'It's going to be like summer camp for adults,'
I promise my travel companion, Alex, as we peruse the activity roster at naked Stables - tea-leaf picking, swimming, cycling, hiking, archery, cooking. It is the subject of intense conversation on our ride to Moganshan from Hangzhou.
Moganshan is a mountain about an hour's drive from Hangzhou, dotted by a handful of tiny, sleepy villages. It has always been a getaway spot for Shanghai's rich: 1920s gangster 'Big-eared' Du, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong have all laid their heads here. In the past half-decade, following 50 years of government occupation, Moganshan is again becoming a bastion of rustic luxury.
The newest entrant is naked Stables, an environmentally-friendly hotel made up of two- to four-bedroom treetop villas and earth huts that opened late last year. The resort, which uses recycled, reclaimed and green building materials, aims to be Asia's first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum-certified hotel.
Hailing from New York and now living in Shanghai, I am no wilderness girl - my summer scent is eau de Off - but I recycle and never use plastic bags, so the retreat's commitment to the environment sold me, as did its Wi-fi, mobile reception and location, although the last 10 minutes of winding dirt roads uphill is slightly nauseating. On arrival, however, we bound out of the car, gasping for clean mountain air that we never have in Shanghai.
Continuing the summer camp theme are the hosts and hostesses, perky Chinese twentysomethings assigned to each group of guests. Our host Ivan is an absolute peach, shuttling us across the grounds in his electric golf cart, and racing up to the house after we lock ourselves out.
'What's your favourite part of living out here?' I ask Ivan, who is 23 and from Dongbei in the north of China. 'All my friends are here,' he replies as we whiz up the hill. 'We all live together and every day is fun. Here I have tried Western food for the first time, but so far I only like hamburgers.'
