Above the Clouds, a Thousand-Year Rendezvous with Su Dongpo—A Stay at Pullman Huizhou Kaisa Hotel
As the elevator display jumped to the 56th floor, the morning light reflecting through the mirrored glass suddenly softened. I instinctively gripped my camera bag tighter. The moment the doors opened, the Dongjiang River unfolded like a gradually unwrapping silver foil, glistening in the morning sun. The steel forest of Huizhou's CBD spread beneath my feet, and Pullman Kaisa Hotel, this cloud-level art gallery, was using its 270° floor-to-ceiling windows as a frame to create a personalized documentary of Huizhou city for each guest.
I. Cloud Living Room: Capturing the Intersection of Past and Present
The moment I swiped my card to enter the Executive River View Suite, the fragrance system automatically released a blend of white orchid and sandalwood. The smart home system, like an attentive butler, gradually illuminated lights with each step I took. While setting up my tripod by the floor-to-ceiling windows, I discovered copper sculptures of "Su Dongpo in Huizhou" embedded along the window edge, where the silhouette of the Northern Song Dynasty literary giant holding a bamboo staff perfectly overlapped with the flying eaves of Hejiang Tower in the distance.
In the panoramic bathroom, smart frosted glass revealed a flowing river landscape outside. When the sunset turned the Dongjiang River amber, the starry ceiling above the bathtub seamlessly connected with the real skyline outside. The turndown service brought local Lingnan fruits, accompanied by a note written in Su-style calligraphy saying "Eat three hundred lychees a day," which, paired with the bright red shells of the "Concubine's Smile" lychees in the porcelain plate, seemed like verses lifted directly from "Huizhou's Finest."
II. Light Magician: Deconstructing Space-Time Wrinkles Through the Lens
At dawn the next day, I set up time-lapse equipment in the Executive Lounge on the 59th floor. The Longsheng Bridge emerged from the morning mist like a dragon rising from water. From a drone's perspective, the ancient city walls of Chaojingmen formed a fascinating dialogue with the glass curtain walls of Huamao Building. Zooming in with a 200mm telephoto lens, the steam from early tea shops behind the carved window lattices of Water East Street arcades mingled in the air with the coffee aroma of CBD office workers.
At the fifth-floor sky garden, the infinity pool reflected the steel curves of the Hesheng Bridge. As dusk enveloped the city skyline, the starry lights at the bottom of the pool illuminated simultaneously with distant neon lights, as if the Milky Way had fallen to earth. The gym's floor-to-ceiling windows faced West Lake's Sizhou Tower. While sweating on the treadmill, I suddenly glimpsed the silhouette of Su Causeway's spring dawn rippling on the lake surface, as my earphones coincidentally played "Ding Feng Bo" reaching the line "Looking back at what was once desolate."
III. Cultural Heritage on the Palate: When Song Dynasty Elegance Meets Hakka Soul
At the "Dongpo Banquet" Chinese restaurant on the third floor, the chef deconstructed the ancient goose recipe from "Huizhou Su Clan Genealogy" using molecular gastronomy. The goose meat, marinated for 72 hours in aged tangerine peel, was served in 3D-printed vessels shaped like Sizhou Tower. The sommelier recommended "Luofu Mountain Green Plum Wine," served in a glass shaped like Su Dongpo's bamboo hat, with the seal "Willing to be a Lingnan person forever" engraved on the bottom.
The Executive Lounge's afternoon tea was a miniature cultural exhibition—swan pastries shaped like Gushan Tower, mango pomelo sago dessert resembling West Lake moonlight. Most impressive was the server's "Chaoyun Handcraft," inspired by Huizhou's intangible cultural heritage rice cakes, with filling containing edible gold foil impressions of "West River Moon" manuscript fragments. The moment my teeth broke through the glutinous rice skin, lychee honey with an ink fragrance spread throughout my mouth.
IV. Concierge-Style Lens: Discovering the City's Warmth in Details
When the housekeeping department noticed my tripod's worn-out head, the engineering department 3D-printed compatible parts overnight. The concierge customized a "Light and Shadow Huizhou" route based on my shooting plan: capturing fishing boats singing in the evening at Water Gate Bridge at dawn, documenting the rebirth of industrial heritage at Wild Island Cultural Community at noon, and waiting for city lights to illuminate one by one at Guabang Pavilion at dusk.
On my checkout day, the butler delivered a framed aerial photograph showing the hotel building and Hejiang Tower forming ancient and modern twin towers. The frame's edge was hot-stamped with Su Dongpo's poem "Living at Hejiang Tower," and my room key card had been made into a bookmark—West Lake panorama on the front and my best photograph taken during my stay on the back.
As the elevator descended, I took one last look through the glass curtain wall. The Dongjiang River still flowed quietly beneath the clouds, like the timeless moments in the writings of the poet exiled to Huizhou a thousand years ago. In this cloud gallery with Song Dynasty elegance carved into its DNA, cultural symbiosis could be encountered at every corner, and each shutter click recorded the harmony between tradition and modernity. As the hotel transformed Su Dongpo's cultural heritage into tangible service aesthetics, Huizhou people's hospitable spirit of "wherever my heart finds peace is my home" has grown into an eternal poem in the mornings and evenings of Lingnan.