Unique quarry hotel starts to take shape in Shanghai

Subterranean structure will have 336 rooms and an underwater restaurant

It has taken over a decade of painstaking work, but the structure of the world's first quarry hotel is now complete, with the property set to open in Shanghai next year, the owner has announced.

The Sheshan Shimao Quarry Hotel in the city's southwest is being built in an abandoned open-cast mine the size of five soccer fields. Total cost will exceed 1 billion yuan ($151 million) once its interior has been fitted out.