Ji Hotel Yinggang Lake Hotel, Jiuquan, China, 22 October 2026

This is the ninth hotel from the H/Orange/Huazhu Group that we’re staying in on this trip. So I am by now fairly used to the the breakfasts, which (like much else) is standardised throughout the various hotels, whether called Orange, HanTing or Ji. It is therefore a bit of a surprise to come to one that deviates from the pattern. Unfortunately, not in a positive way. That is to say, the buffet offering is very much the same – but there are fewer choices of most things than in the other group hotels. In particular, fewer choices on the hot dishes and nothing breadlike at all (except fried dough sticks). And no signs in English at all (except on the milk and soy milk dispensers). I am therefore rating this one 5.5/10. Still perfectly fine – but less so than its ‘siblings’ in the group.