August 2022

The Ritz-Carlton, Nanjing

Standing more than 200 meters above Deji Square

Overlooking Jinling from God's perspective

The entire city of Nanjing is in your eyes

The elegance of the Six Dynasties in the past

Today's city is prosperous

The autumn sun is lingering, and among the high-rise buildings in Xinjiekou, Nanjing, the sunset that is about to set in the west passes through the surrounding clouds and is plated with a layer of splendid Phnom Penh, plating the city with a halo. Thousands of sycamore trees stretch out, and the sun shines finely on the road around Deji Square through the sparse gaps, creating shadows and shadows.

This is undoubtedly the most prosperous area in Nanjing, where the 101st Ritz-Carlton hotel in the world is located.

Jiangnan beautiful land, Jinling Imperial Prefecture. As the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, Nanjing people have always preferred "lions" with great imperial style-you can count many of them just from the place names: Lion Bridge, Lion Mountain, Lion King's Mansion, as well as the famous gourmet lion heads, as well as the stone lion (Pixiu) that can be seen everywhere in the cemetery.

The arrival of the "Lion King" Ritz-Carlton seems to be a "inevitable".

It is rumored in the industry that it has single-handedly increased housing prices in the entire Nanjing hotel industry.

The second phase of Deji Plaza occupied by the Ritz-Carlton Nanjing uses several crisscrossing incisions to make the building more like a piece of building blocks. The exterior walls are intertwined with transparent blue glass and translucent light green. The glass blocks make the building seem to be wearing a bright and pretty fabric.

Deji is currently the most luxurious shopping mall in Nanjing, with famous brands such as LV and AMARNI. In order to provide better vision and provide guests with more privacy, the first floor area of the hotel's connected shopping mall has been built into a reception floor.

It is said that the countdown to the opening of the Ritz Carlton is different from the preparation method of most hotels. Whenever a Ritz is about to open, hundreds of experienced "blue blood people"(nicknames for Ritz employees) will be drawn from Ritz around the world to form a team of trainers to visit the Ritz who is about to open to teach and share their experiences and insights, conduct in-depth training for local employees, and test and adjust hotel facilities. Employees will experience everything in the hotel from a guest's perspective, understand customer needs as their roles change, and refine their own hospitality aesthetics.

Luxury hardware is only a very small part of the hotel's composition. The operation of every Ritz is inseparable from the careful preparation and precise operation of a huge system that is well-trained and well-coordinated.

Nanjing Ritz's opening remarks took into account the grace of the Ritz and the Zen meaning of the oriental courtyard. The two half-moon-shaped landscape gardens were planted with century-old Podocarpus trees, surrounding a sculpted fountain. The miniature "landscape" formed a small paradise, isolating the hustle and bustle of the bustling shopping center and guarding the majestic hotel entrance to a quiet, elegant and charming place.

The main entrance of the hotel does not face the street directly. It cleverly uses a turntable design, and the eight-ton sculpture "Rhythm" is also located here. Cars also use this circular route to enter and exit, thereby greatly ensuring privacy.

The three-meter-high white sculpture "Rhythm" created by Colombia artists adheres to the luxury standards of the Ritz brand. The seemingly low-key work of art is actually made of a whole piece of precious Italian Carrara marble. Made of-the same material as Michelangelo's famous "David".

The sufficient lighting and astonishing height of the bottom arrival hall are impressive, providing sufficient extension space for two giant contemporary sculptures with respect to 1.4 tons, reflecting the elegant name of the place known as the "Museum of Contemporary Art". The elevator hall leading to the sky lobby displays the multimedia art "Flowing Gold", which shows the magnificent picture presented by the flowing sand and brings movement to the deep and steady indoor tone.

Nanjing Ritz's treatment of culture and locality is complex and rule-based, guiding guests to explore the city from the bottom of their hearts.

The Ritz-Carlton is called the "roof of the world", and high floors are her consistent pursuit.

The decorative paintings and carefully adjusted ambient lighting in the elevator room in the sky lobby leading to the 38th floor convey the designer's ingenuity.

