Shanghai's Huge Underground Hotel Nearly Complete

By Diana Park

Here's some great news to keep you excited for 2017: that five-star hotel opening in an abandoned quarry near Shanghai is nearly finished!

If you are not sure what a “five-star hotel in an abandoned quarry” means, please refer to the picture below:
As you can see, the hotel is built right into a giant hole underground. To be more exact, it is being built “inside a 100-meter deep, water-filled abandoned quarry,” according to People’s Daily. This is the InterContinental Shimao, a luxury five-star hotel currently under construction at the base of Sheshan Mountain in Songjiang District of Shanghai. It was designed by the British architecture design consultancy Atkins, who won the international design bid way back in 2006. The company describes their concept as follows:

The design of the Songjiang Quarry Hotel is meant to reflect the natural landscape of the quarry. The winning concept was inspired by the stunning location and the natural environment of the rocky cliffs, waterfalls and surrounding hills….By building the hotel where it is, designers and developers hope to prevent further damage to the ecological environment around it.

Basically, it will go from this...
...to THIS:
Having been carved right into mother nature, the building is also supposed to be “the greenest hotel ever made.” According to Atkins, “[a]part from the green roof, it is intended that many features, ranging from geothermal energy to solar energy utilization, are included in this project… for the building to fit seamlessly into the surrounding environment and become a ‘natural’ part of the local topography, and also for its eco-friendly and energy saving qualities.”

In addition to 383 bedrooms, the hotel will have many more exciting features that sound dreamy. A waterfall will cascade from the top of the quarry into the pool below it, and underwater public areas and conference facilities will be available to accommodate up to 1,000 people. Underwater restaurants and guest rooms facing a 10m deep aquarium, a leisure complex with a swimming pool and water-based sports, and an extreme sports center for rock climbing and bungee jumping are all being built as we speak. Another major architectural feature will be a “transparent glass ‘waterfall’ located in the center of the building,” which you can see in the pictures above.

Here are some more computer-designed photos of the hotel to give you a better idea of the space:

The hotel has already won international design awards in quite a few categories. According to Atkins, the hotel receieved the MIPIM Asia Award in 2011, in categories like Best Chinese Futura Projects, Best Hotel Architecture China, and Best Hotel Architecture Asia Pacific.

If these photos and descriptions are anything to go by, the hotel will surely be a wonderful destination for tourists, as Songjiang is already a popular tourist destination, with its beautiful scenery and places like Thames Town. Though the completion date of the hotel has been pushed back quite a few times, People’s Daily reported this week that the construction is “nearly finished as of August 16.”
So it looks like we might be able to plan ahead for 2017; after all, we firmly stand by the old saying that there is no such thing as “too early” when it comes to vacation plans.

[Images via Atkins Global and People's Daily]

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