china travel

Club Med Opens Ski Resort In China

Club Med has opened its first international ski resort in China. Club Med Yabuli is located in the North-East of China in Heilongjiang Province, 110 miles southeast from Harbin, the capital of the province. The new resort is situated in a national park at an altitude of 1541 ft.

The resort includes a new spa in partnership with leading French skincare brand L'Occitane, and a Chinese restaurant, Mudan, offering an a la carte menu of specialties from Northeast China. Family-friendly facilities are also available. As with other Club Med resorts, the Yabuli experience is all-inclusive with accommodations, lift passes, meals, snacks and activities all part of the package. The resort has 283 rooms including one Presidential Suite of 1291 square ft. and 42 suites with mountain views where guests enjoy room service for breakfast daily. The ski season runs from early November through early April and the resort has 18 ski runs. The ski-in, ski-out resort also has apres ski activities including yoga and a sauna.

Tags: china travel, club med, yabuli

Hotel Indigo Opens In Shanghai

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

We just can't seem to stop talking about new Shanghai hotels lately. The city is full of exciting new projects as major hotel brands move in. HBA / Hirsch Bedner recently completed the design of the first Hotel Indigo property in Asia Pacific at Shiliupu at the Southern end of the Bund in Shanghai. The recently opened Hotel Indigo Shanghai offers spectacular views of the historic Bund and the dramatic Pudong skylines.

The 180-room hotel features a design that is tied together by the Huangpu River. The element that ties the hotel to the neighborhood is the Shiliupu Dock, now known as Pier 16. The lobby features illuminated sculpture installations and sculptural walls that seem to float between the dark Chinese marble floor and the high ceiling. Materials such as raw steel, concrete, exposed brick, and polished plaster give the feeling that this gallery space has been repurposed from a wharf-side waterfront loft. In the center of the lobby stands a distressed raw steel ellipse shaped like a ship's funnel and studded with LED lighting.HBA also commissioned the deconstruction of a retired Shanghai riverboat. The cut and cross-sectioned pieces of the boat were installed as wall sculpture. The hotel rooms, like the one above, are outfitted with custom designed silk print wallpaper and eclectic and whimsical collections of artifacts and furniture that evoke the old Shanghai. The canopy bed was inspired by traditional Chinese wedding beds.

Tags: china hotels, china travel, pudong, Shanghai

PuLi: The First Urban Resort And Spa In Downtown Shanghai

by Susan Kime (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas

The urban resort idea is growing in the United States. I have written about it recently for Luxist, regarding the Millennium Towers in San Francisco. This residence hotel offers a type of experiential, urban sanctuary that is particularly needful, especially in electric, busy, hyper-urban settings.

This concept is new in the Far East, and the PuLi Hotel and Spa is the first luxury urban resort in the city of Shanghai, and in China. The 26-floor, 209 room and 20 suite hotel is centrally located, in the heart of Shanghai's business, shopping, sightseeing and entertainment districts. There are also views of JingAn Park, The hotel is also located by sky bridge to the new multi-use development Park Place..

"We have been very successful with this new idea," said Yvonne Mak, Director of Sales And Marketing for PuLi. "The urban resort fits in so well with what our guests want: the busier the city, the more they need a sanctuary. Our goal is to offer an experiential oasis for the guests, so they can feel they are miles away from the intensity of city life that is in reality, right outside the hotel doors. Therefore, the spa, the dining, the architectural and interior design of the hotel all work together to exude a kind of peace and simplicity."

Tags: Anantara Spa, china, china travel, JingAn Park, PuLi Hotel, Shanghai, Urban Resort Concepts, Urban Resorts

Continue reading “PuLi: The First Urban Resort And Spa In Downtown Shanghai”

Cathay Pacific's Private China Tours

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Art

There's a great option for traveling in China if you don't choose to be a groupie. Lots of people are used to traveling alone, but when it comes to China, they feel obliged to join a group. If you are a little intimidated by traveling in China on your own, Cathay Pacific's China Experience Tours could be the answer. Unlike many group tours, at each location you get to see the sites but a neat extra is that you will have special access to some sort of experience that's next to impossible to arrange on your own.

Tags: Beijing, china, China tours, china travel, Forbidden City, non-group travel, Xian

Continue reading “Cathay Pacific's Private China Tours”

The Peninsula Shanghai: Over the Top

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

"Every square foot is about quality," says Paul Tchen, General Manager of the Peninsula Shanghai and he couldn't be more on target. Opened last March, this Art Deco marvel, the first new building on the legendary Bund in more than 60 years, is poised to become the most glamorous hotel in Asia. Prepare to be impressed.

Tags: Art Deco, Cantonese food, china travel, hotels in China, peninsula hotel, peninsula shanghai, shanghai

Continue reading “The Peninsula Shanghai: Over the Top”

A New Four Seasons in Hangzhou

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas

With a new high-speed train scheduled for an October debut, you will be able to travel in great comfort from Shanghai to Hangzhou in a snap 38 minutes. As Shanghai now makes even Hong Kong seem Third World, a visit willowy West Lake, the star attraction of Hangzhou, is a great way to recover from a supercharged Chinese itinerary. The place to stay is the Four Seasons hotel Hangzhou at West Lake. Its design and architecture fit into the landscape of terraced tea plantations and mists rising from the lake as if it was always there. Unlike the starkly modern hotels of Beijing and beyond, this little gem is entirely traditional with pagoda roof pavilions linked by flower-rimmed paths through landscaped water gardens.

The hotel is impressive in that it has a subdued, understated quality although the spa is a standout with treatments you won't find elsewhere. Not-to-be-missed is the three-hour dragon-well tea and jade spring ritual ---a soothing soak, an invigorating body exfoliation, followed by massage. Check out the full menu of spa services here.

Tags: Beggars Chicken, china, China Academy of Art, china travel, four seasons, Hangzhou

Continue reading “A New Four Seasons in Hangzhou”