Shanghai's first licensed bed and breakfast project will open to the public in a trial operation in a Pudong watertown next month.
The first batch of 11 B&B villas in Lianmin Village, a watertown in Pudong's Chuansha district, will open by the end of June, the Pudong New Area government said yesterday.
By the end of the year, a total of 50 such villa houses — rented out from the villagers for 15 years — will be redeveloped into "exquisitely designed villas" as the first phase of the project, the government said.
Staying at a B&B will cost an average of 1,000 yuan (US$145) per night. Visitors will have to take boats to the village as there will be no parking allowed on site, said Wang Guanlun, the official in charge of the project. B&B guests will be able to eat organic food, learn yoga or practice pottery making.
Lianmin Village is about 4 kilometers south of Shanghai Disney Resort.
Free shuttle services will be provided to take customers to the Disney resort.
About 3,000 villagers still live in Lianmin Village, whose original farmlands and bridges have been preserved.
The B&B renovations are based on the city's first safety regulations for such B&B projects that were issued by the Pudong government.
More than 200 houses in the village have been earmarked to be part of the B&B project, accounting for 15 percent of the village's total houses.
