Alibaba Town

Due to our extension of stay in Hangzhou, I was able to fulfill a previously failed hotel wish, as we are now booking these two days at the Alibaba FlyZoo Hotel, which had been fully booked in the past days. Following the departure of my in-laws, we are moving to the nearby hotel in 'Alibaba Town'. This area in the Yuhang district is a massive complex of offices for the Alibaba company, one of the largest and most successful e-commerce companies in China, indeed the whole world. Even the Haichuangyuan subway station has received an IT design element with blue binary code on the ceiling. By the way, you can wirelessly charge your smartphone in small compartments on the trains of Line 19. The futuristic entrance area at the hotel with its artistic colorful video installation is quite impressive. However, the little info robot only speaks Chinese, which is the case for all other voice controls as well. I gracefully let my wife handle the operation. In the foyer, there is an ice cream machine where a robotic arm prepares soft serve, which I definitely have to try, see this link: Ice Robot. Check-in occurs via a mounted tablet; there is no hotel key. So how do I get into the room? Quite simply, as a photo is taken during check-in, and facial recognition is mounted at the room door that only lets the registered hotel guest into the correct room, see the video via this link: Room Key. This also works in the elevator, where a friendly smile automatically selects the correct floor or at the breakfast buffet, which is impressively abundant and even includes cheese, a rarity in China, allowing entry. The small room service robots no longer need to be mentioned, as they have already become standard in every major hotel. In the room itself, I and my wife can control the curtains, turn the TV and lights on and off, and adjust the air conditioning using voice commands. A cheerful 'Tian mao jingling' (translated: 'Little Elf') makes a small white box respond: 'nin hao, zhuren' ('Hello Master') and asks what wish you have. With a 'dakai fangjian de deng' ('Turn on the room light'), the light turns on, here is the video link: Voice Control. The lighting is a large area indirect lighting that can be set to various colors. Unfortunately (but fortunately for me), the toilet does not yet operate by voice command; however, there is a rear shower and a hair dryer available for use. The hotel, by the way, was opened 6 years ago, so some technologies aren't so new anymore. I have always wondered about the strange name 'FlyZoo Hotel': Why should a zoo fly? And what does that have to do with a hotel? Well, the answer is quite simple. The hotel's name in Chinese is: 菲住布渴 - fei zhu bu ke, which means: 'You must live here!!!'. Since Chinese people like to phonetically translate their spoken words into English, 'Fei Zhu' became the English 'FlyZoo'. Thus, the explanation for the hotel's name is as curious as it is informative.