We stayed here one night recently on points (reasonable value at 7k). The location is right by the river, but in a rather 'quiet' part of it -- made for a nice enough stroll in the evening. I think there are some high end shopping opportunities nearby, but we didn't have time to check it out.

The hotel itself is fairly dated, but with that comes a degree of old world charm. As a gold we got the room we had booked, which was a fair size, with an absolutely massive bathroom, although with an odd design: the shower and toilet are facing each other, with a glass wall separating them! The décor is rather dated, and certainly not 'luxury' in a contemporary sense.

The lobbies (both the main one and the old one) are charming. There is an OK small gym, but the pool is really a large hot tub -- we decided to forgo. There was a small bowl of fruit waiting for us in our room, which was welcome, and an offer of 'complimentary tea service' -- which could be had either in room or in the Victoria lounge. We opted for the latter after our evening stroll -- unfortunately, we weren't allowed to choose Chinese tea, just 'english' tea or coffee. Note it is just tea, not 'afternoon tea'.

We also had lunch in the restaurant. Food was OK, the pot stickers were good, service was not great, but no great mishaps. Golds (and ? all SPG members) are given a 15% discount, with which the meal was fair value.

There is a hotel museum in the basement. It is billed as a 'national grade' museum, but really, it's a small, charming 'local small town grade' museum, which was nonetheless fun to stroll around -- although I would in no way make a trip across town, let alone country to visit (it's rated as #1 site in Tianjin by tripadvisor, but that maybe says more about Tianjin than about the museum!). The Astor has certainly had a fair few important guests over the years, and it was interesting to learn a little more about it.

Although I've been a little lukewarm about the review, we were actually very pleased with our stay, because it was rather different to the generic 'international hotel' experience. It's not luxurious by any means. But charming and different, very much yes.

tb