Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong

Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong rises above the Pacific Place complex on Supreme Court Road in Admiralty, between Central and Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island. It opened in 1991 as the second Shangri-La hotel in the city and is still the group's flagship on the island side of the harbour. Guest rooms occupy the top floors of a 56-storey tower, which places most of them higher than the surrounding office blocks and gives them open views over Victoria Harbour or towards the Peak.

History

Pacific Place was built by Swire Properties in stages from 1988, with office towers, a shopping mall and three hotels. Island Shangri-La opened in March 1991 as the most ambitious of the three, with an entrance lobby at street level and the main public rooms, including the Lobby Lounge and ballroom, set several floors above the mall. The hotel was conceived from the start to compete with the older harbourfront houses of Central, and it placed its two signature restaurants on the uppermost floors to make the point. It has been refurbished in phases since, most recently in the late 2010s, without altering the atrium or the painting that defines it.

Architecture and design

The tower was designed by the Hong Kong practice Wong and Ouyang. Its defining feature is inside: a 16-storey atrium running from the 41st to the 56th floor, hung with a Chinese landscape painted on silk, The Great Motherland of China. The work was produced by a team of about forty artists in Beijing and is described as the largest Chinese silk painting in the world. Guests see it from the lifts, which are glass on the atrium side, and from the galleries on each residential floor. The public rooms are lit by large Austrian crystal chandeliers, and the decoration throughout mixes Chinese lacquer, silk and jade with European furniture.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 565 rooms and suites, which begin on the 39th floor and run to the 55th. Rooms are large by Hong Kong standards, with marble bathrooms and views either of the harbour and Kowloon or of the Peak. Horizon Club rooms on the upper floors come with access to the Horizon Club lounge, which serves breakfast, afternoon tea and evening drinks.

Dining

Summer Palace, the Cantonese restaurant on the fifth floor, has held Michelin stars for many years and is known for its dim sum and Peking duck. Petrus, on the 56th floor, is the French restaurant, with a dining room under a painted ceiling and windows along the harbour. Lobster Bar and Grill is the hotel's seafood and grill room, with live music in the evening. Nadaman serves Japanese cuisine, and Cafe Too is the all-day buffet restaurant. The Lobby Lounge, with its tall windows and chandeliers, serves afternoon tea.

Wellness

The hotel has a health club with a gym, a sauna and steam rooms, a spa, and a heated outdoor swimming pool on a terrace sheltered by the surrounding towers.

Weddings and events

Island Shangri-La is one of the main banqueting hotels of Hong Kong Island. The Island Ballroom is the largest room, with a foyer suited to cocktail receptions, and a series of smaller function rooms serves meetings, boardroom sessions and private dinners. The hotel hosts Chinese wedding banquets as a matter of routine and can arrange tea ceremonies, Western-style ceremonies and receptions for larger numbers across the ballroom and its foyer. The published maximum capacity for a single event is in the region of a thousand guests.

Location

The hotel connects directly to the Pacific Place mall and, through it, to Admiralty MTR station, one of the busiest interchanges in the city. Central is one stop away, and the Hong Kong Park, with its aviary and tea museum, lies just behind the complex. The Peak Tram lower terminus is a short walk, and the Star Ferry pier is reachable on foot through the elevated walkways of Central. From Hong Kong International Airport the drive takes about 40 minutes, or the Airport Express to Hong Kong station followed by a short taxi ride. As a luxury hotel in Hong Kong for a conference or a large wedding, it combines a central address with the convenience of a mall and a transport hub under the same roof.