HOW LUXURY TRAVEL IS CHANGING IN CHINA

Despite slowing economic growth, luxury travel remains robust for China, but guest expectations have increased, says Waldorf Astoria Beijing's General Manager Christina Yang.

- AARON DE SILVA

Beijing, China - in a city that's more than 3,000 years old, time is measured on a different scale, compared to the relative youth of Singapore, at least. At the entrance of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing where I stayed on a recent trip, two majestic, heritage Sophora japonica trees - commonly known as Japanese pagoda or Chinese scholar trees - stood sentinel.

One was marked 310 years old, the other, 110. To think of the immense changes that they must have borne witness to as the world's second most powerful economy came into being: The rise and fall of the Qing dynasty; the establishment of the Republic of China; the Cultural Revolution.

Against this backdrop, it's perhaps fitting that clocks are a defining feature of Waldorf Astoria properties. The original Waldorf Astoria New York property on 34th Street (where the Empire Building now stands) boasted a grandfather clock purchased by business magnate and real estate developer John Jacob Astor IV.

Since then, clocks have been a mainstay in Waldorf Astoria hotel lobbies, acting as convenient meeting points for guests. The one in Beijing is a strikingly modern, deconstructed version of the New York original. Designed and crafted by Chinese artisans, it features a 2m-tall transparent clockwork mechanism that appears weightlessly suspended in mid-air.

It's also fitting that I'm in town to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Beijing property – though 10 years is a mere drop in the ocean considering the property's location, just a stone's throw away from the 600-year-old Forbidden City. The 176-key hotel was conceived as a contemporary reinterpretation of the former imperial palace.