There’s also a sophisticated spa with treatments using natural organic custom-blended products although a Hangzhou cocoon may not be too popular among

There’s also a sophisticated spa, with treatments using natural, organic, custom-blended products, although a “Hangzhou cocoon” may not be too popular among guests who’ve endured a choking summer in one of China’s cities. All of Fuchun’s 87 rooms, suites and villas come with satellite TV, CD-players, broadband and ISDN phones.Fuchun Resort, Hangzhou, Zhejiang (Bookings through Design Hotels: 00 800 37 468 357; www.designhotels ). Doubles start from £152, including breakfast.Banyan Tree Ringha YunnanFinding Shangri-La isn’t hard at this new mountain resort in Yunnan province – not just because of its elaborate architecture and natural beauty, but because, in 2003, the region was renamed Shangri-La by the Chinese government, after the valley in James Hilton’s 1933 book, Lost Horizon. It’s an apt, if ironic, tag given that the hotel lies in an autonomous Tibetan prefecture.

Still, employment for locals and an emphasis on Tibetan culture means the resort is a more ethical option than it might have been.Banyan Tree Ringha, Hong Po Village, Jian Tang Town, Yunnan (01494 675636; www.banyantree ) Suites start from US$460 (£248) room only.. Like any textbook Outback town, the heart of Broome is a dusty, weathered cluster of corrugated iron buildings. But behind the Day-Glo modern store signs, there are glimpses of blistered Chinese characters, hand-painted onto the metal decades ago; and the architecture of many of the buildings looks inspired by curly-roofed Buddhist temples. It’s a nod to Broome’s singular history, when a lone precious crop – pearls – turned it into one of the wealthiest outposts in the British Empire.

It wasn’t any old pearl that turbo-charged Broome’s economy, but a meaty mollusc called the Pinctada maxima that flourished in the waters off the coast here. The Pinctada Maxima was a cost-efficient crop, producing not only large, stunning pearls but also hefty steaks, both of which Victorian-era settlers ravenously devoured. Those weatherworn signs were aimed at the divers drawn here by the high wages paid to anyone prepared to harvest the pearls from the ocean floor: of course, there were some Aborigines press-ganged into working for expat Brits, but the majority of divers were Asian-Indonesian, Chinese or Japanese.
One hundred years later, the iron-clad heart of Broome is still known as Chinatown and there are a couple of killer restaurants – Son Ming on Carnarvon Street serves pearl meat steaks for just A$45, albeit farmed now – but thanks to a century of over-fishing, the dive industry is strictly recreational. Casual caf? too, give occasional hints of Broome’s Eastern-inflected past: Bloom’s coffeehouse on the main street serves standard sandwiches, flat whites and long blacks – oh, and a range of home-made lassis.But the reason to visit Broome now isn’t the chance to chow on cheap pearl steaks, pick up bargain necklaces – or even practise your vintage Mandarin. Much as the brochures might tout shopping here, the jewellery’s tacky but hardly cheap.

The real draw is the town’s edge-of-nowhere vibe, compounded like a colonial ghost by those lingering Indian and Chinese touches. No wonder this town’s remained such a backwater – the shipping hub of Port Hedland is almost 400 miles away through desert scrubland.Broome is shorthand down under for laidback, do-nothingness; elsewhere in the state, Western Australians talk about relaxing as “slipping into Broometime”. Sure, Broometime may have its downsides – at hotels, check-in is torturously slow, service in caf?haphazard – but once toe-tapping townies can learn to accept that, Broome’s bewitching. The closest parallel is 1970s Key West, with those Asian holdovers subbing for Cuba, cigars and stiff sweet coffee.Like Key West, though, Broome’s biggest drawback for anyone other than budget-watching backpackers was its lack of comfy accommodation. But just as the Florida Keys has spent the past 10 years gussying up its guesthouses and hiking up its rates, so Broome has finally come up with aggressive plans to expand the upscale accommodation here, and doubling its number of rooms.The first luxury effort, Cable Beach Club, had collapsed into an ageing Eighties relic in the 20 years since it was built by Thatcher adviser Lord McAlpine. Now, thanks to a two-year, £4m upgrade, the resort has had a swanky, Christina Ong-style makeover.