Aman at Summer Palace, Bejing awarded highest rating ever by Andrew Harper
In the same week that Travel + Leisure Magazine has named Aman at Summer Palace, Beijing to its prestigious "It List," Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report has awarded the new city resort the highest rating ever: a score of 99 out of a possible 100 points. The unprecedented rating appears in the May 2009 Hideaway Report, the issue that also marks the 30th anniversary of the publication.
Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report is arguably the most respected travel resource available. Andrew Harper travels incognito, accepts no advertising and pays full rate for his travel. He notes in the issue, "We began with a simple ambition: to provide trustworthy travel advice in an idiosyncratic and hopefully entertaining voice … Thirty years on, in this respect at least, nothing whatever has changed."
The 250-year-old Summer Palace, once an imperial retreat with elegant palaces, pavilions and gardens, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. When officials from the provinces came to pay their respects to the Empress Dowager Cixi in residence at the Summer Palace at the turn of the 20th century, they stayed in courtyard dwellings just steps from the gates. It is within these dwellings, and the surrounding gardens and courtyards, that Aman at Summer Palace has been developed by prestigious Amanresorts.
The resort offers 18 Guest Rooms and 33 Suites housed in a combination of original buildings and facsimiles, all connected by intricately hand-painted wooden passageways that lead into courtyard gardens. There is an extensive selection of dining options, from The Chinese Restaurant and The Grill, to Naoki and The Lounge, as well as an extensive fitness center, a spa and a 25-meter indoor pool.
Andrew Harper observes,"Back in 1979 … restricted travel to China was just becoming possible – though you needed a separate visa for each individual city! – three years after the death of Mao Zedong and the end of the Cultural Revolution. Hideaway Report first appeared at precisely the moment when international travel really began to take off." Now the hotel with the publication’s highest rating ever is in China, a development that calls attention to how dramatically the world of travel has changed in just 30 years.
Karen
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