Unique luxury hotels, fashionable travel and much more

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

The countdown has started to the opening of the world’s tallest hotel, but this time it is not in Dubai, but in Hong Kong. Necessity spawned high-rises in this most densely populated area of Kowloon and technological advances just kept the buildings going higher and higher.

The Ritz-Carlton is opening its doors on floors 102 to118 of the International Commerce Center after a three year absence in the city and at that height every room will have a stunning bird’s eye view of the city. However, they reserved the top floor for the swimming pool – an infinity-edge pool at that.

How happy would you be to relax with a book on one of the floating beds, drifting along the edge of a vertiginous drop at a height of almost 1,600 feet above the street? Even with the glass windows it will be a pretty unnerving experience for some. What’s more the glass windows go beneath the water level, so there’s no escaping vertigo by swimming underwater.

The new Ritz-Carlton Hotel will officially open on March 29 and is already is great demand as a top luxury hotel geared at business travelers and tourists alike. The introductory package rate starts at US$497 and the rack rate starts at $640. If the pool views don’t take your breath away, the prices certainly may.

by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels

The good news about the economic downturn means that luxury hotel groups are falling over each other to offer more, bigger, brighter and better attractions to lure travelers to stay at their hotel.

The Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel in Hong Kong is literally raising its ideas sky-high and opening a record-breaking new hotel in March 2011 in Kowloon which will be higher above street level than any other hotel in the world. Although the Burj Khalifa is a taller building by far, its highest hotel rooms are on floors 38 and 39.

The Ritz-Carlton hotel will occupy floors 102 through 118 of the International Commerce Center and will dominate even Hong Kong’s lofty skyline at a height of 490 meters. All 312 rooms will have superb views of Hong Kong Island and Victoria Harbour from the vertiginous floor-to-ceiling glass walls. In this densely populated city, this has to be a big plus for those seeking some kind of view. After dark, guests can indulge in Asian tapas around the rooftop fire pits as they check out the panoramic spectacle.

Definitely not for the acrophobic, even the 11 spa treatment rooms will have amazing panoramic views from the full height windows, with little chance of anyone looking in! Other design features of this iconic landmark hotel in Hong Kong will include a top floor al fresco bar looking down on the surrounding skyscrapers and a swimming pool which will have videos playing on the ceiling.

by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels

China has ordered a quality control crackdown on the statues of Mao on sale to tourists.

Visitors who flock to Mao’s birthplace at Shaoshan in central Hunan province have complained that some statues they buy as mementoes are sub-standard, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A local official explained that some were physically disproportional while others were made in a slipshod way with low-quality materials. “The move is expected to curtail the production and sale of low-quality Mao statues that harm the tourism market and people’s feeling for the great man,” said the official.

It’s thought the new policy will ban the use of plastic and plaster because plastic deforms and plaster is easy to break. A team of art and craft experts will work with factories to decide which statues are ‘authentically Mao’.

Chairman Mao still features on Chinese banknotes, and a few people still have his portrait on the walls of their homes. Mao lookalikes also find plenty of work in China, and each year a competition is held to find the man with the closest resemblance to the former Chinese leader.

by Andy Moreton

If you’re planning a visit to one of the most fascinating countries on earth, Luxique offers a choice of nearly two dozen luxury hotels in China and several luxury hotels in Hong Kong.

A landmark luxury hotel in Shanghai, which has just been refurbished, has appealed for former guests to get in touch if they have memorabilia from the hotel’s heyday.

The Peace Hotel, on the city’s famous Bund riverfront promenade, is set to re-open shortly, complete with a new museum dedicated to its history.

“To fully showcase the rich heritage of China’s grandest hotel, we’d love past guests to share with us their memories, memorabilia and ‘borrowed’ items so we can record and preserve history for future generations,” said the General Manager, Kamal Naamani.

Wanted items include silverware, china, monogrammed goods, historic photographs, postcards, art, menus, trinkets and anecdotes. Contributors who bequeath items for the exhibition will receive an invitation to a special cocktail reception at the hotel later this year.

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Peace Hotel (formerly the Cathay) was one of the most famous establishments in Asia, along with other luxury hotels such as the Peninsula Hong Kong, the Raffles Singapore, the Chosun Korea and the Imperial Tokyo.

Among its early guests were a number of celebrities, including Charlie Chaplin, and the playwright Noel Coward who completed his famous work Private Lives while staying there. It’s now part of the Fairmont Group, which has luxury hotels and resorts throughout the world.

by Andy Moreton

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.