Shanghai will open the world's first underground hotel on November 20th. The Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel locates 30 kilometers from the center of the metropolitan - Shanghai, and is built near the Sheshan Mountain National Forest Park and Chenshan Mountain Botanic Gardens.
As the first underground hotel, it has been built in a formerly abandoned quarry that plunges 80 meters below the ground level. Of the 18 floors in the hotel, 16 of these are underground, while two floors are completely underwater inside the hotel's 10-meter deep aquarium. Being built in a waste crater, this hotel will not only create the world record for the lowest five-star hotel built globally, but also become a revolutionary architectural design.
The construction work has met many construction challenges, such as drainage, transportation of building materials, natural disasters prevention and more. This has required innovative engineering solutions, such as the irregular section construction elevator system, etc. Each of the 336 rooms, aside from those underwater, will feature a balcony with views of waterfalls spilling down the quarry walls.