What I liked
- Lots of seating
- Bright and airy space. Lovely decor
- Kids play area
- Excellent buffet with cook to order items
- Elegant bar
- Chinese tea service
- Massage chairs
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I didn’t have high expectations for my visit to the China Southern Lounge. The airline doesn’t have the best reputation, after all. I was pleasantly surprised during my 8 hour layover! The lounge is a lovely facility – it even has massage chairs!
Guangzhou is large city, and China Southern’s hub airport. I was staying here, before my flight to Paris. The buffet was truly excellent and wouldn’t look out of place at a 4* hotel. The lounge was bright and airy, and they offered a traditional Chinese Tea Service.
I enjoyed my 8 hour stay at the lounge. My wife and kids enjoyed it too. If you find yourself in Guangzhou airport, I would try to get access to this lounge.
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The lounge is large. Not surprising, given that Guanzhou is China Southern’s Hub. It has the following facilities:
The lounge is cleverly designed. It doesn’t have runway views – but there are some windows to the outside. However, it feels bright. They have lots of white and marble effect furniture. This really brightens up the space. Contrast this to the Plaza Premium Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 2. That lounge is often regarded as the best 3rd party lounge in the world (not by me!). It doesn’t have any windows and they have dark furniture.
The China Southern lounge has a large bar, with marble décor - I thought it was beautiful. In the centre of the lounge, was a low table with small Chinese Sculptures. They offered Chinese tea tasting here. I didn’t partake as I had to watch my kids, but we saw other guests do it.
There were also massage chairs! Given that we had an 8 hour layover, these chairs were a godsend. I love massage chairs almost as much as I like pancakes. I’ve been meaning to buy a massage chair at home for many years, but have never got round to it. Someday I’ll do it…
Overall, I really liked the vibe and feel in the lounge.
There was a wide variety of food. Lots a meat – great if you like pork! They had the following options:
The food was very good. Not ‘good for a lounge’ food, but good food that I would pay for. I had noodles, scrambled eggs, vegetables and dumplings. It all tasted fresh and I enjoyed the food.
I find that lounges and hotels in Asia have the best food in the world. They have all the western dishes that you expect, and excellent local dishes too. The Park Hyatt Siem Reap had amazing pancakes and the best fresh fruit I’ve ever tasted! The Intercontinental Danang is another example of excellent food in Asia.
In terms of drinks, the tea was excellent. I didn’t attend the complimentary tea tasting, but I did have an oolong tea – which was awesome. My wife had a coffee from the machine. You can see a photo in the above slideshow – it looks pretty bad! She said it was very bitter.
There was a large, elegant bar at the one side of the lounge. The range of drinks was pretty good. There were premium alcohol options, including prosecco and Johnny Walker Black Label. I had a black label whisky, which I always enjoy – although my hangovers are getting worse!
There wasn’t any champagne, which is disappointing. However champagne is a rarity for business class lounges. The Air France Lounges in Paris do have excellent champagne however!
