Alila Wuzhen
A modern abstraction of a Jiangnan water town by GOA: 125 courtyard suites and villas among white walls and reflecting pools.
- Neighbourhood
- Wuzhen, Tongxiang, northern Zhejiang
- Opened
- November 2018
- Design
- GOA (architecture)
Why we recommend it
The hotel is the reason to come as much as the town. GOA did not reproduce old Wuzhen; the lanes, courtyards and canals are restated in plain white, and the project has since been recognised in international architecture awards. It depends on weather and light: in mist or after rain, with the walls reflected in the water, it is at its best. OKYTO covered its arrival in Alila Wuzhen Opens as a Modern Water Town.
It also gives a calm base for a heavily visited place. Visit the old town at opening time or in the evening, once day visitors have left, or come in autumn for the festival described in our guide to Wuzhen in October, when the water town becomes a stage. The resort belongs with the hotels in our guide to distinctive stays beyond China’s big cities.
Rooms & Suites
The 125 suites and villas are grouped in a residential quarter that the architects call the Maze, a web of narrow lanes and private waterways that echoes the plan of a Yangtze delta village and gives each unit unusual privacy. All are arranged around a courtyard of their own; the smallest is about 55 square metres. Interiors are spare, in white, concrete and pale wood, with large windows onto the courtyards and water.
The pool villas add a private pool within their walls.
Dining
Shui Shi Kou is the main restaurant, with a farm-to-table approach and a wide-ranging international menu. Si Shui, with its private dining room, is the Chinese restaurant; a 2026 review describes it as Cantonese fine dining with a seasonal menu based on regional produce. San Bai is the bar, for cocktails and whisky, with live music in the evening.
Design
GOA’s plan abstracts the water town into a grid: white buildings with pitched roofs, divided by lanes and held together by water. The public buildings gather around a central water courtyard and reflection pool, while the accommodation spreads behind it in the Maze. Materials are limited to white walls, concrete and light timber, and ornament is almost absent, so that the reflections and the changing light carry the effect.
The indoor pool is the one decorative moment, set under a pitched roof etched with patterns inspired, according to the architects, by the baths of the Alhambra.
Wellness & Spa
Spa Alila uses locally inspired treatments and ingredients from the area, and holds singing-bowl meditation sessions overlooking the wetlands. Besides the indoor pool there is an outdoor pool in a walled garden, a gym with a private yoga studio, and an entertainment room with a lounge and pool table. Boat rides through the adjoining wetlands are best taken in the morning. The hotel has meeting space for up to 500 guests.
Location
On the edge of Wuzhen in northern Zhejiang, roughly an hour from Hangzhou and 90 minutes from Shanghai by road, a few kilometres from the old water-town quarters, which are run as ticketed sites. Wuzhen lies on the canal network of the Hangjiahu plain; the wider setting is covered in our guide to Hangzhou, the tea hills and the water towns of Jiangnan and in OKYTO’s account of the Grand Canal, seen from Hangzhou and Suzhou.
