Preview of Angsana Zhuhai Phoenix Bay

Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts has announced the opening of Angsana Zhuhai Phoenix Bay. It is located about 10-minutes journey by taxi from Zhuhai city center and would be a perfect retreat for those visiting Zhuhai and the vicinity of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Macau or even Hong Kong.

My wife and I were privileged to be among the exclusive first few invited by Banyan Tree to enjoy complimentary 3 nights stay before the hotel’s grand opening later in 2018. We were to feedback our experiences and observations to the hotel so that they could assess the quality of their hotel’s operations and make further improvements if needed.

Unfortunately, the spa, outdoor heated canal swimming pool, and fitness centre were still not ready during our stay. So this is a sneak preview, not a review, of this new hotel.

Getting to the Angsana Zhuhai Phoenix Bay from Hong Kong International Airport

The hotel is located 50 km (one hour by taxi) from the Zhuhai Jinwan International Airport. We found that it is more convenient and probably faster for us to take a direct flight to Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and take the CKS ferry directly from HKIA to Zhuhai's Jiuzhou Port.  From there, the hotel is a short taxi ride away.

We flew into Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) arriving late morning and did a brisk walk to the ferry ticketing counter at Transfer Area E2. There is NO NEED to go through Hong Kong’s immigration or reclaim our check-in baggage. They would be transferred to the ferry directly.

No queue at the CKS ferry ticketing counter at Transfer Area E2 in HKIA.

We need to buy the ferry tickets at least 60 minutes before the scheduled ferry departure time for ticketing and transfer procedures. For passengers without checked baggage, 30 minutes would be sufficient.

The ferry service is not very frequent (about 4 to 5 trips per day), so it is important to check the latest updated ferry schedule and plan accordingly. We managed to buy the tickets for the first departure at 12.15 PM, despite a slight delay in our flight’s arrival time. The fare from HKIA to Zhuhai's Jiuzhou Port is HKD260/pax for the standard ticket.

We handed over the airline’s checked luggage claim tags to CKS staff at the ticket counter and in turn collected the ferry’s checked luggage tags.

We had time to grab a quick lunch (takeaway croissants and coffee) while waiting for our luggage to be transferred. Once the attendant at the transfer gates confirmed the success of our checked luggage transfer using her hand-held device, we were allowed to enter and board the shuttle train bound for the SkyPier.  Ferries to the nine ports in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Macao depart from the SkyPier.

The journey by ferry to Zhuhai took 70 minutes and was comfortable on the large and stable catamaran. We cleared immigration at Zhuhai and once done, we were in China.

Suddenly, we were isolated from the outside world. No Facebook, no WhatsApp, no Instagram, and the worst of all, no Google!

Tip: Use the free Wi-Fi at HKIA to download a cached copy of the map of Zhuhai in Google Map. That way, you can still use the GPS function on the cached copy of Google Map in your smartphone even though you are unable to get fresh online content in Google Map. There is no Wi-Fi on the ferry unless you buy the VIP class tickets.

Green coloured Zhuhai taxi picking up passengers at the taxi rank just outside the Jiuzhou Port terminal.

There is a taxi rank just outside the ferry terminal. Taxi fare is regulated and based on meter, so there is no fear of fare scams.  Being a very, very new hotel in Zhuhai, our taxi driver had not heard of the Angsana Zhuhai Phoenix Bay, even when we showed him the name and address, printed in Chinese. He took less than a minute to locate the hotel’s name and address on his smartphone, using the Chinese’s equivalent of Google Map. Once done, he used the GPS to bring us to the Angsana Resort without any further delays. The hotel is 11 kilometres from Jiuzhou Port (20 minutes by taxi) and the fare was about 40 RMB.

Overview of the Resort

The hotel is set along the coast by the foot of the Phoenix Mountain. It is designed with local Lingnan or Cantonese architecture and the 202 luxurious and spacious rooms and suites are spread over 5 storeys. All rooms are fitted with a private balcony or garden with great sea views.

Located on the side of the hill facing the sea, the main entrance and lobby is located on the topmost floor. The lobby floor is decked in polished marble floorings in warm colours. I was immediately awed by the spaciousness of the open lobby and the views of the bay on the three sides of the Lobby Lounge that is located further inside.

