The Temple House

The hotel development comes with impressive architectural credentials. Designed by Make Architects to pay tribute to its historic surroundings, it’s a part of the Chengdu Daci Temple Cultural & Commercial Complex, a sort of combined conservation/modernization project. The immediate upshot, for guests of the Temple House, is a drastic contrast of old and new — you’ll enter via a century-old Qing Dynasty courtyard building, before being whisked to your accommodations in one of the ultra-modern tower additions.

And those accommodations are predictably first-rate — spacious, bright, classically luxe and subtly high-tech. A handful of restaurants and bars provide ample opportunity for socializing over a meal or a drink, and the extensive spa offerings and the generous indoor pool provide venues for solo restoration. It’s the new breed of city luxury hotel: as much urban resort as office-away-from-home, combined with service that’s top-notch yet never rigid or excessively rule-governed. Get used to it.