There was no heating in the whole hostel, and in the dorms not even electronic blankets.

However, there was not a a/c in our room, meaning it was cold at night.

but with no air conditioning this meant we baked alive!

it was cold and there was no hot shower in our room, only in other building,

When we were there it got really cold and the only heating option was a fire  they lit up in the lounge that we sat around it.

The room I stayed in had tiled floors and felt quite cold and bare.

Only downside is that in winter it's very cold, the room had an electric blanket

It's cold the few nights in Dali, and with a erratic shower is kinda frustrating,

During that time it was very cold in Dali and raining so we appreciated a hot shower.

This problem with no cold water continued for the whole five days we were there.

Pros: great location, helpful and friendly staff, clean room, near restaurants, walking distance to 3 pagodas (bout 20 to 25mins).

Really friendly staff that spoke great English.

Upon arrival the staff was super friendly and welcoming.

The staff in the inn are also friendly and friendly, and the English language is great, and two dogs and lovely dogs are also willing to be close to guests.

The staff is very friendly and helpful - and they are speaking English, what's quite an advantage :) You can have different drinks and some snacks at the bar - to
a fair price.

Big breakfast selection, bikes available for renting, staff is very friendly and helpful

Clean place all around, staff is very helpful and friendly, inexpensive mountain bike rental, pretty good map, awesome WiFi, nice food including western breakfast, and just a 5 minute walk to the old town.

Conveniently located 5 minutes walk from the old city, five elements is a clean, friendly, and comfortable hostel.

had a lovely time here in Dali with this hostel, right around the corner from the over trendy Jade Emu that gets overcrowded due to it's Lonely Planet review
But the guests here actually all talk to each other- I noticed immediately at the Jade Emu every backpacker had their face in their smartphone
the staff speak excellent English, and are very friendly and attentive to all of your traveller needs.

The staff were very friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming.

Most credit goes to the staffs doing great work in taking care of the guests; and the friendly dogs too, for the warm welcome.

It’s a very good hostel in Dali.it’s very near to the old town，just cross the high way.I like enjoy the sunshine in the backyard，very comfortable.They crop kinds of vegetables.There are lettuces,broccoli and so on.The room is clean and quiet ，the paintings on the wall are very beautiful and literary.The staffs are very friendly and useful in English，especially Floral .By the way the two dogs are very lovely,we love them.Certainly 5elements is the best choice for you in Dali.

Really friendly and helpfull staff, nice atmosphere to meet other travellers (during a hot pot dinner for example), great common area, and the cutest dogs possible.

Very nice hostel with friendly and helpful staff.

five elements provides me clean and qiuet enviroment while all the staff there were very friendly, especially a cute girl named lynn, i and  she with others had a very interesting chirstmas eve party!

She was a very lovely and friendly girl and helped me a lot.

The staff are all fluent English speakers and are very friendly.

When that other hotel told them it would be difficult for their driver to find us, she convinced them over the phone that it would be easy if they had their driver stand there with our name on the sign.

There's not a lot of traffic and generally drivers are aware of people crossing the street,

The directions they send may not be very clear, as our taxi driver showed us the wrong way.

8 - a very crowded line - from the train station, and get off at the last station (about 40-50 minutes drive).

We left a day before because we were fed up and asked for the driver to dropped us at the east gate to take the bus, the first lady at the front desk asked 15 to 20 yuans to do that and we tried again the day after and an other very sympathic lady offered us 10 yuans which is most fair.

The girl at the front desk spoke great English and was very helpful in giving us information about the city and restaurants.

staff was so welcoming when we arrived and she spoke excellent English!

The staff spoke good English and were helpful, they helped arrange our bus to Kunming and came with us to the station.

We requested to change rooms and the staff happily obliged.

The staff on the other hand is the down side.

The owner and staff are really welcoming and helpful (tips for the bus, places to eat. ).

The staff speak very good English and are so kind and helpful.

The staff was real helpful and helped us with everything we needed, include bus and train, cooking class booking.

The staff were so very helpful - and they spoke English.

Dali Five Elements Hostel

cold

location: short drive

The hotel/hostel has plenty  of advice about tours and trips and the owners, Song and Dave, were friendly warm and welcoming.

The coffee was good, the rooms were clean, the beds were comfortable, the staff was friendly.

Our second stay at Jade Emu, the owners and staff are very friendly and helpful.

The owners and the staff are friendly and helpful.

The folks running the shop are friendly and professional, are bilingual and offer good local travel advice.

