This Chinese
capital- home to the diplomatically-fraught 2008
Olympics and the famous Great Wall of China has
often been overlooked by tourists keen on its more
glamorous, cosmopolitan counterpart, Shanghai.
Being the
administrative and political centre, however,
Beijing has formed the background of much of China's
significant political events- from Tiananmen Square,
an icon of youthful rebellion to the excellent,
disciplined performers of the Beijing Opera House-
both places tangential to Chen Kaige's
film,'Farewell My Concubine'*.
Enjoy a spot of
Peking Opera and imagine the same kind of commitment
to the art 200 years ago (with the difference, of
course, being that women today are allowed to
perform onstage) and wake up early the next morning
to witness an ancient heaven-worshipping ceremony.
Probably as a direct result of the Olympics, Beijing
has an impressive array of boutique hotels and leads
the way in the luxury design hotel scene in China.
From hip-design hotels Hotel G and The Opposite
House to atmospheric courtyard home conversions in
the hutongs, the architectural statement that
is Commune By The Great Wall to the Aman group's
first Chinese outpost- The Aman By The Summer
Palace, luxury travellers to China have a good range
of hotels to choose from.
Beijing too, is the staging grounds for your
adventure to Mongolia. Be based at the luxurious
Park Hyatt Beijing, explore the secret hutongs
that Beijing is famous for before continuing through
to Northern Mongolia in a land coinciding with an
area identified as Shambhala in ancient Buddhist
scripture. For architecture lovers, end your stay in
the Commune by the Great Wall Kempinski, a
spectacular and ambitious project commissioned to
the best architectural names in the region.
While Beijing personifies ancient, regal Chinese
culture, contemporary Shanghai, meanwhile, reflects
the more cosmopolitan influences of the city- from
the French concession area or the chic Xintiandi
area, the latter promising to add to China's total
hip-hotel count, with a Super Potato-hotel by
Jumeirah in the works. The Jumeirah Xintiandi, the
newly opened PuLi Shanghai and Urbn, the
city's first design-centric boutique hotel as well
as the Park Hyatt Shanghai, the grand doyenne on the
designer luxury hotel scene would, collectively,
even out the score with the more advanced boutique
hotel scene in Beijing.
The flea market in Shanghai- a veritable institution
unto itself, is a pleasant way to spend a morning
during the weekend. Vendors selling Chinese
memorabilia, suitably reproduced to reflect an aged
patina and exquisite, dramatic opera jackets gather
at the flea market with as much intention of
socializing (with each other and visitors alike) as
they do to sell their wares.
The Yunnan area, too, presents more than just
luxurious accommodations- hotel conversions replete
in history, benefiting from spectacular natural
surroundings, represent another part of China-
possibly a version more closely resembling a 'China'
in the mind of visitor than the urban skyscrapers of
Beijing or the cosmopolitan charms of Shanghai.
Urbane Nomads creates itineraries that combine the
Yunnan area with the rest of the itinerary in China
(through the first luxury train in China, time
permitting) or with Singapore as a gateway to Yunnan.
Urbane Nomads presents luxury travel in China
combined with an acute understanding of social and
political undercurrents in both modern and ancient
day China. Let us take you to Beijing, where we’d
provide private access to a part of the great wall
away from the tourist masses.
Urbane Nomads will be testing the limits of
accessibility by taking you to Kashgar,
a hard core Central Asia destination sited at the
foot of the Tian An Mountains.
Or travel through Urumqi , Turpan and Xian as part
of a larger Central Asian itinerary that combines
capital cities with monikers as dreamy as Samarkand
and Bukhara, Ashgabat and Khiva... The luxury of
these trips would be the mode of train travel, a
form of travel associated with luxury and a
gentility lost in today's world increasingly caught
up with a trophy, weekend getaway.
Luxury travel in China is culminated with a stay in
a boutique hotel where you get
to experience first hand, the unique fusion of
oriental culture with opulent modern
day comfort. Luxury guides and modes of
transportation that expertly navigate you around the
multi-layers of this complex, historied country,
allowing for an excellent introduction to this
country.
Consistently with its ear on the ground as to
the developments in the luxury travel scene, Urbane
Nomads constantly susses out the newest in terms of
luxury travel solutions- the newest luxury boutique
hotel openings in the hutongs, private
vineyard-cum-hotels in dusty towns more known for
its history than any particular availability of
luxury hotels and much-anticipated openings of
luxury trains.
The importance of a relaxing break at the end of a
hectic travel schedule is not lost on the people at
Urbane Nomads- we'd arrange for you to luxuriate in
one of, if not possibly, the best luxury villas in
China during your stay. Compliment this with early
morning private yoga sessions on the Great Wall of
China, accessible through a hidden path that we'd
personally recce'd for you- surely the makings of a
suitably luxurious trip to China!
*Farewell My
Concubine' is a film reflecting the political
turmoils of communist China and revolves around the
lives (and loves) of two Peking Opera stars and the
woman who comes between them.
Above
Photo Courtesy of Emile Spaanbroek