The hotel incorporates "five elements" into the design, and "water" as a flowing element is a landscape that can be seen everywhere in the Ritz in Nanjing-flowing from the 40th floor to the 38th floor, just as the city has always been nurtured by the Yangtze River and the Qinhuai River. The tenderness is like water. "Gold" is the most widely used one, with golden plum blossoms, metal walls, gold embossed guide boards, gold backgrounds... and the combination of wooden tables and chairs, clay porcelain and other objects of different materials has a very ancient charm.

In order to highlight the hotel's importance to the catering experience and respect for the privacy of guests, after the public elevator opens in the sky lobby on 38F, the first thing that comes into view is the lobby lounge rather than the front desk.

The lobby bar spread around the floor-to-ceiling windows has been specially raised to the height of four steps, giving a three-dimensional spatial level. The window part of the lounge is not only equipped with a long bar facing the window, but is also filled with poems showing the beautiful scenery of Nanjing, becoming a commentary that will never be out of date when leaning on the fence and looking into the distance. The non-window part is divided into small rooms by an array of bookcases. The sheltered atmosphere and the rich aesthetic and philosophical readings on the bookcases help guests travel through the sea of books.

With its tall stature, the tall and extended dome of the sky lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Nanjing covers the entire view. The 38th floor lobby lounge has the bustling Xinjiekou and the dazzling Xuanwu Lake Temple in the distance as the background. Decently dressed guests come and go laughing, and the space is still comfortable and calm.

Look out at Zijin Mountain and overlook Xuanwu Lake.

Walking into the hotel, you can immediately feel the beauty of the elements from this ancient capital of the Six Dynasties and the connection between time and modern culture. What Nanjing has experienced is exactly what time has experienced, and it will be imprinted everywhere, evoking unique memories of history.

Nanjing Ritz is known in the industry as the "Museum of Contemporary Art".

Use a set of numbers to summarize the entire hotel's collection, that is: art works range from 16 countries, more than 70 artists, more than 300 kinds of art works, 900 more than decoration seats, 6000+ books... In short, it is firmly wrapped by the artistic atmosphere.

The most special and conspicuous thing that can be called the treasure of the town store is the "Art Wall" with works of different eras in Nanjing. The art wall in the lobby of the 38th floor of the hotel adopts the layout and display method commonly used in museums. Works representing the peak of artistic development in Jiangnan from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the present are elegantly displayed: In 1519, Tang Yin wrote 15 hand-drawn scrolls of seven-character quatrains, Ma Shouzhen's "Orchid Bamboo Stone Painting" fan pages, Fu Baoshi's "Travel in Yunlin", and Guan Jun's "Leisure and Occasional Message"... It integrates calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting and Western-style oil painting and other artistic expressions to vividly show the elegance and elegance of the ancient capital of Jinling.

Under the faint light, this wall in front of the high pavilion is less noisy and looks particularly elegant. The two groups of Bakara crystal cups next to them have their own bearing, and those who don't know the trade can see that they are valuable.

There are also many plant picture books on display on the lounge bookcase, which just leads to the two Carrara marble sculptures symbolizing "Seed" and "Valley" on the mirror pools at both ends of the lounge. Together with the many philosophical books lingering in the lounge, it is an in-depth discussion of the relationship between life and the continuation of time.

I like Guan Jun's calligraphy and the Carrara marble sculpture "Seed" in a corner of the lobby bar, as if thinking and telling the birth of life.

On the 39th floor are two Chinese restaurants, Pinning House and Diyue Xuan.

The lighting at the gate of Diyue Xuan, which focuses on high-end Cantonese cuisine, is very well applied. It uses multiple private boxes and a hall area with only a small number of tables to highlight its respect for privacy. A corridor decorated with countless door frames and wall lamps runs through the two Chinese restaurants. The end of each corridor ends with a waterfall wall, avoiding the usual dullness of walking along the closed corridor with a dramatic sense. Each box is the name of Nanjing's ancient city gates, Huaiyuan, Tongji, Yifeng, Zhengyang... If you come for dinner with authentic Nanjing friends, I believe they can all tell the stories of these 13 city gates.

