Many people who are dissatisfied with their hotel describe it as a hole in the ground. So would you really want to stay in a luxury hotel which is literally and figuratively a hole in the ground? The developers behind the The Shimao Wonderland Intercontinental think you will. Dubbed as a green reclamation project, the Shimao Wonderland is a very bold idea.

The Intercontinental Hotels Group will run the project as one of its flagship hotels in China. The design was also shortlisted for an award at the World Architecture Festival in 2009 and reportedly the Shanghai Shimao Property Group will invest US$555 million in the project. This makes it a pretty audacious plan.

It’s a cool concept when you see the full artist renderings.

The hotel development which has come to be known as the “Deep Pit Hotel” in Shanghai’s Songjiang district is currently under construction. The hotel is located in the deep pit of a former mine. Its main structure will be completed in July, and the whole project is expected to begin trial operations by the end of the year. With 370 guest rooms, the hotel has 2 stories above ground, 17 stories underground and 2 stories under water.

The original mine site wasn’t exactly a pretty place, so hats off to the visionaries who saw the potential to reclaim this urban mine into an urban oasis.