White Sail Hotel — Shenzhen, China

As capitalist ideals go, it’s difficult to beat a luxury hotel, much less one that is located within the compounds of a swanky yacht club. Which only goes to show just how hybridised China’s communist model has become.
Located in the southern province of Shenzhen, within easy nautical reach of Hong Kong, the Seven Star Bay Yacht Club is a symbol of China’s new(ish) wealth, its bijou harbour sprinkled with expensive floating trophies against a backdrop of low-slung tree-cloaked mountains.
Open to the public, The White Sail Hotel's vast interiors have been conceived by local firm Ronger Design and Consultants. The lobby, in particular, is a grand triple-volumed stage set crowned by a peaked dome with striated light panels.
Both bedrooms and public spaces are dressed in handsome, textured fabrics, bamboo accessories and clean-lined furniture, while the artwork and decorative tchotchkes take their cue from nautical and sporting themes.
All the rooms are orientated towards views of the marina. Oddly, for a hotel of this calibre, there is neither a spa nor in-house restaurant, so, for now, diversions are limited to lingering views of that incomparable backdrop of mountain, greenery, sky and water.
INFORMATION
Website
ADDRESS
7 Star Bay
Dongshan Community
Nan’ao Sub-district
Longgang District
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
PHOTOGRAPHY
JING Xu-Feng
Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
-
The Stuff That Surrounds, episode three: Inside the home of architect Glenn Sestig
In The Stuff That Surrounds, Wallpaper* explores a life through objects. This episode, we’re invited inside an architectural gem – just what you'd expect from one of the most distinctive voices in the field today
-
Germane Barnes just transformed a humble Indiana parking garage into an enormous sub-woofer system
With Joy Riding, the Miami-based designer’s installation at Exhibit Columbus, Barnes celebrates togetherness by evoking Black car culture
-
The best Ruth Asawa exhibition is actually on the streets of San Francisco
The artist, now the subject of a major retrospective at SFMOMA, designed many public sculptures scattered across the Bay Area – you just have to know where to look
-
Discover a futuristic bar in Shanghai with mad-scientist energy
Penicillin opens in Shanghai with a clinical steel and concrete design by LC Studio alongside trailblazing, sustainable cocktails
-
A colossal ‘ship’ in Shanghai honours Louis Vuitton’s travel legacy
Louis Vuitton’s The Louis is an OMA-designed hub combining retail, culture and dining in the heart of Nanjing West Road
-
Tour the best contemporary tea houses around the world
Celebrate the world’s most unique tea houses, from Melbourne to Stockholm, with a new book by Wallpaper’s Léa Teuscher
-
Prada and Wong Kar-wai dream up a cinematic restaurant in Shanghai
Prada partners with Wong Kar-wai to bring Mi Shang Rong Zhai to life, a dining experience influenced by the arthouse director’s seminal oeuvre
-
Enjoy heritage views and contemporary brews at a new Beijing café
JM Café, White Pagoda Temple by B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio nods to the history of the Xicheng District while injecting a shot of vitality
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy design
There’s more magic to the movies at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s ‘flying’ roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
-
China’s Alila Shanghai hotel is a stylish hub of idle tranquillity
Alila Shanghai, the brand's first urban resort in Greater China, is a serene bolthole amidst the pulse of the Jing'an district
-
2025 getaways: where Wallpaper* editors will be travelling to this year
From the Japanese art islands of Naoshima and Teshima to the Malaysian tropical paradise of Langkawi, here’s where Wallpaper* editors plan to travel to in 2025