Zen Garden Hotel is aptly named, a tranquil haven in the lofty position of Lion Hill overlooking the rooftops of Lijiang and the mountains in the distance. There are gardens and water features meandering through small courtyards and the public spaces are crammed with antiques, chinese porcelain and furnishings. Our room was decorated with authentic Chinese pieces and furniture with a beautiful views. The large bed, like most in China, was rock hard. The bathroom was modern but lacked character and appeared to be an added modular unit. However, we appreciated the deep bath tub on our last night in Lijiang. Like many hotels in the Old City you have to earn the right to stay here as it is quite a trek with luggage to the top of the hill. The hotel provides willing (and sometime stubborn) porters who will go beyond the call of duty to carry bags. From 4.00 pm guests are invited to enjoy local special tea (not local specialties as we understood) in the gorgeous reception area. It is a photographer's delight! Breakfast was adequate with little choice. During our comings and goings from Lijiang to Dali and Shangri-la we stayed in three different small hotels. Zen Garden, although beautiful was our second favourite of the three and the most expensive, possibly because of the Lion Hill location. Although a lovely spot be prepared to climb lots of stairs to shops and restaurants as "when you go down you must come up again".

We spent 4 nights at the Zen Hotel (Lyon Hill) It was absolutely gorgeous, the rooms were very confortable and modern, the staff very friendly. We enjoyed having breakfast while listening to some very relaxing and traditional music.
We definitely recommend this place.

Had been stayed in Zen garden for our first ,its decoration and ambient are perfect.
The hotel upgrade us the room to a suite with its own balcony, everything inside in the room seems like a nice antique, like our bed is sth like Qing dynasty thing , but theres little thing they can improve is the bed is like a matchbox with some windows and it blocked the sight of TV !!! I found it hard to watch the TV when I m on the bed and I can see nothing when I lay down ....-_-”

Actually I quite like this hotel and its bit waste for me as I was feeling sick on the first day due to the altitude so I couldn’t totally appreciate every little details inside the room .
So definitely I will choose this hotel next time when I visit lijiang again :)

Zen Garden Hotel Lion Hill is one of the nicest places we have been on our tour in China. We loved that beautiful decorated Chinese Boutique Hotel on the top of the Old Town of Lijiang. From here we have had beautiful views over the roofs of the Old Town with its black tiles illuminated by the sunshine and clouds. We enjoyed sitting on the balcony floor, having tea, reading books and listening to the music. What do you need more for holidays! We love to recommend Zen Garden Hotel to all our friends.