Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou

Hong Kong might be the home of the highest concentration of extraordinary luxury hotels, but if you’re looking for the absolute state of the art, look a hundred or so miles away, up the Pearl River in Guangzhou. This is, by most accounts, the heart of the booming Chinese economy, and we can certainly attest to the boom that’s taking place in the city’s hospitality scene. To wit, the brand-new Mandarin Oriental, Guangzhou, which opens an even half-century after the original Mandarin Oriental set up shop in Hong Kong. It could be a coincidence, but either way, it’s something of a symbol.

This is the picture of the perfectly modern luxury hotel: a skyscraper in a huge Chinese city, with some 263 sprawling, richly finished, highly luxurious rooms and suites. The design, by Tony Chi, is a touch conservative, but that’s to be expected given the audience — it just means the visual pleasures are subtle ones, derived from balanced lines and expertly selected materials. The views don’t hurt either, and the bathrooms, the current frontier of the luxury-hotel arms race, have to be seen to be believed.

The Oriental Club, as usual, gets you another level of service and comfort, though we admit it’s hard to imagine being disappointed in the standard Mandarin experience. There’s a generous handful of restaurants and lounges, including a flagship restaurant specializing in Cantonese cuisine, as well as an outdoor pool, a practical infinity of meetings and event space, and a spa to rival any hotel spa anywhere. Add to that the fact that this very same skyscraper is also home to the Taikoo Hui high-end mall complex, complete with its own encyclopedic list of restaurants, and it’s no exaggeration at all to say you could easily spend a week here without venturing out of doors.

How to get there:
The Mandarin Oriental is located 22 miles from the nearest airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International (CAN). The hotel can provide a limousine transfer for an additional charge.