The staff varies from friendly to indifferent and have a range of English.

The staff is friendly & respectful, I was never given an attitude once, even on days when I bothered about new towels & sheets and ordered tons of food delivered to my room, they were always kind, with a smile on their face.

Good Location, just near the Ancient City, staff talking in English, helpful and friendly, nice clean room with big and functional bathroom, 24 hour hot water and OK wifi.

the incredibly helpful and friendly manager-ess Song made our stay exceptional.They have some standard hostel style private rooms

The staff is extremely friendly and well trained, there are tons of fun activities (including western Buffet on Thursday nights) and the rooms are clean.

Friendly staff who is helpful without being pushy and lots of good info.

The staff are very friendly and helpful, and have good English.

Friendly owner, obliging staff (though there was a fair bit of cluelessness at times with the milling around).

Friendly and helpful staff, very good kitchen, giant bookshop, tour and bus tickets available here.

Staff are very helpful and friendly, and are especially great in assisting with travel plans.

Very friendly and helpful staff, clean rooms with the best showers I have had while traveling.

Lots of people from lots of countries passing through and very friendly atmosphere..Weekly buffet and BBQ (optional

You can't beat the value this hostel provides for all their levels of hospitality.

The hostel is superbly clean and there is an lovely bookshop and the food looks good

Looking back, I would probably try to look for other hostel with good recommendations.

In addition we reserved transportation through the hostel to the next city

Also I left my passport at the hostel and they made sure I recovered it immediately.

One of the nicest hostels I’ve stayed in.

I finally found this hostel,very near to the ancient town of Dali.

I have lived in Jade Emu for two different periods of my life times-one was in early 2013 when I was renting a hostel bed as long term guest.

While Jade Emu is a hostel, it has several compounds, one of which caters to flashpackers.

After reading the reviews for this hostel, we were really looking forward to our stay, we had even been in touch with one of the owners and they seemed lovely.

I have been several times to Dali and I always stayed in this hostel.

It is hard to say exactly what it was about this hostel

There is a hostel restaurant which provides both Chinese and Western food, I didn't try

Also, when approaching the hostel you get the most awe inspiring backdrop of the mountains of Yunnan.

The hostel is very well designed, the communal areas/bar is great.

Literally pushing and being pushed by hordes of Chinese people, we arrived to this amazing Hostel.

I travelled around China and stayed in many hostels on my trip

It cost about 11 euro a night (I always think in Euro) which is absolutely amazing value.

We ate perfectly cooked  pasta in the stunningly designed garden restaurant and drank a very good bottle of wine which was reasonably priced.

The restaurant serves very good food at reasonable prices.

Lovely shared erae and coffee place where you can also get a good western food, with fair prices.

It was the best we found in Dali within their price range.

We found prices ok, typical of western cafes in town.

Overall I rate the Jade Emu a solid 9/10.

Owned and managed by an Expat, affordable price in a lovely Chinese style design building.

Coffee and other drinks in the inhouse lounge area are resonably priced, food quality is 3/5, i therefore recommend eating outside.

I would give this place a higher rating if the staff were a bit more helpful and the menu was a fair price.

The prices are super reasonable, even for higher luxury rooms type.

The food is wonderful and definitely worth the prices.

Staff was very nice, and Nancy was wonderful at arranging a tour with a local driver at a reasonable price for us.

The bookshop even bought back books that we'd read for a fair price.

but if you pay a little more you get the equivalent of the best rooms any chinese hotel can offer, their top end room is a penthouse with windows on 3 sides with views across the mountains and pagodas of Dali, a 3 room suite with a 4poster bed and standlone bathtub, the middle end rooms all have rainforest showers.

Nice and well organised hotel with reasonably priced rooms.

good place to meet fellow travellers 
Only concern was price of food and drinks, not local prices for sure,

for a fees, spread not gorgeous yet enough & tasty.

Rooms a bit old with dirty and staind sheets.

They passed me the sheets, pillow, comforter and all in the lobby, and I carried them back and set them up myself.

Rooms are small and the sheets are not changed.

The staff did changed the sheets when we asked them

for us we stuck to a table in a corner away from the lobby whenever someone started smoking.

You are allowed to smoke everywhere apparently (even around the restaurant area) which kinda sucks if you don't wanna spend your time breathing in smoke!

There should be a non smoking area in the bar/restaurant so that people can eat, drink and chat without the fog of countless puffers.

