WATER WONDERLAND

Known as the Shimao Wonderland Intercontinental or the Songjiang Shimao Hotel, the resort is part of the larger project to build the Shimao Shanghai Wonderland – a large scale theme park.

The hotel will feature a huge waterfall which will pour down from the roof of the hotel complex. Li Xuyang, a senior manager for Shimao Group specified that “two storeys of the hotel will be built underwater, 17 will be within the cave and two more will be above ground. The idea was to take advantage of this unique land form and to create a garden growing in the air where people could view the hundred-meter high waterfall from their room window”.

The Songjiang Hotel is designed by UK architecture firm Atkins, who won the competition bid in 2006. Construction has just begun and is looking at completion in 2015. Atkins has specified that sustainability is integral to their design of this unique resort, “Our design solution includes the use of green roofing and exploiting the site's geothermal heat to generate electricity and heating as well as a naturally-lit internal atrium in the existing rock face.”

An extreme-sports facility will be cantilevered over the quarry, offering rock climbing and bungee jumping and guests will be able to do watersports on the lake. There will also be an underwater restaurant facing a ten-metre deep aquarium. The building will feature green roofs and walls on the two storeys above the edge of the quarry.

Once complete, the hotel will offer around 400 rooms, as well as conference facilities for up to 1000 people, a banqueting hall, restaurants, a swimming pool and a water-sports centre.

China remains at the centre of a construction boom, as nine of the 20 tallest buildings underway in 2012 are located there.