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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Travel

The world's first underground hotel has just opened in Shanghai

Located just 30 kilometres east from Shanghai's city centre at the Sheshan Mountain Range, you'll find the 'world's first underground hotel'.

The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel will open to the public on November 20 - and 16 of the floors will technically be underground.

The top floor will be located at ground level with a roof covered in greenery, while the rest of the hotel will be below ground. This is because the hotel has been built into the side of an 88-metre high abandoned quarry.

What's more is the bottom two floors are completely submerged underwater to form the hotel's 10-metre deep aquarium.

The five-star hotel has taken over a decade to complete and is quite the spectacle. Built in part by British firm Atkins, the same minds behind the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, it took over 5,000 people to help complete the hotel as it required innovative engineering solutions.

The finished product offers 336 rooms, each with a balcony - except for those rooms located underwater - and each room will have a view of the purpose-built waterfalls flowing down the quarry walls.

Along with the aquarium, you'll also find a restaurant, pool and a watersports centre on the subterranean levels. Thrillseekers will also be able to partake in bungee jumping over the quarry and rock climbing up the quarry walls.

Rooms start from £383 per night. ihg.com/

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