MICE CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE

By Dr. Zuzana Adamson

The splendid and luxurious St. Regis Beijing, located in the heart of Beijing’s diplomatic and business quarter is the perfect place for luxurious trips, MICE events and elite business travellers. The hotel is a great location for any kind of event in the proximity of the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Silk Market and the Temple of Heaven.

This splendid hotel was chosen for our group of international B2B media and MICE buyers by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism which organised the Beijing part of our programme. Did you know that more people live in Beijing than there are in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia?

The suites offer magical Chinese furniture decorated with various painted historical and legendary scenes

while the kitchen corner offers good equipment including a Nespresso machine and a plethora of drinks.

The living room offers space and background for small discussions, negotiation activities, a desk and telephone,

and you can enjoy a special 24-hour butler service to instantly bring you a nice cup of coffee, some cookies, and various drinks to help you clear your mind and boost productivity. You can also book a glass of Champagne in advance if you have something to celebrate with your colleagues, and it can be served in your suite or in the beautiful hotel lobby area.

In the bedroom, there are comfortable king or queen-size beds offering ideal conditions for a good sleep, then there is a spacious bathroom with a bath and a separate shower. The toilet is equipped with a warming WC seat with various functions and technologies.

A separate dressing room will be especially appreciated by women, and everything is completed by a small writing table in the corner.

St. Regis Beijing offers exclusive suites for business people and executive managers where you can find even more services to support your work and business activities. What is also great is the fitness centre, a large exercise room, a swimming pool, an Iridium Spa with services and mineral springs that spout from 1500 metres underground, and clothes cleaned and delivered on the same day, and last but not least the Press Club hotel bar. The hotel also has three fantastic restaurants where you can enjoy or organise a nice dinner, a special event or romantic moments with your beloved.

Breakfast offers a plethora of specialities in the form of free choice/buffet, and you can enjoy it outside with a view over a lovely green garden, or indoors if you prefer. Some of the specialities really are pieces of art including a great temple from the Forbidden City that you can eat! But I did not see anybody have the heart to cut a piece, and therefore to destroy it. The guests simply admired the beauty of this edible artwork.

The splendid St. Regis Hotel in Beijing is an excellent quiet, luxurious and noble hotel providing high quality services in an ideal city-centre location, where it hosts special events, conferences and meetings.

It offers splendid meetings rooms and ballrooms with the latest technology and excellent services in a space of 1759 square metres. The largest room can hold 600 people and altogether there are nine meeting rooms and seven smaller rooms. As well as special events, conferences and meetings there are a lot of weddings organised here.

From the rich programme for delegates, I chose the iconic Temple of Heaven, located in the southeastern part of central Beijing having previously visited around 2008, 17 years ago. As well as the Temple of Heaven, there is also the Temple of Earth and the third element of this triangle is Human/Human being; all three should be in harmony.

Our group had the privilege to attend a beautiful musical concert used during spiritual rituals in areas that are not normally accessible to the public. Throughout history, the Temple of Heaven has served emperors and rulers with rituals addressed to God for rich harvests and prosperity for the nation and its people. In one special ritual, there was for example a period of solitude and fasting for the Emperor.

After the unique musical performance, our group of MICE B2B media delegates and international buyers had a kung-fu lesson in one of the outdoor spaces.

The day was very well organised and the programme offered a lot of “Wows”. After the memorable visit to the Temple of Heaven, we were transferred to the Pearl Market where we were welcomed at the top floor terrace, with superb cakes in the form of the temple, iced coffee and gorgeous views over the city.

The afternoon’s spectacle of acrobatic shows in the Red Theatre was fantastic.

China has a long tradition of acrobatics and the Chinese artists are among the best in the world. Graceful choreography, complex figures, physical flexibility and the art of acrobatics – all of this amazed every one of us.

China puts a lot of emphasis on the physical condition of its people, and promotes sport and exercise. On TV for example, they have programmes to teach you ballet and its positions. Simply turn on the TV and you can exercise with leaders – fantastic!

The next amazing experience of our rich daily programme was a visit to Pop Land that has acquired huge popularity in China, and its iconic soft toys are gaining traction all over the world. Pop Land is a theme park featuring the Labubu soft toy that has become a huge global trend. Celebrities are now hanging soft toys like Mokoko and Labubu on their luxury Louis Vuitton and Prada bags!

At the age of just 38, Wang Ning, founder of the Chinese company and chairman of Pop Mart has a fortune valued at $18 billion. And the value of Pop Mart’s stocks, available on the Hong Kong stock exchange, continues to grow astronomically. Many purchases of Labubu and other soft toys are coming from the USA, where they are almost 60% more expensive there than they are in China, and that’s before tax. Social media and influencers continue to expand this trend that grows on a daily basis.

The Pop Land amusement park, opened in September 2023, now extends over 40,000 square metres and offers a plethora of costumed performances, loads of fun, and offers camping next to the river and in green areas. You can hire a small chariot to drive around in, enjoy nice food in the restaurants or purchase soft playthings and other objects connected to the world of these trendy toys.

Come the evening, the Liangma River Night Cruise would take us to another world where reality blends with fiction and imagination. It offers a surreal combination of the urban infrastructure (bridges, riverbanks, panorama of buildings) and new technology with AI (bridges with electrical plants and flowers, big superficial butterflies spreading their wings 24/7 on the river banks and colour-changing lights).

The surreal, dreamy atmosphere is accompanied by music performances by interpreters with various musical instruments from a small boat that navigates around your boat. It creates the feeling that you are a part of a new, different, dreamlike world or a spectacle where reality merges with fiction. Is AI dangerous or is this just the pleasant beginning of something else? Whichever, it is beautiful and a must-do while you are in Beijing although it is a little scary as it makes you think: where and how far can it go?