Harmony and luxury for the traveler in Shanghai
Tucho Iglesias, a businessman in his thirties, undertook an adventure in Shanghai a few years ago: opening ChaiLiving , a series of residences of the highest level aimed at housing visitors or executives who spend periods in the city.
He sought to create a sophisticated and offer impeccable service in a charming space . He found it in a building where local families now live, the Embankment , a construction from the 1930s that reflects the splendor of that colonial era.
Sleeping in oriental luxury is this
More Eastern, you can't
Chai is a word that designates a Chinese tea that mixes very different flavors to achieve harmony in a single flavor, and that is the idea of the twenty residences that make up Chai Living, from which the Pudong district and the Suzhou River are overlooked.
Iglesias has carried out the interior design, inspired by traditional Chinese culture. He has incorporated materials such as jade, Chinese blue porcelain or Peking glass , and the furniture is contemporary, but follows the art deco lines marked by its architecture.
"The city of Shanghai has an unparalleled energy, everything goes a thousand miles an hour. There is a lot to do, the Shanghainese are open to everything new and here I feel free to develop ideas. The most important thing for me is the satisfaction of the people that have passed through Chai, and this helps to grow and for more projects to prosper, ”says Tucho.
Kitchen of one of the Chai Living residences
Bathroom of one of the residences
In addition, it has the Chai Living Gallery , where works of contemporary chinese and european art for sale , furniture, objects and old books, and which is attended by local clients and buyers from all over the world. There is the Lounge , a restaurant and center for cultural meetings in the city that offers light cuisine of Asian and Mediterranean origin and some tapas, reminiscent of the Madrid origin of its promoter.
Iglesias also guides us through his favorite places in Shanghai: his favorite restaurant is ultraviolet , an experimental center of conceptual gastronomy. Another charming restaurant is Sichuan Citizen , with spicy food. Among museums, he advises the RAM, the Rock and Art Museum . To go shopping, Dong Liang , a multi-brand store, and the fabric market in the south of the bundle , where you can pick up any order in just two days. to go out for drinks, constellation , which has three locations in the city.
The Chinese tradition mixes with the most current art
Lounge, the restaurant of Chai Living
"Hope is neither reality nor chimera. It is like the roads of the Earth: on Earth there were no roads; they have been made by the great number of passers-by". This phrase from Lu Xun, one of the great Chinese writers of the early 20th century, sums up very well the shanghai city essence , crossroads, mix of cultures, illusions, excesses and hope. Pulses that converge in the heart of a large city where the traveler can also rest.
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Embankment Building in 1932