The five-star complex for 400 guests will be built in a 100-meter-deep pit in the Shanghai suburb of Songjiang. Since this quarry is partially filled with water, the two lower floors of the hotel will be underwater. The windows of the rooms and the restaurant located there will simultaneously be the walls of a huge aquarium 10 m deep. At the lowest level of the hotel there will be a leisure complex with a swimming pool. Also, tourists can, while staying at the hotel, go in for rock climbing and jump from a height on a special rope in the extreme sports center, located above the quarry.
Songjiang is known for its beautiful landscapes and the new hotel draws on the motifs of its waterfalls and lush flora. Its curved façade follows the shape of a huge glazed atrium, through which sunlight enters the hotel's lower tiers. As one of the walls of this courtyard, the natural surface of the rock that forms the banks of the quarry was used. It will preserve the existing waterfalls and vegetation there.
The new hotel will meet the standards of environmentally friendly architecture: from the "green" roof to the use of energy from underground thermal springs. Its construction is planned to be completed in 2009.
The quarry in which the hotel will be built is located at the foot of Tianma Mountain, the highest in the province. Its area is 240 x 160 m, and the depth of the reservoir at its bottom is 20 m.
