The Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts opened its 35th hotel in Mainland China yesterday with the debut of the Shangri-La Hotel Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province.
It is the first international five-star brand to establish itself in the 2,500-year-old city, which is an emerging economy in northeast China and home to some 4.5 million people and a hub for the petrochemical industry, spearheaded by the Yangzhou Chemical Industry Park.
The property is located in the New Western District, steps away from the Conference and Exhibition Centre and a short drive from Yangzhou Railway Station, where high-speed trains connect directly to Shanghai and Nanjing, among others. The automobile manufacturing hub of Yizheng, under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou prefecture, is closeby. The newly built Yangzhou Taizhou Airport is approximately 30 minutes away from the property and Nanjing Lukou International Airport is an hour and a half’s drive.
Shangri-La Hotel, Yangzhou has 351 guestrooms that range in size from 40-200 sqm; free wifi throughout the hotel; international restaurant Café Xiu, Chinese cuisine at the signature Shang Palace and a 25-metre indoor swimming pool, fully equipped gym, tennis court and massage treatment rooms.
The property also features the largest pillar-free grand ballroom in the city, at 1485 square meters, with a ceiling height of 8.8 meters and a 556-square-metre pre-function area. It can accommodate up to 840 people for a banquet function or 1,350 for a reception. The Grand Ballroom can also be divided into three separate ballrooms, offering a pre-function area of 500 square meters. On top of this, there are eight multi-function rooms and a garden and pavillion area ideal for outdoor functions.
This follows the October opening of the Shangri-La in Changzhou – another burgeoning second-tier city in China (see story here).
Business Traveller is currently running an Inside China series where a new emerging second-tier city in China is explored in each issue of the magazine. See here for the most recent reportage on Xian, and here for Tianjin.
For more information, visit www.shangri-la.com/yangzhou
Alex Andersson
