I really wanted to write a review about the wonderful customer service as other reviewers had noted. I really wanted to mention how I loved the large room. I wanted to reaffirm that this property deserved the number 2 rating in Nanchang. My perceptions, however, are clouded by the raging sinus infection I picked up at this hotel.

Here is a reality check review.

This property in Nanchang is about 30 to 45 minutes, traffic dependent, from the airport.

As a large government function was in play, I could not obtain my preferred rate, but another room was available when I made my reservation from Beijing by phone. I was struck by the poor English of the reservations agent. Based on my conversation with the lady, I had either reserved a room or a restaurant for 9 days.

I was impressed on arrival how nice the lobby of the Hotel was. "Grand" is a fitting word. Marble floors and staircases, towering ceilings, and an adequately large and staffed check-in desk. Again, I ran into English understanding difficulties at check-in. Due to help by my Chinese colleague, I gained my room keys. I had insisted the room be totally non-smoking due to sensitivity to smoke. I was assured the floor and room were non-smoking.

The room was large and grand. Space was not an issue. The marble inlaid bathroom was huge as well, and the shower was unique in a awesome way, having in-laid blue stones in the floor and wonderful water pressure. As always, I was careful not to drink the tap water in China, and the Hotel had supplied 2 bottles of water per day. The bed was firm, so firm in fact I called for a pad to cushion it a bit. English again was a challenge with the Housekeeping staff, and so was ingenuity. After asking the one English lady at the front desk for a mattress pad, who politely said "We don't have any. Maybe the bed will help your posture", I called Housekeeping about 5 times escalating until finally I was able to suggest an extra duvet to be placed under the fitted sheet, which did the trick for my back.

It was in the evening as the afternoon sun beat into the room's large windows that I noticed the Central Air Conditioning wasn't keeping up, being at 26C or near 80F. I had reduced the temperature to 23C upon entry earlier. That AC wouldn't budge below that 26 for the next week. I called the front desk and was told that the AC was turned off for the winter and sorry but there was nothing to be done. Indeed that was a brush off, as it was September and 80 degrees outside. They did offer to open the window, which had no screen. I declined. In my second week, the AC began to work intermittently, sometimes honoring my temperature and others refusing and sticking to 26C.

It was the first night on the firm bed when I awoke around 1am smelling cigarette smoke and feeling the warning itch in my sinuses. It was the neighbor, as it turned out. The big picture dawned on me then. I saw people smoking in the lobby, smoking in the elevators, leaving cigarette butts and ashes on the elevator floor, smoking in the carpeted hallways of the non-smoking floor I was on, and, in the rooms on my floor. My own room, I discovered, had both a non-smoking symbol on the door and in a leaflet by the bed, which contrasted to the ash-tray and matches I found in the drawer at my work table. My room smelled of smoke from that first day forward. As the work table in the room faced the AC duct, it blew smoky air at you.

I began to sneeze and my warning sinus itch turned into swelling and serious congestion. The outside air of Nanchang didn't help either, as the city has a serious pollution problem, but the outside was better than my room. The stench of cigarettes were everywhere in those days of my visit. You couldn't escape it. In the restaurant for breakfast and all other common areas, people just smoked, and the staff just didn't care. They watched and did nothing to enforce smoking in any non-smoking area such as the rooms or elevators.

Yuck.

Water stories: About 1 week into my trip, I showered early in the morning, and noticed the water was ice cold. No hot water. This persisted from 6am to about 9:30, when the hot water came back. In the last week I was there, the water in the shower smelled like old tires. It literally smelled. I was leaving the next day, and having fought my share of English comprehension battles with the Hotel, did not report it.

Another room oddity: The door lock was electronic, and if you held the latch down for more than 5 seconds, it squealed until you let go. Strange.

The hotel did provide fresh fruit every day for the room, at your selection of types.

A prime example of English comprehension goes like this. Call the front desk and ask what time the Buffet Breakfast ends. Be told it starts at 6:00. Ask again what time it ends. Be told it starts at 6:00. Change wording and ask what time it finishes. Be told it finishes at 11:00. Expect this is the wrong answer and show up the next day at 9. Promptly at 10:00, be told by the restaurant staff the Buffet closes at 10:00. Summary = Ask 3 or 4 times, get the wrong answer, and roll the dice on a correct one.

The breakfast buffet in the Western Restaurant was ok and had a nice choice of dishes. The Orange Juice was a drink, not real juice. The coffee was weak. Coffee overall in Nanchang was weak. As there were no chains such as Starbucks there, forgo coffee for your visit and stick with Hot Tea. Their tea is wonderful.

The Hotel had a gym which was free to guests. It was full of older equipment, which worked, but the buttons were worn through and the treadmill belts slipped. As there was no AC or any blowing air in the gym, it was a short, hot experience that the windows made too to endure much for long periods.

Every so often during the weekend and sometimes during the days, firework explosions would sound in front of the hotel as well as nearby. The Galactic Peace hosted many weddings, and it's tradition was to set off fireworks as the wedding party departed.

The area around the hotel is dirty. There are clean new renovated sections of Nanchang near the river and then there is the Galactic Peace area. I smelled raw sewage on my whole 10 minute walk one day to the nearby KFC. Ewww. On side note, the KFC is one of the only places in China that enforced a no smoking ban. It was truly clean, in contrast to the surrounding area, and a pleasure to dine in. I was told that KFC is considered a fine dining establishment in China. Visions of the movie "Demolition Man" and the notion of Taco Bell as fine dining sprang to mind. Also, ask for Kentucky Fried Chicken and you will receive a blank stare. It is known as KFC. The older name is lost in antiquity.

Check out was simple, and the drive to the Airport uneventful.

I left Nanchang with a raging sinus infection that came close to perforating my eardrums on the flight to Beijing. As such, I was not happy at all with my visit to the Galactic Peace for the rampant stench of smoking in all areas of the hotel, permitted and observed by the staff. It was an abhorent smell to me and affected my personal health. This property has a long way to go to move beyond it's 3 star rating in my eyes, due to lip service to Non-smoking and Serious English skill issues , Number 2 rating or not in Nanchang.