DISQUS

Dylan · 1 year ago

1) I'm impressed by the factors you listed and I'm pretty convinced it will lead to your success in the long-term. The problem with placing your focus on Shanghai, it would seem, is that it would be a short-term push in a region that is already "well-developed" when it comes to wine. What you've done is leveraged unclaimed territory that is continually showing progress. In this way you establish yourselves as an authority on wine education/training programs. I don't know if this is an expression yet, but if not I'll make it now; the farmer that plants his seeds first, harvests first.

2) I didn't know there was such a thing as 6 star hotels, isn't 5 the limit. Or, is this a new development?

Edward Ragg · 1 year ago

Many thanks for your supportive response, Dylan. Yes, I was intrigued by the '6-star' hotel/resort category too. The place I'm thinking of in Beijing is called The Opposite House (http://www.theoppositehouse.com). This hotel opened just after the Olympics in the new Sanlitun Village development near the Embassy District, in central eastern Beijing. Its '6-star' credentials come not just from the usual panoply of top restaurants - and, actually, a really good wine list that is suprisingly well-priced by Chinese standards - but from not having any check-in. You are met by someone who looks after you and knows when you are arriving etc. Architecturally the place is really fascinating as well: it's more like entering a museum of modern art than a typical hotel. In the case of The Opposite House this turns out to be a positive thing.