Virtuoso Life - January/February 2009 - (Page 36) PASSPORT SUITE TALK Royal living: A suite’s sitting room at The Aman at Summer Palace. City Escape NYC’s newest oasis. Swiss Miss FIT FOR A QING Originally built in 1750 by the Qing Dynasty as a country escape from the city’s summer heat, the Summer Palace hosted the emperor’s entourage on a 717-acre estate some ten miles outside the Forbidden City. Now travelers to Beijing can sleep in quarters once used by those seeking an audience with the royals at The Aman at Summer Palace. Fifty-one rooms, furnished in Ming-reproduction furniture with Jin clay tiles and wooden screens, surround a courtyard of shade trees, formal gardens, and footpaths just outside the palace gates. The resort bridges old and new with amenities such as a library with a Chinese calligrapher, yoga and Pilates classes, and three restaurants serving traditional Cantonese dishes, French-Japanese kaiseki cuisine, and Western chops and fish. Doubles from $409, including breakfast daily and lunch once during stay Anne-Sophie Pic, the only French woman currently decorated with three Michelin stars, will helm her first restaurant outside of France at Lausanne’s BeauRivage Palace. Opening this spring at the 169-room Swiss resort, the new restaurant will overlook Lake Geneva, a setting well suited to chef Pic’s acclaimed fish dishes. Doubles from approximate $404, including breakfast daily, Olympic Museum tickets, and a Swiss wine tasting. 36 VIRTUOSO LIFE
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