Check-in counters at the lobby, looking back towards the entrance.

 

Lobby Lounge with views of the bay on the three sides

Four standalone check-in counters are available to handle the check-in formalities. The process requires a photo of all guests to be taken using a camera that looked similar to the ones used at passport control and immigration in the airport.

We were also served a cup of welcome tea, towels and snack during check-in. Once check-in processing was completed, a young man who spoke excellent English led us to our room, located on the second floor.

It was interesting to examine the many ancient Chinese porcelain pillows that decorated the wall next to the lifts. My grandma used to have one like this long time ago that was made from wood.

These colourful rectangular porcelain items on the wall of the lift lobby are ancient Chinese pillows. Ancient Chinese pillows are often hard pillows, made from stone, wood, bamboo, bronze, or porcelain instead of stuffed fabric.

Our Room

We were booked into the standard Panoramic Sea View Room. Larger and more luxurious room options include the Coastline Jetpool Room with 3.2 square metre private jet pool, Coastline Canal Pool Room with direct access to outdoor canal swimming pool mimicking a stream in front of the room and various types of Suites, including Duplex Suites with private infinity swimming pools and space for the whole family.

At 63 square meter, the standard Seaview Room is right sized for us.

Upon entry to our brand new room, the bath area is on our right and the wardrobe area is to our left.

Wooden doors slide open to reveal the bedroom with a King-size bed. We could select a pillow of our choice by ticking a pillow menu card left on the bedside table and it will be provided during the turn-down service.

One of the first things I did was to turn on the large flat screen TV to check out the cable channels available, especially the live Sports channels.  There is free in-house English movies-on-demand channel as well.

 

Spacious bedroom with King-sized bed with a sliding wooden partition to the bath and changing area.

The mini-bar area with more than enough items to make our stay comfortable.

The room is brightly lit by natural light from the large glass doors that opens out to the sea-facing balcony.

11 square meter sea facing balcony.

I like the exquisite white marble floor and wall tiles and marble countertop that gave the bathroom a chic and luxurious look. The countertop comes with two washbasins and orange pouches filled with toiletries for the gent and lady.

The bath area feature separate toilet and shower cubicles and a circular bathtub set against a rustic stone tiled wall.

What we see when we returned to our room after dinner.

The evening turn-down service had laid out the pyjamas, dimmed the lightings in the room and lit the essential oil in the burner to create a nice soothing feel to the bedroom.

Exploring the grounds of the resort.

In terms of weather, April is probably one of the best times to visit Zhuhai. We took a walk around the grounds of the resort in the nice cool weather. The sky was overcast and hazy but generally cool and pleasant to be outdoors.

A nice sitting area on the lowest level, surrounded by water with views of Zhuhai city in the distance.

We could see workers still are working on the 1728 square metre outdoor heated pool that winds through the resort like a canal.

Workers still are working on the swimming pool.

Large bug that reminded me of scenes from the movie “Starship Troopers”.

Palms trees, tropical shrubs and some giant ants and beetles are part of the landscaping around the pool. Personally, I find the giant bugs and ants a bit out of place.

I think the pool would be awesome when it is finally open. I understand that the free-form swimming canal would also feature a glass aquarium with vibrantly coloured fish, the first of its kind in Guangdong Province.

Main beach next to the swimming pool.

There are beaches next to the pool and also on the left side of the resort. I think it would be better to just use the beach for sunbathing and only swim in the hotel’s heated pool when it is operational.

Families with young kids enjoying the beach.

Beach on the left side of the resort.

Dining at the Angsana

There are three main restaurants at the resort. 

Lobby Lounge - Shadow Bar

The Lobby Lounge is an all-day café that serves beverages and snacks.  

It is multi-level. A flight of steps leads down to the outdoor terrace located on the 4th floor, with more tables and seats offering relaxing views of the bay and the resort.

Lower level of the Lobby Lounge.

 

Views of the bay and resort from the terrace of the Lobby Lounge.

We had afternoon tea at the Lobby Lounge shortly after check-in. We sat outdoor at the terrace enjoying our tea and snacks while testing out the WeChat messaging app that a Angsana staff had helped us to download and install on our smartphones using Baidu (the Chinese equivalent of Google). 

