When describing the newly opened Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Hong Kong, you are likely to run out of superlatives, for not only is it the tallest hotel in the world, it is also one of the most innovative. It has the first ever Chocolate Library, the highest bar in the world and one of the largest ballrooms in Hong Kong. Other bold moves are the floor-to-ceiling mirrors – in the shower – and the fitness room equipment which reads your weight settings and preferred routines onto each piece of high-tech equipment from your personal USB drive.
Above the infinity-edge swimming pool the LED screens on the ceiling change from moods to scenes. They feature everything from calming seas to the beauty of the seasons and from modern art to the night sky. Every visit will be a new experience.
In a country known for its tea, this exceptional luxury hotel in Hong Kong has a tearoom with a bedazzling choice of dozens of teas, all stored in special tea caddies in the floor-to-ceiling cubbyholes. Not to be outdone, the wine wall wraps around the walls of the restaurant and displays over 6,000 bottles to choose from.
Non-residents can pop in and take the express elevators to the Ozone, which has unrivalled views over the city from the 118th floor windows. If you want a clearer view, all the guest rooms come with a telescope on a tripod, not for looking up at the stars, but for looking down at the world in miniature below!
by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels
Wax figures of Lady Gaga have been unveiled at Madame Tussauds in London – and at seven others worldwide.
As befitting the pop diva’s style, the wax figures feature her in eight different outrageous outfits. The London one has her in a Philip Treacy-designed telephone hat with ‘a Giorgio Armani Privé midnight blue outfit with pagoda-style shoulders and vertiginous heels’ (my fashion adviser tells me).
The other figures are in New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood, Amsterdam, Berlin, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
In Amsterdam, the wax Gaga sports a conical towering pink and white hairdo, teamed with a white boxy jacket, a nude bodysuit and huge platforms. In Shanghai, she is wearing thigh-high patent boots and a Bowie-esque black lightning stripe over one eye.
The Gaga-fest was kept strictly secret and kept under wraps until the moment all could be revealed. The General Manager of Madame Tussauds in London, Edward Fuller, said: “The demand to include Lady Gaga has been overwhelming and we are more than happy to oblige.”
by Andy Moreton
If you’re going Gaga, Luxique offers a selection of luxury hotels in each of the eight cities.
The Chinese authorities have approved the construction of a Disney theme park in Shanghai.
“China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for the Walt Disney Company in mainland China,” said Disney president and CEO, Robert Iger. Disney already has operations in Hong Kong, where its fifth resort was built in 2005.
A 1.5 square mile block of land has been earmarked for the Shanghai project, but there will have to be considerable compensation paid out to residents forced to move. The cost of relocation to make way for the first phase – the park, a hotel and retail outlets – is put at £523 million ($880 million).
Disney will hold a 43 per cent share in the project. The remainder will be controlled by Shanghai state-owned companies. Chinese state media said the park would cost up to £2.1 billion ($3.6 billion) and be opened around 2014.
Disney has been trying to build a park for years in Shanghai, in an effort to take a firmer foothold in a fast-growing China market where success has eluded most Western media companies.
by Andy Moreton
As Disney confirms, Shanghai is the jewel of modern China - a fascinating and vibrant city. Luxique can guide you to the best of its luxury hotels, including the Four Seasons Shanghai, the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, and the J W Marriott Shanghai.
There are plans to turn the former Hong Kong home of movie legend Bruce Lee into a museum.
The two-storey mansion is currently a ‘love motel’, where rooms are discreetly rented by the hour, but a design competition has been launched to turn it into a permanent tribute to the martial arts superstar. His many fans have been calling for this for years.
Lee’s daughter, Shannon, and a panel of architects and town planners will judge the competition, and the winners will be announced towards the end of the year. The museum is likely to include a memorial hall, a library, a kung fu studio and a film archive.
Lee became a source of Chinese pride by portraying characters that defended the Chinese and the working class from oppressors in films such as Return Of The Dragon. He died in Hong Kong in 1973 at the age of just 32.
by Andy Moreton
Hong Kong has been called ‘the glittering jewel of the Orient’, with both modern and traditional architecture, and top-class shopping. The Harbour City mall in Kowloon, for instance, has 700 stores. And for a luxurious stay, Luxique offers the best deals at some of Hong Kong’s most prestigious hotels, including the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, the Mandarin Oriental, the Four Seasons Hong Kong and the Langham.
If you happened to have been relaxing in your room on the 40th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong the other day, you might have had something of a shock – a man at the window waving to you.
It would have been none other than Alain Robert, the urban climber dubbed ‘the French Spiderman.’ In a stunt to highlight global warming, Robert – watched by fascinated office workers - reached the top of the 46-storey luxury hotel before being detained by police and security guards.
He was in Hong Kong to promote his book ‘With Bare Hands,’ which details some of his climbing feats, including scaling the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Opera House and many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers.
Robert has declared his guerrilla climbing activity his ‘philosophy.’ Last year, he was deported from China for illegally conquering its tallest building, only to have Chinese officials invite him back to climb legitimately a mountain in the centre of the country as a tourist attraction.
It’s said that Robert’s extraordinary career began at the age of 12 when he forgot his keys and was locked out of his parents’ eighth-floor apartment. Instead of waiting for them to return home, he simply scaled the outside wall.
by Andy Moreton
The Four Seasons Hotel Hong Hong as well other award-winning Hong Kong Hotels are available on the Luxique website. Luxique also offer comprehensive Hong Kong guide.
