You can now visit the land down under without going to Australia as the world's first underground hotel has opened its doors in Shanghai.
Built nearly 100 meters below the ground, it has attracted many locals and outsiders who want a chance to live the high life as low down as possible.
Panoramic view of the quarry hotel. /Courtesy of the hotel
The 19-story luxury hotel is the world's lowest skyscraper, or more precisely, an “earth scraper." With only two stories above ground, people on the other 17 floors pay over 600 U.S. dollars per night for a view of a giant pit. “It's very unique that when you look out the window, it's neither a blue sky nor an ocean, but a high cliff. I've always tried to imagine what the hotel would look like. I feel like it's a place full of stories,” Xu Hongduo, one of the hotel's earliest customers, told CGTN.
She's based in Shanghai and checked in at the new hotel with her friend just for a new and fancy experience.
The hotel, located in Shanghai's suburbs, was a quarry 20 years ago. After the resources were exhausted, the location was slated to become a waste landfill.
Before 2005, there was nothing but a big hole on the ground. /Courtesy of the hotel
But as China tightened its environmental pollution controls, Shanghai in 2005 decided to build a skyscraper the world has never seen in the pit.
It took over a decade to complete the hotel. The quarry hotel's chief engineer Chen Xiaoxiang said there's no other projects of this type anywhere around the world for their reference.
Construction of the hotel underway from 2005 to 2018 /Courtesy of the hotel
He said installing ventilation, lights, fireproofing and earthquake-resistance systems were just some of the first challenges encountered.
“Each day, new difficulties emerged as construction went on. Our success in solving all of these obstacles has provided some valuable experience for others to make better use of similar abandoned landscape after the resources are used up. We've created a new possibility to the world,” Chen said.