Our afternoon tea set for 98 RMB.

I understand that the Lobby Lounge - Shadow Bar may feature a live band in the future when the hotel is fully operational.

 

International Buffet Breakfast at the Market Place

Our stay included complimentary daily breakfast as well. We had a sample of the international breakfast buffet at the all-day Market Place restaurant by the seashore. It was very lavish with lots of food choices.

 

Large selection of bread, pastries and croissants.

 

Selection of noodles, stewed pork ribs, stirred fried vegetables and Hakka tea soaked egg.

Truffles quiche, Mexican quesadilla, smoked salmon, bacon and pineapple bread that is sweet and fluffy.

We ate seven of these small mangoes with sweet and firm flesh. There were also local fruits like peaches and Chinese pears.

Dinner at the Rice Bowl

The Rice Bowl Restaurant, located behind the lobby on the top floor, serves authentic Thai dishes and East Asian favourites. 

We love Thai cuisine and chose to have dinner at this Restaurant on the first and last day of our stay so as to enjoy the best of Thai cuisine in a modern ambiance. There are also some outdoor tables for those who want to enjoy views of the resort, and feel the gentle ocean breeze.

We could actually see the chefs preparing our meals through the see-through, open kitchen design.  We tried dishes like Tom Yum Seafood Soup, Prawn in Curry Sauce, Stir fried Beef in basil, Green Curry Chicken and Crab in Curry Sauce.

Summary

Our experience at the Angsana Zhuhai Phoenix Bay Resort was limited because some key facilities like the swimming pool and spa were still non-operational and we spent a fair bit of time outside the resort, exploring the attractions in the city.

Nevertheless we had a nice stay in the brand new hotel and had ample opportunities to interact with the staff, try out the hotel facilities that are operational as well as the food and beverage services.

We really enjoy the rooms. They are luxuriously fitted with comfortable beds and pillows that ensured a good night’s sleep after a day out exploring the city or a day chilling out in the resort. 

We had very good interactions with all of the staff during our stay. The English speaking staff speaks good English and are extremely customer focused and helpful.

The service and operations was generally good but there were still teething problems and areas for improvements for a luxury hotel known for its service excellence. My wife and I fed that back to the hotel via email when we returned home.

I was happy to receive a reply a few days later from their Front Office Manager that they took our feedback and suggestions very seriously and are very committed to service excellence. She told us that our feedback was shared during their briefing with their management team and some real-life examples of procedural shortcomings and areas for improvement that we highlighted was shared during staff trainings as well. 

I believe the Angsana Zhuhai Phoenix Bay would be an excellent resort for a relaxing getaway when the spa and pool are ready for use. I look forward to staying at this resort again when it is fully operational.

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Exploring Zhuhai in a day - On Lover’s Road from the Seashells to the Fisher Girl and from Underground Mall to God of Food

22 April 2018

Zhuhai is a modern city in China’s southern Guangdong province, on the border with Macau. It started out as a small fishing village and was transformed into one of China’s first Special Economic Zones in 1980. Now, there are towering hotels, modern apartments, shopping malls, resorts and theme parks. Zhuhai is also blessed with historical sites and enchanting natural scenery in the surrounding areas.

As first time visitors to Zhuhai, we planned to spend a leisurely day seeing a few prominent sights within the city, plus checking out the popular Gongbei Port Plaza underground shopping mall and trying the local seafood.

We started the morning enjoying a lavish International Buffet breakfast provided by our hotel, the Angsana Zhuhai Phoenix Bay.

After consulting the friendly hotel concierge, we decided that we would begin our sightseeing at the Zhuhai Opera House, followed by a walk along the famous Lover’s Road to the Fisher Girl Statue which is the landmark of the city. From there, we will decide on our next destination, probably have lunch and go to Gongbei Port Plaza which is a popular underground shopping mall. We will end the day with seafood dinner at the Wan Chai Seafood Street in the evening.

The Zhuhai Opera House is located on Yeli Island, linked by a causeway bridge and easily accessible by taxi.

It was easy to understand why the locals called it by its nickname “Sun Moon Shell” in Chinese. Shaped like scallops, it was also to represent the brilliant sun and moon. The tall but round structures looked awesome and out of this world. It actually reminded me of some buildings I saw in a Stars Wars movie.

