Mandarin Oriental to Finally Open Beijing Hotel – But Not the One You Think

Finally, after 11 years, Mandarin Oriental will open its first hotel in Beijing. At last. Maybe. 

For those paying attention, we've recycled a headline and almost the exact same first paragraph from a story we ran in 2017. That's because just over a year ago, Mandarin Oriental made almost the exact same announcement, promising us that their first property in Beijing, in Wangfujing, was finally going to open in 2018. And that hasn't happened.

Anyway, it's not the Mandarin Oriental hotel you're thinking of. Not the one next to the CCTV Tower that burned like a Roman candle in February 2009, when an illegal fireworks display (that had nothing to do with the hotel, its owners, or managers) ignited the roof, caught the building exterior's unique and flammable zinc coating on fire, and ultimately engulfed the entire structure, killing one firefighter in the process. The one that has had a Mandarin Oriental nameplate for at least three years on what should be its main entrance, hidden behind a metal door on the north side of the CCTV property. No, not that one.

It may also not be the property you're thinking of, the one we reported on in 2017. That property was first announced in June 2015 with an "expected" opening date of 2016 and cited as having a Wangfujing location. The 2017 press release proclaimed it "is located within the Qianmen East Hutong Quarter which is undergoing a process of preservation and regeneration," the company said in a statement. Actually, it's not. 

The company has named Mark S. Bradford, a Mandarin Oriental veteran, as its opening general manager. That one bit of information may indicate that this hotel is actually going to open sometime in the near future. 

The promised site is part of WF Central, a Hongkong Land project at 269 Wangfujing, so that's really Wangfujing and not Qianmen. It will feature 73 rooms and suites, a 25-meter lap pool, and a rooftop garden. The hotel will have at least two dining outlets, Mandarin Grill + Bar (with interiors by Adam Tihany) and Café Zi, created by Michelin-starred Hong Kong chef Wong Wing-Keung. There'll also be The Mandarin Cake Shop and patisseries and MO Bar for after-work cocktails.

Mandarin Oriental operates 31 hotels and eight residences in 20 countries and territories, including three in Hong Kong, and one each in Macau, Sanya, and Shanghai. The group is slated to open three new properties next year, including Wangfujing. The Excelsior Hotel, a Mandarin Oriental mainstay in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay, will close later this year, the company announced earlier in October. 

As for the CCTV site, still not a peep.

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Photos courtesy of Mandarin Oriental