The Star - Shuiguan makes an exhilarating weekend

SHUIGUAN, China It s midday and Beijing is a virtual parking lot. The restrictions that reigned during the Olympic Games, keeping one million of the city s three million vehicles off the road, have been lifted.

And now all of that once-restricted traffic is flowing like lava down the network of on-ramps and back on to the highways sealing the city in gridlock. We re in the middle of it, heading north.

Thank God we ve got a savvy cab driver. Thank God he knows how to navigate our way out.

We ve planned a weekend escape from this city of 17.4 million that we call home, and we re a little desperate. We didn t want to go far just far enough to escape the sound and fury of the city.

About an hour out, our driver peels off on Exit 20, marked "Shuiguan," and leaves the flotilla of vehicles behind. Instantly, we enter into another world: a treed valley of humble homes and local villagers going about daily life. A few pedal past on bikes, others sweep the streets with rustic brooms made from bushes, and there s a little bit of commerce going on. Up ahead a guarded gate appears and we turn left and enter.

One hour and 15 minutes from our door, our splendid weekend is about to begin.

We d heard about the Commune by the Great Wall Kempinski from friends, but weren t really sure what to expect. The brainchild of Beijing s leading power couple, developers Zhang Xin and husband Pan Shiyi, it sounded surreal.

In 2002, Zhang and Pan carved out eight square kilometres of land at the foot of the Great Wall, commissioned 12 of Asia s most innovative architects, gave them each $1 million and set them loose.

And it is surreal: the result is one of the most dazzling displays of architectural talent on the Asian continent tucked into the forested hillsides beneath the Great Wall.

What s more amazing: you can stay here.

"Our grand vision is to build a contemporary architectural museum," Zhang announced at the time of the launch, "to influence a whole generation of architects, developers and consumers." Hopefully, it will contribute to the history of architecture in our re-born `young country."

The project did that and more. Zhang and Pan set the city s architectural pace.

Before Beijing s Olympic architectural explosion before the Bird s Nest, the Water Cube, the CCTV tower before all of that, Zhang and Pan s bold statement in the Shuiguan Valley dared to set the standard high. Others followed.

The Commune was awarded one of three prestigious prizes handed out by the jury at the Venice Biennale in 2002. The project model was swept up by the Pompidou Centre s National Museum of Modern Art for its Chinese collection. And in 2005 after a couple of years of trying to run the hotel locally the couple signed on with the German-based luxury hotel chain Kempinski to manage it.

In a sense, the hotel is a blend of Asian art and architecture with experienced German `engineering who oversee a smartly-dressed Chinese staff, kitted out in black uniforms with little red stars on their lapels, who are eager to please. As for the setting, you couldn t ask for more. How many times in life will you have the chance to sit down to dinner with a stunning view of the Great Wall?

In recent years, the expanding project has grown to include 42 villas, ranging in size from four to six bedrooms, and a total of 236 rooms in all, including 90 standards. The villas and deluxe rooms, designed by name architects from China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and other countries, are all tucked into valleys giving an added sense of privacy and exclusivity.

Given the steep climbs to some of the villas and rooms, the hotel has a small fleet of black vans to whisk guests about. A driver swept us up the hillside to our "Mountain Village" retreat and we checked into a spacious double room that was all air and light and chic furniture, with a balcony and breathtaking view of the Great Wall.

All was silent save for the bird life. The bustle of Beijing seemed a million miles away.

Once settled in, we reserved a table on the terraced restaurant in the "village" and sat down to a simple but lovely lunch of spicy soup with shrimp and some salmon pin-wheeled sandwiches; and a salad with arugula, no less. On a post-lunch stroll, we visited the Commune s swish new swimming pool just installed this summer.

Outdoor swimming pools in hotels in northern China indeed in much of China are rare, and Kempinski s addition of this facility will make this an even more attractive destination for travellers in summer. In the intense heat of a Beijing July or August, there are times when nothing else will do.

Even the kids get a pool. The hotel features a Commune of the Children Kid s Club overseen by a manager and trained staff where kids from 2 to 12 can enjoy swimming, arts and crafts, stargazing and even cooking classes.

Evening dining offers an array of choice: Chinese and Asian specialties as well as Western foods. If you ve overindulged in Beijing cuisine, there s "Canadian salmon and scallop Carpaccio" on the menu, along with rack of lamb and osso buco all done by talented chefs.

If there s one quibble, it s the wine list. It s bloated in selection and price. But that s typical in China where the enjoyment of wine is regarded as a "chic" pursuit and where prices often bear little relation to vintage.

A bottle of Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, for example, which you can buy in Toronto for $16.95, shouldn t cost $140 on anyone s wine list. But that s easily forgotten and forgiven in the morning when, after breakfast, you climb the Commune s own private path to the Great Wall.

Only a few miles away, at Badaling, tens of thousands of tourists fight for space along a stretch of the Wall lined with hawkers.

If you can endure a steep 20-minute hike, you can enjoy a largely untouched section of the Wall near the hotel all to yourself a thoroughly magical experience. And the hotel will pack you a picnic lunch.

Afterwards, exhilarated and perhaps a bit stiff, you can enjoy a relaxing massage at the hotel s plushAnantara Spa.

The Commune isn t Shangri-La; from Beijing, that s another 2,100 kilometres south.