Does this look like the Republic's shield generator on the ice planet Hoth from the Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back movie?

Side view – this really looks like a scallop shell! At night, the shells are artistically lit.

The two “shells” are of different sizes. The larger “Sun” shell is at 90 metres tall and the smaller “Moon” shell is at 60 metres tall.

We went inside to take a quick look. The Zhuhai Opera House has a 1,550-seat concert hall and a 500-seat theatre. It held its first performances in December 2016 and is now the venue for all sorts of stage performances and shows.

We could only access the lobby. A mini-exhibition at the far end of the lobby showcased other impressive Opera Houses and Grand Theatres in other cities of China. 

A few samples of the impressive Opera Houses and Grand Theatres in other cities within China.

Yeli Island is a good place to relax outdoors, fly a kite, enjoy a family outing with views of the bay, Zhuhai city skyline and of course, the impressive Zhuhai Opera House.

 

Couple enjoying ice-creams on a 4 wheeler bike.

How I wish I could rent one of these shared bikes in Zhuhai.

Many people rented the shared bikes or even the three/four seats bike there and go cycling with family. The locals could just chose a bike they fancy, scan the QR code on the bike with an app on their smartphones to make online payment and unlock it, and then ride away within minutes. We were unable to rent these shared bikes since, as visitors, we were not plugged into the cashless payment infrastructure.

From Yeli Island, we walked back to the mainland via the newly constructed bridge. The bridge has three vehicle lanes with sidewalks on both sides. We saw marvellous views of the modern city skyline of Zhuhai and interesting old fishing boats.

A walk along the bridge linking Yeli Island to the mainland.

It was interesting to see people living on these “houseboats”. A reminder that Zhuhai used to be a fishing village.

Note the solar panels mounted on some of these boats!

Drying laundry on the boats!

Preparing meals and washing up at the stern of the boat.

A “floating” restaurant in the shape of a boat. This is the famous concrete pagoda ship-shaped Deyuefang Seafood Restaurant.

It was slightly past noon when we arrived back at the mainland and started our stroll along a section of the Lover’s Road southwards towards the Fisher Girl Statue. The statue is about 2.4 km away.

Although it was mid-day, the spring weather, hazy sky and sea breeze made the walk quite pleasant. I think a walk on this road in the evening or night would be better and definitely more romantic.

View of the Zhuhai Opera House and the pagoda ship-shaped Deyuefang restaurant from the Lover’s Road. A big contrast in architectural styles.

Artificial beach on our left and Zhuhai city on our right. It was a nice walk but not much shade.

The long stretch of artificial beach is clean and not crowded. There were signs warning against swimming in the sea. With the many factories discharging stuff into rivers, I guess the water in the bay could be hazardous to health.

The beach became more and more crowded as we approached the Fisher Girl Statue. It was interesting to see how the local Zhuhai citizens enjoy their time on the beach on a typical Sunday.

The beach nearest to the Fisher Girl Statue (background) is packed on this Sunday.

Folks having fun on the beach. Yeli Island, where we started our walk, is in the distant background.

Copenhagen has its Little Mermaid. Singapore has its Merlion. Zhuhai has this iconic Fisher Girl Statue. It shows a fisher girl holding a bright pearl up into the air with both hands.

This landmark of Zhuhai City is about 8.7 meters high and is made with about 70 pieces of granite. Like the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen that is based on a fairy tale, the Fisher Girl statue is based on a local legend.

“The Fisher Girl was the daughter of the Sea Dragon King and was so fascinated by Zhuhai's scenery that she secretly descended upon the mortal world and disguised as a fisher girl, weaving nets and searching for pearls to support herself. She fell in love with a young local fisherman named Haipeng and lived happily.

Unfortunately, Haipeng listened to an evil man’s calumny and demanded the fisher girl to give him her bracelet as token of attachment. Unknown to Haipeng, the fisher girl’s bracelet, if removed, will cause her to die. The fisher girl removed her bracelet to prove her love for Haipeng, and died in his arms immediately.

An Immortal named Jiuzhou Elder was moved by their love and helped Haipeng to resuscitate the girl using a magical resurrection grass that must be fed by man’s blood (Haifeng’s blood) every day. Henceforth, the fisher girl became a true mortal.

