Shanghai, China has opened its first luxury seven-star hotel, Wanda Reign on the Bund along the Huangpu River, last June 2016. This opulent hotel is China's answer to the towering and extravagant Dubai hotels.
Wanda Reign on the Bund is the 51st hotel of the Wanda Hotels & Resorts group. It is part of the Dalian Wanda empire owned by Wang Jianlin, China's richest man. According to The Daily Mail, the 20-storey high seven-star building took three years to build and costs about £415m. And since its opening, it has become a haven and preferred destination for the China's elite and powerful.
The highly lavish hotel was designed by the Heatherwick Studio and Foster + Partners, an award-winning British architectural firm. From the outside, the hotel showcases an impressive blend of glass and steel. And in the interiors, they infused early 20th-century Chinese design with contemporary art deco.
Inside the hotel, guests can see large marble columns, which extend to a 10-meter-high palatial ceiling. At the same time, they can walk along art deco jade inlaid floors and admire a wall-sized abstract Shanghai painted by Shi Qi, who is a renowned Chinese contemporary artist. There are also other specially commissioned 1920s and '30s Chinese-style artworks bedecked on the hotel's wall.
Exquisite design composed of 3D mosaic murals, magnolia patterns, and amber-colored rhinestones all adorned the deluxe interiors of the hotel. All of these are accompanied by various collections of crystal, jade and marble pieces.
"Many of our current clients are relatively young," said by Wanda Reign's director of marketing and communication, Christie Chen. '"They often come in at the weekend to party and book one of our suites. The fact that Wang's name is behind the hotel is certainly a draw; so is the 'seven-star' tag. People are curious." she further added.
This upscale hotel is the last add-on to the numerous high-end and exclusive accommodations along the landmark Bund waterfront. Rooms at the Wanda Reign costs about £344 per night. It joins the likes of Grand Hyatt, Shangri-La, Peninsula and Waldorf Astoria.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
