the app). It will show the locations correctly but then complain about not being near them (presumably because of the gps offset). Each store also has a number (No. 24571 is in the metro station for example) and once you have ordered from one it will be saved.
Amap Global is a map app in English from Alibaba which works okay for finding stores and such.
Ping me on WeChat when you get in.
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The first Taobao package arrived. They sort them slightly by the last digit of the tracking number, so note that before collecting.
Another package arrived with Shentong Express but two packages using ZTO Express are probably stuck because of not having a local phone number. The packages arenât worth much but Iâll see if I can talk to the seller. So far the answer to the question whether it is possible to order Taobao to the hotel is⊠sometimes. 
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Got some pictures of the old neighbourhood.
CityInn is now yet another hotel. The 7-Eleven connected to it is gone, as are many other 7-Eleven, but there is a Meiyijia on the corner.
There is a fire station built out of containers close to the intersection.
The Jie En building looked about the same.
Next to the metro station there is a tower (CITIC International Building) with a Walmart and McDonaldâs.
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Thanks for the photos! Is the last one on the empty lot next to Science Museum exit C? That was under construction the last time I was there, but the lot sat empty for ages it was weird.
Yes, itâs that same lot on the walk down from the station
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Just made it back. Thanks for the trip! I have a lot of thoughts in the markets and such but in terms of company and effort(?) it was very successful.
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Markets kind of fading away to beauty products or the latest trend?
It was pretty cool to see both Depu and Yihua are both still too big to really cover in one visit. The area around Depu has changed dramatically - itâs now a full-on residential area with restaurants and everything that you find in those sort of areas. It used to be hard to find food out there, but now thereâs tons of options including, unfortunately many McDonaldâs.
Wechat seems to have fixed up their Foreigner stuff. You donât really need tourcard anymore. When necessary they just add the 3% credit card to the amount youâre paying. this is much better than last year when I had a number of transactions that wouldnât go through because I was a foreigner. The mini apps for food ordering are absolutely fabulous - the ability to translate inside the mini app is a lifesaver.
I enjoyed the HQB markets but I did get the feeling theyâre a bit smaller. They are endless cell phone cover stores everywhere. The security markets and segcom are dominated by them. The cell phone markets all seemed alive and well.
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HQB has been on a steady decline for more than a decade, but itâs great to hear depu has been developed and has transit!
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Wow that is a total make over!
The first time Jin and I went to yihua we had a tuktuk uncle take us to depu and he went on high speed limited access roads (only option). We had a visitor who was tall and uncle said he hoped not to go to war with wherever he was from. It was so charming.
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I think the big change is that much of the market space across the street from Seg is now in these identical white, clean booths, across most of the buildings, mostly these are the people selling reels
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Thereâs also a new China NiHao app being pushed online this week, intended for visitors that you can attach your credit card to, I think itâs a Union pay thing. Supposedly works for restaurants, subways, etc etc
I tried to link my NZ credit card to WeChat, went down a rathole trying to get my identity, couldnât find my chin, foreign folks with beards are uncommon I guess, I did eventually make thru but my NZ bank wouldnât follow through
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