THE FACTS ABOUT COMMUNE BY THE GREAT WALL KEMPINSKI

China

Every year, eight million people visit the Shuiguan section of China's Great Wall in the Badaling Mountains, 70km north-west of Beijing. Stay at Kempinski's ironically named Commune (check out those little red stars on the austere staff uniforms), and you may have the wall to yourself, for a stretch of it runs though the grounds. Designed as a cluster of villas by 12 of Asia's pre-eminent architects, the Commune won the Special Prize at the 2002 Venice Biennale (Paris's Pompidou Centre has the model), but wasn't viable as a business. So it reopened as a hotel in 2006, with an additional 31 villas bringing the total to 42, with 201 bedrooms. There are four restaurants (the Sichuan menu is great), two bars, a library lined with peacock feathers, screening room, modern art gallery and private dining rooms with rabbit fur, straw and twigs on the walls. The new bedrooms don't have such high-flying designer interiors as the originals (furnished by Philippe Starck, Marc Newson and Karim Rashid); but they are striking nonetheless, especially in the 'Bamboo Wall' houses, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, where bamboo screens shade the floor-to-ceiling glass frontage and the rooms surround a Zen garden. It's not luxurious (mattresses on tatami mats rather than beds) and there's no furniture beyond cheaply finished built-in cupboards, but the aesthetic is tranquil and the views sublime. WHEN TO GO September and October. Summer can be stifling; winter snowy. ROOM TO BOOK Room 7827, in one of the Bauhaus-inspired 'Shared Houses' designed by Thai architect Kanika R'kul, has a great view of the Wall from its bath. CONTACT Exit 16 Shuiguan Badaling Highway, Beijing, China (00 800 4263 1355; www.kempinski-thegreatwall.com). COST Doubles from 1,100 yuan (about £75)