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Architecture
We have on board the world’s most famous interior design team, Hirsch Bedner Associates Pte. Ltd. Design Consultants (HBA), to thoroughly integrate Anping culture into our hotel design. HBA was also named the world’s best hospitality design firm.
- Abundance in Fishing Basket
- Sword Lion Room Number Plates
- Printed Beams
- Eternal Golden Castle Lighting Decoration
- Printed Carpet
- The Beauty of Brick Walls
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Crowne Plaza is located in Anping, which used to be a rustic little fishing village, where fishermen used baskets for fishing and as a fish container. A full fishing basket is a symbol for abundance. The small opening in the fishing basket with a large holding space inside is a metaphor that there is no exit for wealth that has entered the basket. The fishing basket in the hotel lobby stands as the hotel’s central image. Featuring an aluminium alloy structure, it is a piece of installation art made with a perfect fusion of culture, craft and mechanical equilibrium. -
Anping in Tainan used to be called Dayuan, from which Taiwan derives its name. Anping is also the birth place of Taiwanese culture and history. Tracing the stories of Taiwan begins here in Anping. Sword Lion is one such cultural representative, used for dispelling evilness, praying for blessings and securing the house stability. Today it has become a totem for peace and safety. So in Crowne Plaza, we hang up a sword lion on all guest rooms as a room plate, with LED lighting on the hilt emitting the room number. May each of our guests be protected by the sword lion and have a fabulous time here.
◎ The Story of Sword Lion: The legend has it that after Zheng ChengGong defeated the Dutch, Zheng’s army set up camps in Anping, Tainan. When soldiers returned home after a drill, they would hang up their shields on the wall with swords inserted into the teeth-like iron hooks of their lion-faced shields. From a distance the fearful sight of lions biting the sword was a deterrent to thieves and burglars. The folks started to follow suit and make their own sword lions, giving rise to many variants of sword lions as we see today on the door of Anping houses.
◎ Significance of Sword Lion Biting the Sword: Facing the sword lion, if the hilt is on your right, it stands for evoking bliss. If the hilt is on your left, it means dispelling evilness. If the sword lion bites two swords, it represents fending off evilness and securing the house. Besides the direction of the sword, the lion also comes in many different looks. There is the Sword Lion Park on Anping Road with many cute-looking sword lions. Hidden inside Anping’s old alleyways are many sword lions with special features. Come over for a sword lion hunting trip and you will be met with surprises in all corners. It will be great fun to seek out this cultural asset of Anping. -
Printed Beams
Outside the 2nd floor Grand Ballroom is a lobby with a spacious, brightly-lit corridor. Above the corridor and across the ceiling are beams printed with Kingfishers that are praised as “Sapphires in the river”. With their azure feathers, kingfishers appear in multiple poses, all stunning and regal. Kingfishers are a symbol of Taiwan’s rivers and requires clear water with slow currents for their habitats. The hotel faces Yanshui River that offers great ecological resources and suitable habitats for kingfishes. As such, they are featured and painted on the beams in the lobby in front of the Grand Ballroom.
Kingfishers fly very fast and often very close to the water in straight lines. When hunting for food, they like to stand on the branches or rocks by the riverbank, staring at the swimming fish in the water waiting for the right moment to dive in for the little shrimps or fish. They are thus referred to as “the Fishing Dude”. The printed beams can be seen as an echo to the fishing basket installation art in the lobby.
◎ Kingfishers Characteristics:
the back to the tail, kingfishers’ feathers are blue with a lustre, and from the eyes to the ears, their feathers are orange red, plus white throat, orange belly, red short feet and thick black long pointed beaks for the male birds and red lower beaks for the female. Because of their dazzling colored feathers, kingfishers can come across as regal and often appear in Chinese ink and wash paintings, Liuli and jewellery designs. -
The ceiling of the Grand Ballroom is designed to shape like the walls of the Eternal Golden Castle, chic and creative. Its track lighting as a LED art décor takes its shape from candle stands, romantic and elegant. When all the lights are lit up, they will bear witness to the eternal formidable love in all couples that tie the knot in our premise. Guarded by the fortress and walls, their love shall go on forever. -
Extending from the lobby along the corridor to the Grand Ballroom is a long hair carpet featuring multiple shades of blue, white, purple wave tie dye. The print pattern symbolizes the day-and-night tidal changes in Yanshui River dotted with white mystical birds as a symbol of the newlyweds as a couple made in heaven. -
Ren. Kawara:
After occupying Taiwan, the Dutch built Fort Zeelandia with predominately red bricks, which ushered in Taiwan’s brick and tile kiln industry. Many old buildings we see today in Anping were made with red bricks. Ren. Kawara literally means “Firing” and “Tiles”, respectively, and refers to a technique used in producing bricks and tiles. Firing is applied to purify and fortify matter. Tiles are fired from clay and made into containers or building materials.