Pinningfu's open kitchen makes people's appetite increase before entering the restaurant-facing the rising steam of the steaming spots and the busy figures of the chefs also gives the restaurant a more theater effect. It also serves Huaiyang cuisine, especially Nanjing's local cuisine. The dual characteristics of Pinningfu's openness and exquisiteness are vividly displayed.

The tableware of Pinning Prefecture was inspired by the "Jinling Painting" written by Feng Ning, a court painter of the Qing Dynasty. Every utensil was hand-painted by the painter and strictly fired. The prosperity and elegance of the ancient capital Jinling can be tasted on the tip of your tongue and appreciated at your fingertips.

The design uses a large number of wall brick elements, which has the ancient charm of dining on the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty.

Pinning Prefecture has the advantage of being affordable to the people, and almost all seats are packed.

As the saying goes,"Drunken crabs don't look at the lights, chickens don't look at the lights, swordfish don't look at the Qingming Festival, and sturgeon don't look at the Dragon Boat Festival." Huaiyang cuisine is also known as rich cuisine. The dishes from Yangzhou's pleasure boat records, the big salt merchants of that time, and those people who may be comparable to today's celebrities and rich people, sat in their own deep courtyards and enjoyed privately, and later entered the palace and the elegant hall for state banquets. Now it can be reproduced in Pinning Prefecture.

"Tokyo Dream Hua Lu" by Yuanlao Meng of the Southern Song Dynasty said,"The treasures of the world are collected in the market; the peculiar smell of Huihuan District is all in the kitchen." Such Bianjing can really be called a paradise on earth. At that time, it was a landmark place for the city's prosperity, from poetry to calligraphy and painting, from porcelain to delicious food.

Today, Nanjing Ritz continues its unique way of perceiving ancient aesthetics and diet. When encountering a low point in life, it is intoxicated with the study of braised pork, lingering in the mountains, forests and snow just to find delicacy and the secrets of cooking.

One meal, one cup and one chopstick, explore the elegant and interesting things of that time from the ancient food.

Huaiyang cuisine, which is mainly lively and exquisite, has been given new changes by the chef. The exquisite cutting skills, skillful arrangement, and precise color matching make Huaiyang cuisine like a finely carved and finely chiseled handicraft-the pork neck snowflake meat is added to the dish and the clear stewed lion's head made with pigeon egg clear. The broth is stewed for 6 hours on slow fire. It is a must-eat dish for many diners who come here to admire it. In one bite, I ate the article. Ouyang Xiu, the prefect, waved thousands of words at the Pingshantang banquet. Respect for the wonderful scenery and inner drama of food literature.

Hetang Brew is made with delicious dolphin meat, marinated with green onion, ginger pieces, pepper and dried tangerine peel, and placed into a hollowed lotus seed. It is served with soft waxy chicken head rice, which is mixed with the fresh lotus seed flavor and has an extremely rich taste. Lotus roots were brought into the game on the plate, creating a beautiful scenery and clear moon that was a good season in Jiangnan. Let me eat Su Li and know Yangzhou. I cooked fish belly with the Fourth Scholar Flying Snow, and Mingzhu discussed the story of cooking chicken heads in a fight.

Crab stuffed orange is a must. Choose a large ripe orange, cut off the top, and scrape out the pulp with only a little orange juice. Then fill in the steamed crab meat and crab roe, put it into a small cup and steam it with wine, vinegar and water. The aroma of oranges and the tender freshness of crabs are fully released, just like the collection of poems in the lotus lotus root pavilion in the Grand View Garden. The aroma of fresh fruits from the lake gathers in the dish, giving people a taste of new wine, chrysanthemums, oranges, and crabs.