Despite no smoking signs throughout, lots of people smoke in the common areas.

The bus is smelly,old and not comfy at all.

It was a truly disgusting waste of time and near the end I was told by the lady that if I can't find the place its nothing they can do about it.

( beautiful ) If it hadn't been for the smelly bathroom which was manageable with the window left open ( drains or sewage ) Jade Emu would score a perfect 10.

But we stayed there twice and during our staying the bathrooms had a terrible smell- and we stayed in twodifferent rooms, and they both smell!!!!!

but the ones with a bathroom might smell a little, as our did.

The owners and staff want visitors to have a good time in Dali and live that as their motto daily.

The English of the staff is good and the information they provided on all the things to do in Dali was excellent.

there's also a buddhist restaurant 100m away where you can get an unlimited buffet for CNY5 - ask at reception.

The toilet can be better if the staff clean it well.

Every time I asked for something (even at the bar) they were so unpleasant, and made us feel unwanted, especialy the night workers and the girl at the reception at the evening shift.

מקום נפלא אווירה של צעירים מכל העולם! Really nice place to stay at, you meet alot of people from all over the world, staff is geat, speaks english, good resturant to have breakfast or happy hour on beer or some western food if you got enough of rice and noodles :)

Helpful staff, good food, an enjoyable atmosphere in the lobby area, a spacious room for two and - perhaps most important these days - flawlessly working VPN that enabled us for the first and only time during our trip through China to use our beloved Social Media and WhatsApp without problems.

but everyone congregated in the main reception area in the evening where they had lots of comfortable seats.

Great value, hot water, wifi, and very kind and helpful staff.

The girl at the reception spoke perfect English and helped me and my friend get 2 perfect rooms.

But it was just a conflict that I had with one of the owner’s mom made me decide to leave.

the staff speaks good english and is always willing to help , also the breakfast was great , only complain could the slow wifi connection , located at walk distance from the old town

Because it's listed as a hostel, it is mostly overlooked as a hotel-alternative and this worked very well for us.

We asked for a quiet room and got one overlooking the communal courtyard - hardly quiet.

You are looking for the gate to the city that is uphill, towards the mountains.

trekking up the mountain, visiting the lake, the three pagodas and the temple.

but from a westerner's point of view, it's probably the most all round best and most well run place in Dali, whether you're staying a night or not.

A very good place to rest after hiking the mountains just behind.

After they left dali, i waited for my flight for four more days and moved back to Jade emu, i had a single room on the terrace, very reasonable price and very good view, i could see the lake from a distance on one side and mountain on the other side.

I bought a tour to Changsa mountain 110 CNY and a taxi picked me up at the hostel and there was a girl arranged the ticket  for me.

The double bed is king size and in our room there was a DVD player ( you could rent DVDs from the Song Sister's across the road), flat-screen TV and free view box.

Clean and friendly, just outside of the western gate of old Dali with good views from the roof of the mountain to one side and the lake to the other.

We had a private room with the best views I've had in a hostel.

Located just outside the old town and within easy reach of the mountain to do a bit of trekking, something I loved in fact!

the double on the 3rd storey offered a great view of CangShan too!

Plus, it is right at the base of the mountains, making hiking an easy event any day.

The Jade Emu International Guesthouse

smell

sheet

hostel

price

view

We were very disappointed in the general cleanliness of the hotel, the rooms were not clean and the bathroom was awful.

Bathroom ok. Breakfast is 40 yuan with choice of egg +toast, pancake, coffee/tea, juice.

Overall, I cannot recommend this property because of the state of the bathroom.

I dreaded going in there and taking a shower.

The bedlinen was filthy, and so was the toilet.

The bathroom was okay with and older shower that didn't work as I wished (just not enough pressure).

The shower was a bit grim with a nasty plastic strip door.

although the reviews suggest that the bathrooms are better than some other places.

A double room with a toilet was about 80rmb.

but they didn't clean the bathroom very well during our stay.

the rooms needs more cleaning under the beds and on the shells were full of dust ,and it was not possible to close the door of the bathroom !

The bathroom needs a thorough renovation and the water from the shower was cold.

The main drawback for us was the cleanliness of the bathrooms- they just needed a bit more of a scrub.

so a heater was at the ready , the shower just the  ticket at the end of a  long day .

My only cons were that the bathroom was quite dated, and the staff could have been more attentive.

The only comment I might have is that they could pay more attention the cleaning, our (bath)room wasn't the cleanest.

