Shanghai luxury hotel is built inside an abandoned quarry

A quarry isn’t the first place that comes to mind when most people think of where to go on vacation, and yet an abandoned mine is now home to a five-star hotel in Shanghai.

The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel (let’s just pause for a moment to appreciate that mouthful) is nestled into the side of a quarry 19 miles from the city’s Hongqiao International Airport. The hotel, designed by Martin Jochman, juts out from the side of the mine and hovers over a body of water, as though the building is taking a dip in a pool. Of the hotel’s 18 floors, just two sit above ground with the rest descending 290 feet below.

According to the South China Morning Post, the project was quite a feat of engineering. The 336-room hotel had to be anchored to the quarry’s vertical wall. It took two years to complete the piling for the foundation alone. The hotel’s owners claim the building can withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and has six pumping machines if the quarry ever floods. Sounds like paradise.

InterContinental Hotels

Via: Fast Company