The golden jade soup brought Du Shaomu's lingering sense of Jiangnan. The selection of delicate and clear water-skiing tofu requires the chef to be calm and calm with the knife without distracting thoughts. Use a straight knife to slice the tofu first and then shred it. The length is uniform and thin enough to thread a needle. The entire cutting process requires no distractions and one go in one go.

Cut the fat and lean pork into one-inch cubes, add wine and soy sauce, marinate it, put it into a pottery bowl, add a little water, and simmer it over a charcoal fire. The Dongpo meat is soft but not rotten, and the fat but not greasy., makes us cry to lose weight happily enjoy the guilty happiness of bursting into our mouths.

The dessert is a group of ink paintings, and the chestnut cake is paired with lotus cake. It is sweet but not greasy and makes people satisfied.

Such an elegant tribute to the flavor of Jinling, the lanterns are beginning to discuss ancient and modern times.

The 40th floor is an air sports space composed of three parts: SPA, swimming pool and gym.

The swimming pool surrounded by three-sided floor-to-ceiling glass windows looks like a greenhouse under the shade of green plants. The swimming pool is 23 meters long and surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows and green plants. The biggest feature is that it has a holiday-style sofa area on the side-Chinese window frames incorporate delicate pavilions, arhat beds and sunbathing loungers blend in harmony, and Chinese beams and Western-style arches complement each other.

At around 6 o'clock in the afternoon every day, the afterglow of the setting sun drills in through the high-altitude glass windows and sprinkles on the water of the swimming pool. The little girl dives into the water like golden cloud-damask and performs a 20-meter "butterfly leaning on the frog" scene, which is stunned. People around her. When professional lifeguards come to chat, they will tell us very carefully how to visit Jinling City...

The pool is closed at 11pm, but the gym is open 24 hours a day.

The gym with beautiful scenery of Xinjiekou, in addition to the excellent scenery, is equipped with high-end technogym equipment. It also has the only treadmill used by professional athletes in Jiangsu Province, body fat monitoring instruments, and impressive ones resembling robots. The big white water receiving bucket... This perfection directly surprised Ms. Cheng Zijia, a fitness maniac in the same industry, who spent 3 hours a day rolling iron + swimming, and had to drag before she was willing to leave.

As a major feature of the brand,"Ritz-Carlton Spa" is also highly recommended to experience it. Eight spa rooms use rain stones as room numbers, and there are business-class recliners in the lounge. The Spa is also marked with peach pink-FRETTE also asked its Italian design team to create an exclusive peach pink bathrobe for the hotel Spa, which is beautiful and healing.

It is particularly worth mentioning that the spa uses La Mer Aquamiga and Swiss Perfection spa professional care products to provide a lady-level skin care experience.

Room 5810 we stayed in was an executive suite.

There is independent administrative courtesy and a separate front desk on the 58th floor. When checking in, you can sit in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass surrounded on both sides and enjoy afternoon tea while enjoying a panoramic view of Zijin Mountain, Xuanwu Lake, Zhongshan Road and the Yangtze River.

The suite is remarkable and provides a more pleasant space to stretch out.

The dark wood-colored custom furniture in the room complements the tranquil and peaceful indoor environment. The concise and elegant design brushstrokes are sublimated from the Chinese-style frame structure, and the neatly cut lines form a transparent and clear temperament.

There are many heroes in the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, and the front half of the guest room highlights "elegance". What is moving is that the designer used almost the entire wall to create a bookcase, which displays classics of Eastern and Western literature (the English version of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and the Chinese version of "Pride and Prejudice"),"The Eighteen Monsters of Yangzhou" and art books related to the hotel's art display.

The display of the "office area" in the room is also very rich. The T-shaped desk has extremely diverse functions. The prominent part in the middle can work happily and eat leisurely. The extended part of the table also hides jewelry boxes and illuminated dressing mirrors, blending multiple needs. Bookcases are grouped together and display various books, porcelain, and artist paintings. The "Tender Lotus Tea Set with Dew" for drinking tea is very famous. It is made of Yixing celadon from intangible cultural heritage and personally carried out by Tan Zhijian, a master of ceramic art, and is of great value.

