First the good points: The hotel is located in a nature reserve in the mountains above Yalong Bay in Sanya. The hotel is in three separate locations; there is a vacation tent camp, the West area and the East area. The rooms are actually individual cabins nestled on the mountain side. The cabins are nice - well equiped, spacious and private with fantastic views of the reserve. If you pick a cabin in the East area you are close to the 2 main restaurants in the hotel (Thai and Western), if you pick a cabin in the West area you are near to the swimming pool. To get from one part of the hotel to the other you need to take a ride in one of the hotel's buggies (it's about a five minute ride from East to West). We picked a cabin in the West area.

Now for the bad points: The nature reserve is a major Chinese tourist attraction. From dawn to dusk each day thousands of tourists are carted around the reserve in open sided buses. They are dropped off at certain scenic spots where they take photos, walk a short distance and then get picked up by the bus and taken to the next scenic spot. The tourists are very noisy and wherever you are in the reserve you can hear them. One of the scenic spots where the tourists are dropped off is called "Thousand Li umbrella", it offers great views of the nature reserve and is directly above the hotel's (small)swimming pool. The tourists have a clear view of the swimming pool and if you decide to go swimming you do some within full view of bus loads of noisy camera carrying tourists - some of whom seem to think that people sunbathing / swimming are part of the local wildlife and take photos accordingly.

The buffet breakfast (served in the Western restaurant in the East area) is terrible (I've been in 2 star hotels that serve a better breakfast). We also ate lunch in the Western restaurant on our first day. The food options were very limited (sandwiches, pizza, burger, spaghetti bolognese), the taste / quality below average and the prices extortionate (85 rmb for a club sandwich plus 15% service charge). We ate dinner in the Thai restaurant and found a similiar story of below average quality food and high prices. The hotel gives each guest one 380 ml bottle of boiled water per day. Once you've consumed that you need to pay 15 rmb for a 350 ml bottle of water to drink.

None of the staff seemed to be able to speak English and the majority of the guests were Chinese. If you don't speak Chinese you will have real problems staying at this hotel.

Whichever part of the hotel you stay in you will need to make use of the buggies to travel in and out of the hotel as well as from the East side (where the restaurants are located) to the West side (where the swimming pool is located). Although the journey time is short there are usually long waits for a buggy to show up and take you where you want to go.

In addition to the above we had problems with our room card key which took a long time to resolve and with room service (the food delivered was not what was ordered - the food was ordered in Chinese by a native speaker so it wasn't down to a language problem).

In short, despite it's nice rooms and fantastic views this is a massively overpriced and overrated hotel. We couldn't wait for our stay to end.

Amazing hotel -
fantastic views of the island
total tranquility
gorgeous and unique layout - huge balcony and outside but sheltered bathroom
good food and can walk up the hill for other options

This is a very unique Sanya experience! I stayed with a friend in one of the west section's Eagle Rooms, which looks like the treehouse every adult wishes they had. Our room consisted of two full-size beds, a lounging nook, an office nook (computer with Chinese/Great Firewalled Internet access, "high-quality" speakers, minibar), toilet, shower, bathtub/jacuzzi on the balcony, and a few geckos (!). Our room had partial view of Yalong Bay and partial view of tourists walking around the national park. (Not good if you plan to soak in the outdoor bathtub during the day.) To get around the park, you can call for the resort's Landrovers to pick you up. Watch out for long waits during rainy weather (which should not happen often in Sanya). Restaurants are located in the East Section. The Thai restaurant has the best papaya salad I've ever had. The breakfast in the Western restaurant has your typical buffet spread of Chinese and Western food. Go for the fresh fruit! Service is very friendly and eager, though not all staff speak fluent English. The resort's East Section has a lot more rooms, of varying sizes, than the West Section, but they look less like treehouses. There's also a "campground" area, which I didn't venture to check out.

Spend some time checking out the park. There's a cool suspension bridge and some great vantage points for taking pictures of the bay and beach.

One thing to remember: the resort is INSIDE the national park. If you want to go to the beach, you need to call the hotel to drive you to the entrance of the park and then hail a cab to get to the beach.

Earthly Paradise Bird Nest Resort at the Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Reserve is a great concept well-executed in terms of hardware but the software needs serious tweaking.

The stunning views and mountainous micro-climate are made accessible to visitors (to the Reserve) and guests (of Earthly Paradise Bird Nest Resort). Where the latter may be seeking the solitude of nature, the former are there to make the most of a short, noisy daytrip. The Earthly Paradise Bird Nest Resort has inexperieced albeit hardworking staff who seem to have been abandoned by an anonymous middle and senior management.

We occupied three Eagles Nest near-luxury wooden chalets rising on stilts perched high on the mountainside; the internal layout is very similar to Amanjiwo or Amanusa, but with many more flights of wooden stairs to negotiate. Guests enjoy stunning views of the sea, valleys, mountains and Sanya town in the distance while taking in the fresh air, sunrise, sunset and surrounding forest. Uncontrolled screaming by visitors to the Reserve whilst wallking across the Dragon Chain Bridge, or when trying to elicit a non-existent echo from the Thousand-Li Umbrella peak are daily nuisances, lasting from 0800-1930hrs.

Even-larger crowds will visit Earthly Paradise Bird Nest Resort because it was used as a film location for the recently released "If You Are The One II". One who hankers after solitude, nature and fresh air may do better elsewhere.