WHAT’S IT LIKE?

Opened in October 2013 The RitzCarlton Chengdu is among the hotelier’s first forays into so-called“secondary cities”in China – if you can call a megalopolis of some 14 million souls secondary. The southwestern Chinese city is the capital of Sichuan Province. Famous for the nearby Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, it possesses a more commercial side too. Chengdu produces a full 80 percent of the world’s iPads and is the site for a slew of Fortune 500 companies. Just so you get the point, it lays claim to printing the planet’s first paper money back in 1007. United Airlines just inaugurated nonstop Boeing 787 Dreamliner to the place from San Francisco, rendering it all the more accessible.

While the interior is chic and stylish, the exterior of the hotel is