The indomitable wall of books and Chen Qi's "Wormhole" on a pillar at the corner of the room match each other.

It runs through the worship of nature and the respect for culture in details.

Integrating Nanjing's local elements into the room design, the night lights and frame lights use plum blossoms patterns imitating glaze texture; the wall decoration tiles in the bathroom incorporate the shape of lotus petals (Xuanwu Lake is a wonderful place to enjoy lotus flowers); On the partition between the two makeup mirrors in the bathroom, there is a decoration with gold foil craftsmanship (Nanjing has a history of producing gold foil for 2500 years, concentrating 70% of the country's and 60% of the world's gold foil production).

The octagonal shape is also a key design element throughout the room: the octagonal ceiling above the bed, the octagonal vanity mirror in the bathroom and the octagonal bathtub frame. These recurring elements effectively enhance the utility and sense of system of the space.

The bathroom area is very satisfying and the brand used is sincere. The bathtub is in Kaldewei, Germany, which is used by 40% of luxury hotels, and the bathtub wall is only 3.5 mm thick; the shower head comes from Dornbracht, Germany, and each faucet costs tens of thousands; the mouthwash cup is also unambiguous, using a lead-free crystal glass from the German professional wine glass brand Schott Zwiesel; the spare part is Asprey made by the British royal family.

The full minibar table, the equipped Spiegelau crystal cups, and even the mixing tools. Even the weighing scale comes from Aliseo in Germany, making the horrific part of weighing into enjoyment.

SIMMONS's Beauty's Rest600 black-label mattresses, FRETTE customized towels, pajamas and bathrobes; unique local lotus bath salts, Tivoli Audio Bluetooth slightly and wireless charger at the bedside... perfect the concept of luxury service to the extreme.

Telescopes are placed in premium rooms and above.

What do you see through the telescope?

The Ritz-Carlton Nanjing has a total of five restaurants and bars. The French Xinyi all-day restaurant, Diyue Xuan, which specializes in Cantonese cuisine, Pinning Mansion, which combines Huaiyang cuisine and Nanjing cuisine, the lobby lounge, which can overlook the city while enjoying afternoon tea, and FLAIR on the top floor.

The Executive Lounge located on the 58th floor also continues to express dramatic tension and control the sense of spatial hierarchy. The Executive Lounge offers 5 meals a day, special car delivery within three kilometers, free ironing of clothes, 24-hour free in-room coffee and tea services... making this world's 101st Ritz even more powerful and fully blooming.

This administrative courtesy is really suitable for all kinds of high-luxury hotels. This also convinced me that Nanjing Ritz has single-handedly increased hotel prices in the entire city.

When I arrived, I had afternoon tea while checking in and marveled at Nanjing's city scenery. The chocolate was shaped like a rain stone, which was very realistic; needless to say for breakfast, I had to order Nanjing Duck Blood and vermicelli soup to truly visit Jinling. The quality of lunch and dinner is excellent-pipa shrimp, 5J ham, freshly fried steak, lobster soaked in rice, sashimi... the joy is extended to the sweet time at 10 p.m., and you can DIY mixing drinks as you please!

The dining environment has both open spaces and several cut private spaces. There is a small conference room at the innermost end for group construction and meetings. A separate area has been opened on this side of the bar with a TV for fans to watch the game. The service of gentlemen and ladies is remarkable. No matter when you need it, they will always come to you at the right time...

Of course, in addition to all the above, those who like to have a richer drink can go to FLAIR on the 62nd floor of the hotel, like us. This is the best bar in Nanjing, providing everything you need to drink or smoke a cigar.

This was a rhythm that would not allow us to leave the hotel at all!

Yes, we didn't leave for three days!

- END -

text| Master Lian

typesetting| Seven slices of tangerine peel and salty plum blossoms

picture| Lotus seeds, some pictures provided by the Ritz-Carlton, Nanjing

It's not easy to be original. If you refuse without permission, you will steal.