Shangri-La Shougang Park, Beijing

A Shangri-La Built Inside a Steel Mill

Shougang Steelworks ran on this site in Shijingshan from 1919 until its blast furnaces were moved 150 miles away to Hebei province, leaving behind a company town that once housed 60,000 workers under China's old danwei system. Rather than clear the site, Shangri-La and Milan-based designer Piero Lissoni converted a 1986 factory building into a hotel, stripping its facades back to a concrete frame and steel roof trusses and building the public rooms inside a volume 67 feet high. A new 280-room wing runs parallel to it, reached by an elevated steel bridge across an open courtyard, and one of the old blast furnaces still stands on the grounds, a reminder of what the site used to make.

Why It Works

We kept this one on the list because the industrial story is real, not a theme. CCTN Design and Lissoni Casal Ribeiro kept the steel trusses and concrete frame of the original factory rather than hiding them behind a conventional lobby, and the fitness centre's pool sits inside its own fully glazed volume under that original structure. The project took on a genuine engineering problem, a local code capping facade glazing at 30 percent, and solved it with specially glazed ventilated tiles rather than diluting the design. It is the only hotel on this list built from a steel mill, and it still reads as one.

Why This Location

Shangri-La Shougang Park sits in Shijingshan District on Beijing's western edge, beside Qunming Lake and the wider Shougang Park redevelopment rather than among the capital's central sights. The preserved blast furnaces nearby served as the backdrop for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics big air competition, including Eileen Gu's gold-medal run, which makes the surrounding park itself a short walk worth taking rather than a view from a window. The Forbidden City and central Beijing sit a drive away, so this is a base for the Olympic park and Shijingshan's own sights first, and the old town second.

Fast Facts

• Prix: €€€€ (Luxe)

• Vibe: industrial-luxury, design-led, quietly dramatic

• Chambres: 280, in a new wing linked to the original factory building

• Best For: design and architecture travellers, guests who followed the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, anyone who wants a five-star stay with an industrial history

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the swimming pool and gym, set inside a fully glazed volume built within the original steel-trussed factory shell

• Dining: ground-floor restaurants and bars open to the public, with a lobby bar built around potted trees and a water feature

• Amenities: indoor pool, fitness centre, mezzanine lounges enclosed in a wood-slat “nest”, a preserved blast furnace on the grounds

• Attractions: Shougang Park and its Olympic big air venue, Qunming Lake, central Beijing (a drive away)

A Factory Lobby Wrapped in Wood

The hotel's public rooms unfold inside the old factory's full height rather than being carved into separate floors: ground-level lounges, restaurants and bars open straight onto the park, with potted trees and a water feature softening the industrial shell. One level up, the lobby and further lounges sit inside what the architects call a nest of wood slats, a warm, contained room built as its own structure inside the original volume. The effect is deliberately layered: steel and concrete overhead, timber and planting at eye level.

Where the New Wing Meets the Old

The 280 guest rooms live in an entirely new concrete-frame building that runs parallel to the converted factory, crossed by an elevated steel bridge over an open courtyard. It is a practical separation as much as an architectural one: the old structure carries the public, double-height spaces that need its scale, while the new wing keeps a conventional room layout behind a mostly glazed facade of low-E glass and operable windows. The result is a hotel that reads as one building from a distance and two very different ones once you are inside.

Before You Book: Getting To and From Shijingshan

Shijingshan sits on Beijing's western edge, closer to the Western Hills than to Tiananmen Square, so budget more time to reach the old town's sights than from a hotel nearer the centre. The Olympic park itself, including the preserved blast furnaces and the big air venue, is the draw on the doorstep and worth at least half a day on foot. Families are accepted and the hotel's fitness centre and pool are open daily; pets are not accommodated.