When she took us to the room, she couldn't open the door because there was a problem with the lock.

Unfortunately you couldn't really close the bathroom door

I see someone said that the hotel next door was so much cheaper

Some reviews talk about the hotel next door being cheaper.

Sam's, next door with no English website, was 120RMB/night and equivalent.

His rate was 350 rmb when the identical room immediately next door was 60 rmb.

Every day starts with a delicious breakfast, provided by the hospitable and friendly staff.

A friendly hotel near the old centre of Dali is Jim's Tibetan Hotel.

Jim the owner is very friendly and speaks perfect English and was very helpful, he does whatever is best for his customers.

Jim is the very friendly and knowledgeable English speaking host at Jim's Tibetan themed hotel.

He and his  friendly family made us feel welcome.

we stayed at Jim s for 3nights when traveled at Dali,hotel is local bai style and courtyard was nice,people there were from all over the world so we shared our travel experiences with so many friends which we really enjoyedi it,staffs were friendly,recommend.

But the best part of the hotel is Jim himself, friendly, helpful, perfect host.

Arriving on the wee hours of a cold winter morning, I was allowed to leave my luggages and showed to my room immediately by his friendly, english-speaking staff.

Jim the host is very friendly and helpfull and speaks english very well.

The rooms had some lovely furniture and there were various heating appliances which were very welcome at this time of year.Jim was a friendly guy and his staff were the same.

Theo staff is friendly, some of them speak english quite well.

Jim's is a quiet, friendly oasis on the edge of the old town in Dali.

We really enjoy the view from the roof top from where you can see all Dali, Erhai Lake and the mountains.

The view of the Old Town from the rooftop terrace is amazing.

It has a nice rooftop terrace and a restaurant in the top floor (which seemed permanently closed).

Also, there are spaces on the balconies to sit, relax and socialise and a roof top bar.

They have a rooftop where you can relax and look at the stars (and giant Cang Shan mountain range) and have a nice beverage.

There are great views from the rooftop bar of the mountains in the distance- stunning in the evening after a long day walking.. especially with a cold beer!

Yes the Hotel  is one to be enjoyed with all the ornate balconies etc ..the roof top bar with beautiful views over the mountains and the lake would be a must in the warmer months . !

but  the best is the roof top patio with a panoramic view of the Himalaya "foothills", Dali and Lake Erhai.

The view every evening from the roof top bar and garden was the best view I have had in China.

enjoyed the rooftop terrace (great sunsets) and their garden (beautiful flowers and trees), the food and last

what I liked about this hotel
1) location: close enough to the south gate and on a quiet street
2) never had to sign a piece of paper, there was no check in process--they just took me directly to my room, there was also nothing to sign after a meal or taking a beer out of the fridge
3) the Tibetan decor and photos of the owner's travels around the region makes the place very cosy (even had these photos in the individual rooms)
4) food was pretty good
5) saw an amazing sunrise from their rooftop terrace

There was mold everywhere in the bathroom, the wardrobe was covered in dust.

but everything worked (it had a very new big tv though, which was only Chinese) - in the smaller room only the main light worked, the 4 smaller ones were all broken (not only burned through).

The bathroom was the worst: the bathroom door was hanging of it's hinges and couldn't be closed, there was mold everywhere, it took ages to get warm water, there was icky brown stuff on the floor around the toilet and sink, and worst of all: the last guest's diarrhoeah stains were still all over the toilet bowl, it hadn't been checked and cleaned!!

I just wish Jim would cut down on the smoking a bit.

Although there is a sign "No Smoking", he smokes cigarrettes one after the other while drinking beer and whiskey.

The first room we got was on the ground floor, and smelled of mouth balls, so I went and asked for another room, which we got on the 1 floor,

3-The shower is weak, bathroom had a mouldy smell, towels weren't terribly clean.

although the room was beautifully funished, it was terribly cold and damp.

The staff let feel you home directly and the rooms are clean and the food is excellent.

even though we had very good Chinese meals throughout our trip), and Jim is a very hospitable guy with a great sense of humour.

Most important: the really friendly owner (Jim) and his son.

It was a complex, personalized tour for just the two of us,

Jim was very helpful with getting about and suggested a very good restaurant for our evening meal and walked us to it and helped us choose.

He was even so kind to go into a pharmacy with me and help me pick out some cough medicine (the inevitable sickness that comes from flying).

China- Minority-travel.com.Henriette is a real professional organiser.Definitely go!

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