The Commune by the Wall isn t so much a hotel as an artistic project where designer style coexists with an ancient wonder.
A large chunk of ruby watermelon is speared on the end of my fork, the butler is refilling my cup with fresh green tea and, despite the rain and mist outside, I can see the Great Wall of China. It doesn t get much better than this. I am eating breakfast in my own private dining room at a revolutionary idea in hotel accommodation called Commune by the Great Wall.
This extraordinary take on the modern hotel would be enough to stop you in your tracks were it in more familiar designer hotel territory, such as Germany, Scandinavia or even the UK. That it is in China - a nation still in tourism nursery school - is nothing short of incredible.
Commune by the Great Wall has taken the private villa concept so beloved of celebrities and high-fliers, one stage further. Instead of providing identikit villas, these are all different - vastly different.
The Commune is a collection of 11 state-of-the-art houses, each designed by a different Asian architect and furnished by the likes of Philippe Starck, Matthew Hilton and Marc Newson. It is as much artistic project as commercial enterprise.
The houses are clustered on a rocky hillside near Badaling, the closest restored part of the wall to Beijing. The day before, as my taxi headed for the Commune, crocodiles of tourists could be seen plodding along it in identical, pale-blue rain ponchos, bought, no doubt, from vendors in the car park below.
Here, less than 15 minutes away, there wasn t a soul to be seen. Nothing disturbed the postcard-perfect view of an ancient observation tower flanked by snaking crenellations except the call of birds and the splash of rain on leaves.
The Commune is the creation of entrepreneur and former Goldman Sachs employee Zhang Xin, who now runs development company SOHO China Ltd with her husband, Pan Shiyi. Taking advantage of China s newly relaxed attitude to private property, the hotel was completed last year at a cost of about 13.25 million.
It is the first major Chinese project to have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale and offers afternoon tours with tea to anyone who can t afford to stay but wants to look around. No wonder people are calling it the Hamptons of the East.
The scale of this place is just so big. The Clubhouse houses the reception, as well as a dining hall the length of a football pitch. There are glass windows along an entire wall, which open on to a terrace and afford views of the Shanhaiguan Pass.
On the floor below there is a swimming pool and a curious peacock feather-lined sitting room, which I couldn t quite make up my mind about. Houses are a short drive or a brisk walk away, each at the apex of a dead end. It s the coolest housing estate and you could throw one hell of a house party.
The buildings - with names such as Airport, Suitcase House, the Twins - occupy anything up to 700 square metres. Each has several bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen and dining area, and some have saunas, roof terraces or indoor galleries.
Take Airport. Three storeys of steel, concrete and glass, designed by Taiwanese architect Chien Hsueh-Yi. Somewhat forbidding from the outside, inside, shafts of light play on the grey concrete walls, lending them unexpected softness. Multi-height corridors punctuated by little stone staircases throw surprises at every turn: a sauna here, a bathroom with sunken tub there.
Or take a look inside the Split House, which is built using traditional mud brick. Two narrowish buildings, pointing at each other, are joined by a single-storey hallway. Each wing provides wooden-beamed bedrooms with exposed mud walls and a private roof terrace. One wing houses the dining room and kitchen, the other a sitting room the size of a tennis court. Furniture is simple; a pale armchair with footstool, a daybed thoughtfully positioned by a ceiling-height window.
Then there is the all-white Twins House, in which I stayed, which features a glass-sided staircase the height of a department store s, leading to the upstairs master bedroom and bathroom. Dark, traditional wardrobes and arrow-slit windows for cosying up in bed, giant windows and Karim Rashid s bucket sofas for enjoying the view downstairs made this a holiday home to remember.
When service levels match the design this will be one of the most exciting places to stay in the world.
FACT FILE: CHINA
How to get there
Sally Shalam flew to Beijing with Cathay Pacific (020 8834 8888, www.cathaypacific.com). Fares in April and June cost around 1,400 return. Autumn fares start at 596.
Where to stay
Commune by the Great Wall is a member of Design Hotels (00800 37 468 357, www.designhotels.com). Rates start from 627 a night for a four-bedroom house.