On their wedding day, the fisher girl presents a precious pearl to the Jiuzhou Elder with both hands as a token of their appreciation for his kindness.”

There is a statue of Haipeng somewhere within Zhuhai city but it is not as popular. Since we did not have plenty of time in Zhuhai, it was not worth the effort to go seek it out.

The Fisher Girl Statue of Zhuhai - Popular with visitors to Zhuhai.

We did not spend too much time admiring the statue although it is quite photogenic standing on its own rock in Xianglu Bay with the Zhuhai skyline in the background.

From there, we decided to head to the Gongbei Port Plaza and have lunch over there.

We managed to hail a passing taxi to take us to Gongbei Port Plaza. That was after 15 to 20 minutes of anxiety on the side of the road watching occupied taxis zipping by and wondering if trying to flag down an empty taxi is a fruitless thing to do in a modern city like Zhuhai where almost everything is based on information technology and QR codes. 

Feeling relieved that we could still flag down a vacant taxi on the streets of Zhuhai, we made use of the short ride to Gongbei Port to see more of Zhuhai city. Along the way, we spotted the Gongbei branch of the Shi Shen Seafood City Restaurant that was known for its pricy but good seafood. I made a mental note of its location in case we wanted to come back for seafood dinner.

One of the entrances to the Port Plaza, underground shopping mall at GongBei. It is also known as the GongBei Underground Market.

Gongbei Port is an immigration and customs checkpoint located on Zhuhai’s side of the border with Macau. The large underground shopping mall called Port Plaza is just next to it. It is popular with day trippers who come over from Macau for a shopping spree in the ‘fake goods markets’ where one can buy almost anything, either bulk or retail.

The underground mall is huge, very crowded and busy. Probably busier than normal since it was a Sunday.

There are lots of stores engaged in clothes, cosmetics, services, electronics and phone accessories and local snacks. Most importantly for us, it has restaurants where we could grab some lunch before exploring the place!

Cheap and good noodles soup for lunch at Gongbei underground mall. Hopefully these are real noodles, not fake.

We did not plan to buy anything. It was interesting to just browse the goods on offer. Although it is said that one should bargain hard (at least 50% off) at these shops, the few shops that we checked out claimed that their prices are fixed and already discounted. 

We found that it more interesting to explore the shops on the streets than in the underground mall. 

As we were quite tired, we decided to forgo a trip to Wan Chai Seafood Street and go find the Shi Shen Seafood City Restaurant that we saw earlier to have an early dinner instead.

Shi Shen actually means “God of Food” in Chinese and this restaurant is quite popular with the locals. It is located next to the Nanyang Seascape Hotel and within walking distance from Gongbei Port.

We were its first customer for the evening and we have plenty of time to browse through the menu while sipping Chinese tea and munching on melon seeds.

Shi Shen Seafood City Restaurant is famous for their award winning baked oysters with cheese for 12 RMB each.

They have a variety of live crabs, fish and shrimps displayed in tanks and baskets that we could choose and buy based on weight.

Our dinner of 2 baked oysters, a 1 kg mud-crab, 800 g of mantis shrimps and a double boiled herbal quail soup costs 380 RMB (about USD 60). This may be pricy by Zhuhai’s standard but pretty good value for seafood served in a restaurant with good service and ambience.

The oysters were served first. The oysters are quite large and actually baked in re-used oyster shells. Although delicious, it was quite normal tasting to us, with little wow factor.

We chose to try the mantis shrimps since they are not commonly available back home but quite commonly served in Hong Kong and Zhuhai restaurants. Mantis shrimps are not the typical shrimps or prawns, although they appear similar. Mantis shrimps have the front limbs modified into a scissor-like device, the inner margins of which are lined with long spines. More importantly, as seafood, they are supposed to be sweeter in taste than the normal shrimps although their shells are quite hard and sharp. So we had to be careful when peeling them.

The mantis shrimps were relatively small in size, about 10 cm in length each, and were quite disappointing compared to what I had tasted years ago. Although tasty, I think the fried shrimps were overcooked and the fresh a little too dry.

The herbal quail soup and spicy crab were marvellous.

Overall, it was a nice dinner to end a day of exploring Zhuhai. 

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