Long weekend escape: Eco Resorts in Moganshan

Moganshan, China is becoming a hot new travel destination, with colonial-style structures adapted into resorts, and the addition of new hotels crafted from eco materials. Sophie Friedman reports on the best places to stay, eat and see on your retreat.
In the 1920s, Moganshan was the hideout of Chinese gangsters like opium kingpin Big-Eared Du. During the Sino-Japanese War, it was all but abandoned as the Japanese occupied Shanghai. But now, Moganshan—a region dominated by bamboo mountains two hours outside Shanghai—is becoming a playground for the city’s burgeoning bourgeoisie. The mystical forest of rolling hills and woodlands is dotted with turn-of-the-century stone villas and farmhouses where the aforementioned goons used to hide out after holdups. A handful of these colonial-style structures have been turned into posh resorts, while other new hotels are crafted from eco materials: Naked Stables, which is on the way to becoming Asia’s first LEED platinum–certified resort, is the result of $31 million and two years of painstakingly green construction. Since motor vehicles aren’t allowed inside the secluded valley reserve, the owners have managed to preserve a striking environmental milieu—while creating Shanghai’s most exciting new weekend scene (doubles from $408).

Naked Stables’ leaf-shaped pools—one heated, one not—and deck, which has a pool bar and a pizzeria.

Naked Bite

Naked Leaf Spa

Tree Top Villas

Tree Top Villas

Tree Top Villas

Earth Hut Hillside

Earth Hut Hillside

How to get there
It’s a 45-minute train ride from Shanghai to Hangzhou, and then a 45-minute drive (prearranged through your hotel) to Moganshan. In winter, the mountain is a serene, snowy sanctuary; in summer, it’s scenier.

Where to stay
The sister property to Naked Stables https://www.nakedretreats.cn/naked-stables/en-US/ has refurbished farmhouses that dot the bamboo-covered slopes of the tiny, ancient town center where fewer than 20 locals live. The rustic bungalows have Lincoln Log–style facades and simple, wood-beam interiors (rooms from $82).

Earth Hut https://www.nakedretreats.cn/naked-stables/en-US/rooms/earth-hut

Hilltop Earth Hut https://www.nakedretreats.cn/naked-stables/en-US/rooms/earth-hut-hillside

Tree Top Villas https://www.nakedretreats.cn/naked-stables/en-US/rooms/tree-top-villas

Le Passage Mohkan Shan is a beautiful French country house–style hotel made from some recycled materials, with a 12,000-rosebush garden (doubles from $313, including meals). http://www.lepassagemoganshan.com.cn/home-cn/

Where to eat
The quaint, Wild West–looking Moganshan Lodge http://www.moganshanlodge.com/ —which has wooden shutters and a tin roof—serves locally sourced dishes like house-cured bacon and roasted local free-range chicken (+86-572-803-3011; three-course prix fixe, $22). Otherwise, you’ll eat in your hotel—Naked Stables and Le Passage both have terrific in-house kitchens—or try the village’s few tiny restaurants for bamboo shoots, braised pork belly, and wild boar.

What to Do
Thoreauvian hiking and stargazing beckon, but Naked and Le Passage offer a hilariously expansive array of activities: tea-picking, bike tours, yoga, calligraphy, fishing, archery, kite flying, canyoneering, boating, and bamboo-shoot hunting. History buffs can visit a whitewashed room containing an iron bed where Mao Zedong once napped, now called the Mao Museum, and White Cloud Castle, where political powerhouses Chiang Kai-shek and Zhou Enlai plotted against the Japanese.