Amanyangyun

Why stay here

A 140-hectare estate on Shanghai's southwestern edge, in Minhang, built out of a village and a forest that were physically moved there. Kerry Hill Architects reassembled 26 of 50 dismantled Ming and Qing houses and set contemporary pavilions among roughly 10,000 transplanted camphor trees. The resort currently has 24 contemporary suites and 11 Antique Villas, each villa holding four bedrooms around its own courtyards and private pool.

It is the most ambitious building project of any hotel in China and the only one where the fabric of the place is older than the city it stands in. You get an Aman operation 45 minutes from the Bund, with a forest, a lake and houses whose timber frames were numbered, crated and rebuilt. Two Michelin Keys.

The provenance. In 2002 the Jiangxi-born advertising entrepreneur Ma Dadong went home to Fuzhou, Jiangxi, and found that the Liao Fang reservoir would flood several historic villages and the thousand-year-old camphor forest around them; he had already seen felled trees cut up into tea tables for dam workers. He spent the next fifteen years moving 50 houses and about 10,000 trees roughly 700 km to Shanghai, brick by numbered brick. The largest camphor, now called the King Camphor Tree and weighing about 80 tonnes, was so big that a motorway toll booth had to be demolished to get it through. Aman joined the project in 2009; the resort opened on 8 January 2018.

Rooms worth asking for

An Antique Villa if the budget allows. The four-bedroom Ming houses with their own courtyards and pool are the entire reason the place exists; a contemporary Ming Courtyard Suite is excellent but is a very good modern Aman room anywhere in the world.

Note the exact room or suite name before opening the booking provider, along with any connecting-room, step-free access or celebration requests.

Dining & the evening ahead

Five outlets: Arva for Italian on the lake, Lazhu, Yinlu, the Lounge and Bei TeaHouse. Arva is the one to book. None currently holds a Michelin star.

Request restaurant availability alongside your stay. Tasting menus, private dining and dietary arrangements should be confirmed separately.

Spa, pool & wellbeing

A large Aman Spa and Wellness Centre with a Russian banya, spa pool, and Pilates and yoga studios. One of the two or three best hotel spas in China and a genuine reason to add a night.

Ask which facilities are included with your room, whether treatments require advance reservations, and whether any seasonal closures affect your stay.

Photos & films

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Shanghai, at your pace

Destination photography · explore the surrounding city.

Videos open on their publisher’s site. YouTube is unavailable in mainland China; watch before travelling.

Before you decide

The location is the whole argument against it. You are an hour from central Shanghai in traffic, so it works as a two- or three-night retreat bolted onto a city stay, not as a base for seeing Shanghai. The grounds are so large that getting between your villa, the restaurants and the spa means buggies and waiting. The camphor forest is young by forest standards, the trees having been transplanted and about 80 percent of them surviving the move, so it reads as a managed park rather than ancient woodland. Published facts are inconsistent: the number of antique houses restored is given variously as 13 villas, 26 houses and 26 antique rooms, and Aman's own site now lists 24 suites plus 11 villas. And a very rich stay built on a very moving story still has conference and wedding business on site at weekends.

Location. Minhang, 6161 Yuanjiang Road, on the far southwest edge of Shanghai. Roughly 45-60 minutes by car to the Bund, about 30 to Hongqiao airport and station.

Prices are indicative, not live availability. Confirm the total including taxes, meals, transfers and cancellation terms on the provider’s checkout before committing.