Breathtaking underground hotel set to open in Shanghai

Euan Black

First published 19 October 2018, 2:01pm

Built into the side of an 88-metre deep quarry, Shanghai Wonderland has been described as the “world’s first underground hotel”. Picture: International Hotels Group

Ask the concierge for a room with a view and you’re unlikely to be escorted underground. Unless, of course, you’re just outside Shanghai.

The InterContinental Hotels Group is on the cusp of opening a new 18-storey, five-star hotel that is being widely described as the “world’s first underground hotel”.

Of the 18 floors, 16 are technically underground and two are underwater. Picture: InterContinental Hotels Group

Built into the side of an 88-metre deep quarry roughly 35km outside Shanghai, the hotel looks like the beginning of a futuristic space colony on a distant, as yet unknown Earth-like planet.

It has 337 guestrooms and suites, from which guests can marvel at a series of waterfalls cascading into the quarry, and a underwater restaurant that faces a ten-metre aquarium.

Of the hotel’s 18 storeys, 16 are technically underground and two are underwater.

At the hotel’s lowest level, guests will find a leisure centre and swimming pool; at its top, a rooftop garden that complements the hotel’s green surroundings.

The hotel’s top floor has a rooftop garden that flows naturally into the verdant surrounds. Picture: InterContinental Hotels Group

The hotel was developed by Shimao Group and designed by Atkins, the British firm responsible for the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai.

In an interview with the China Daily last year, the chief engineer said it took ten years for a team of more than 5,000 architects, engineers and designers to build the hotel.

For more information, visit the InterContinental’s website.