Mingshui Ancient City Shuangquan Resort Room Tour

💗Guest Experience

Mingshui Ancient City is the most beautiful old town I’ve ever seen. It’s relatively simple to walk around, not being too expansive, but with enough detail that it would take a few days to see and experience everything. The experience in early March was great as not many people were there, and the Cherry Blossoms and Magnolias were starting to bud. I found one afternoon/evening and one morning was more than enough time to satisfy my curiosity for this place.

💰 The souvenirs inside the ancient city were much cheaper than souvenirs in Shanghai and Beijing, so if you’re into souvenirs, buy them *all* here!

💞Reasons to Recommend: I had a language barrier (I don’t speak Chinese), and found that staying at the resort was best option because staff went out of their way to help me (with support of translator apps!) to access all experiences available within city with only one point of contact (hotel reception desk). This included complementary unlimited entry/exit to ancient city whilst staying at resort (which is located just a few steps away from resort front door), complementary boat (gondola) ride, and complementary VIP access to light show (seating at 7.10pm).

Language Note: Mingshui Ancient City appeared to me to cater to locals who might come here for a weekend away (it’s about 90mins by bullet train from Beijing). It didn’t appear to intentionally try to attract international tourists, despite being a world class tourist attraction! As such, English is very limited. Information within the city about the city is mostly in Chinese, staff within the city don’t speak English, and the light show has a storyline shared over speakers that is only in Chinese. If you have an overactive imagination however, you can make up your own storyline to go along with it!! With the help of translator apps however, staff are more than happy to help with any question! Everyone was super lovely.

💡 Light Show tip: if it’s windy at all, grab a complementary poncho at the light show VIP entry gate, because the huge bursts of water that shoot up into the sky, 2 metres away from you, may saturate you. I did not know about this, but thankfully we had no wind on the night I was there!! After seating myself I turned around and saw everyone else had poncho’s and only after the light show started I understood why!!!

🧺 Laundry facilities: upon arrival/check-in at 4pm at the resort, I was advised the advertised laundry facilities for guests, were only available from 8am the next day, not on the afternoon I arrived. I wanted to do a load of washing as soon as I arrived (to dry in my room overnight) and not being able to do so was the only frustrating part of my stay, but was very very minor!

🕰️Business Hours: ancient city closes at 10pm. Most people started to leave about 8pm (after the light show finished).

Post by Leanne1989 | Mar 23, 2025