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Run to the Moganshan Hills
Where to stay: Naked Retreats
January 20, 2010
Early last century, wealthy foreigners living in Shanghai came to Moganshan to lounge away the summer in stone villas, play tennis, and swim in the municipal pool. Today, the pool is overgrown and many of the villas have fallen into disrepair. But nearly a century after vacationers were carried through the bamboo forests on sedan chairs, Moganshan is being reinvented as a humble escape from the frantic juggernaut three hours away.
Naked Retreats, a collection of restored farmhouses, embodies the new Moganshan. Don't be fooled by the name — nudity is confined to your bungalow (apropos of which Romance packages are about $295 per person for a two-night stay).
The concept for the two-year-old retreat came to South African and Shanghai expat Grant Horsfield who, while on vacation in Vietnam, realized the need for a rustic escape from life and work in China's financial capital. Horsfield teamed up with Briton Gabriela Lo, who shortly after stumbled upon a decaying Moganshan village (the youngest resident was 61 years old). "Once I found the village," Lo says, "I thought, This is it." After initial skepticism from the locals, Naked leased six of the village's 18 houses and now employs nine of its 14 residents.
Upon arrival, guests are taken on a "decompression walk" and encouraged to spend a few minutes in awe of the scenery, "just to appreciate where we are," says Doug Lapuc, resident manager. Activities include cycling, bass fishing and mountain hikes. But Naked Retreats' best feature is serenity. Visitors can wander through dewy tea plantations and bamboo forests, or swim in a reservoir to the buzz of cicadas. Accommodations are basic — the wooden floors creak and there's no air-conditioning — but bungalows come with Western-style kitchens, flat-screen TVs and wireless Internet. See nakedretreats.cn.
Where to stay: Naked Retreats
January 20, 2010
Early last century, wealthy foreigners living in Shanghai came to Moganshan to lounge away the summer in stone villas, play tennis, and swim in the municipal pool. Today, the pool is overgrown and many of the villas have fallen into disrepair. But nearly a century after vacationers were carried through the bamboo forests on sedan chairs, Moganshan is being reinvented as a humble escape from the frantic juggernaut three hours away.
Naked Retreats, a collection of restored farmhouses, embodies the new Moganshan. Don't be fooled by the name — nudity is confined to your bungalow (apropos of which Romance packages are about $295 per person for a two-night stay).
The concept for the two-year-old retreat came to South African and Shanghai expat Grant Horsfield who, while on vacation in Vietnam, realized the need for a rustic escape from life and work in China's financial capital. Horsfield teamed up with Briton Gabriela Lo, who shortly after stumbled upon a decaying Moganshan village (the youngest resident was 61 years old). "Once I found the village," Lo says, "I thought, This is it." After initial skepticism from the locals, Naked leased six of the village's 18 houses and now employs nine of its 14 residents.
Upon arrival, guests are taken on a "decompression walk" and encouraged to spend a few minutes in awe of the scenery, "just to appreciate where we are," says Doug Lapuc, resident manager. Activities include cycling, bass fishing and mountain hikes. But Naked Retreats' best feature is serenity. Visitors can wander through dewy tea plantations and bamboo forests, or swim in a reservoir to the buzz of cicadas. Accommodations are basic — the wooden floors creak and there's no air-conditioning — but bungalows come with Western-style kitchens, flat-screen TVs and wireless Internet. See nakedretreats.cn.