Underwater

InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland

China

The fable

16 storeys down an abandoned quarry

Built 88 metres down the sheer wall of a flooded, abandoned quarry in Songjiang, 16 of its 18 floors sit below ground level and the lowest two underwater, where suites and a restaurant face a vast aquarium. Opened in 2018 as IHG's 200th InterContinental, with waterfalls pouring down the rock face past the glass elevators. The catch: It's a resort-district outpost roughly an hour from central Shanghai with little nearby, public areas draw crowds of day-trippers, and the underwater rooms command a steep premium.

• quarry hotel
• cliff-wall architecture
• underwater rooms
• 88 metres down