[photopress:hotel_john_samuel_swire.jpg,full,alignright]The Sanlitun Hotel in the Chaoyang District, Beijing, is nearing completion. It is part of the Sanlitun project which Swire is developing in partnership with Gateway Capital — Swire has an 80% stake in the retail development.
The SanLiTun project is a low-rise mixed commercial scheme comprising 19 buildings, including over 250 retail shops, a multi-function hall, and a 100-room boutique hotel. The boutique hotel will be the first hotel to be fully owned and managed by Swire Properties.
The development is expected to be completed in the first half of next year.
Swire Hotels is a new brand and thus the launch of the hotel in Beijing in June will be of great importance to the group which has its finger in many pies including, of course, Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragon Air.
[photopress:hotels_Siwre_1.jpg,full,alignright]The hotel has been designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and will have 89 spacious — as in not inexpensive — rooms and 10 suites, all with wooden bathrooms, under-floor heating, a sunken garden with open fireplace. There will also be two spa treatment rooms and a stainless-steel swimming pool.
One wonders what John Swire, the hardy Scot seen in our illustration who started trading with China in 1861 and had offices in Shanghai in 1866 would think of all this. Mark you, he would also have had to cope with the fact that Swire is an anchor bottler for Coca Cola and supplies most of the stuff that is drunk in China.
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