You could easily fit seven bodies shoulder to shoulder on this mattress
the fact that most stand-alone facilities in Shenzhen are open all night. The menu is extensive, and just reading it you feel like you might be an emperor, as you ponder choices such as The First Temptation of Lotus (actually, a tightening and brightening caviar facial) or Touch from Heaven (a half-day package including scrub, massage, body wrap and facial). There are more westernised solutions too, whether a Milk-Honey Firming Body Wrap or The Ritz-Carlton Signature Elements Massage – the latter of which I try, but am unable properly to review due to that dratted therapist’s ability to put me instantly in a state of complete relaxation and utter brain-deadness.
You, too, will be loathe to leave the property while basking in your post-spa glow (and let’s face it, that bed is calling your name), but Xingli is a good option for dinner, offering elegant Chinese fare at prices quite palatable when compared with Hong Kong restaurants of a similar standard. Don’t overindulge just yet, though, because tomorrow’s Sunday brunch isn’t just a treat – it’s a challenge.
The Chinese-hospitality mantra of “more is more” finds footing on the second floor of the hotel, where two restaurants – all-day café Flavorz and the Italian Paletto – as well as an interconnecting corridor are transformed into the biggest buffet your eyes or stomach have had the joy, or horror, of contemplating, for a very reasonable RMB428. The classics are all there, but there’s no shortage of diversity, either: think preserved century quail eggs and more types of smoothies than you can count, with wandering random staff dressed as Winnie the Pooh acting as eye-candy As if the spread isn’t enough, designated waiters meander the venues carefully in duos, hoisting planks of extra dishes – luscious spreads of sushi, an eight-foot-long cake, or an abacustype apparatus featuring something like 15 spindles of pastel-coloured frosted doughnuts. Since it takes a good 10 minutes simply to contemplate the whole spread with your eyes, the hotel offers four hours of dining time, and there’s a free-flow wine option for only an additional RMB160…
By the time that’s over, it’s high time to head back to the train station – by Rolls-Royce, of course, though this time, awkwardly, our vehicle is decked out in ribbons and other accoutrements in honour of the hotel’s annual wedding fair. Perhaps that’s a fittingly festive end to an age of excess in, of all places, Shenzhen. I can think of no place more extravagant to spend my weekend.