{"id":22576,"date":"2018-11-20T21:22:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T21:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22576"},"modified":"2018-11-20T21:22:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T21:22:41","slug":"worlds-first-quarry-hotel-opens-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22576","title":{"rendered":"World’s first quarry hotel opens in China"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yes, you read that correctly — subterranean. While the idea of a semi-underwater hotel isn’t novel — the recent underwater suite at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island<\/a> being a notable example — Shimao Wonderland is a new concept.<\/span><\/div>\n

Built into the side of a quarry in the Sheshan Mountain Range, the hotel has 336 rooms on 18 floors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"shanghai<\/div>\n

Shimao Wonderland InterContinental was built inside a quarry. <\/p>\n

Courtesy InterContinental Hotels + Resorts<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sixteen of the floors are underground, with the lowest two submerged inside a 33-foot-deep aquarium. <\/span><\/p>\n

Guests in those rooms can watch fish swim by — and they also get 24\/7 personal butler service while they do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The hotel has been nicknamed the “earthscraper,” as it’s the opposite of a skyscraper. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A natural wonder <\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Built by Studio JADE+QA in association with British firm Atkins, behind the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, the “pit hotel” required innovative engineering solutions and more than 5,000 people to complete. <\/span><\/p>\n

Guests who don’t get the aquarium views will all have a room balcony with views of purpose-built waterfalls spilling down the quarry walls. There’s also a glass-bottomed walkway for exploring the area further.<\/span><\/p>\n

For thrillseekers, the hotel makes use of its position inside a craggy pit to provide bungee jumping and rock climbing opportunities. <\/span><\/p>\n

And if you just need to unwind after all that adventure? There’s a bar — appropriately called Quarry. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Living landscapes<\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Set near the Sheshan Mountain Range, Sheshan National Forest Park and Chenshan Botanic Gardens, the 61,000-square-meter resort aims to be a home base for environmentally minded travelers. <\/span><\/p>\n

The architectural plan was designed to reduce impact on the environment by keeping the majority of construction within the disused pit.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This is such a unique opportunity that gives me some really interesting ideas of reshaping the relationship between city and nature,” the hotel’s architect, Martin Jochman, says of the property.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the hotel plans to generate its own geothermal and solar energy to power everyday functions. <\/span><\/p>\n

On site, there’s also a green rooftop that disappears into the surrounding landscape and doubles as a place where travelers can relax and explore.<\/span><\/p>\n

This story was originally published in September 2018 and has been updated with new information.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, you read that correctly — subterranean. While the idea of a semi-underwater hotel isn’t novel — the recent underwater suite at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island being a notable example — Shimao Wonderland is a new concept. Built into the side of a quarry in the Sheshan Mountain Range, the hotel has 336 rooms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}