The Schoolhouse Rental Homes at Mutianyu Great Wall is a village retreat created by China Countryside Hotels.
The houses are located right in the village and are original peasant dwellings that have been transformed into luxurious
getaway homes with spectacular, close-up Great Wall views.
Every house comes with all the modern amenities, including Wi-Fi. All the houses have private gardens but once guests
step out of their gate they are immersed in a living village community and can hike through orchards and pine forests
to the Wild Wall.
Guests can cook for themselves in the houses, order catered meals, or take a short walk to The Schoolhouse
(Western) or another of their restaurants such as the Roadhouse (Local Chinese) or Xiaolumian (Noodles).
The main social missions are to provide employment and training to people in the local community, support other local
businesses, promote handicrafts, and procure food locally or grow it on-site. They preferentially hire residents
from their own and nearby villages. They obtain all of the outdoor cleaning, gardening, and farming from a local company
that they have helped a neighbor establish.
To 'The Schoolhouse Rental Homes', a big part of sustainability is social. They are interested in development that
preserves the sense of the vernacular community and its history. They believe that small-scale development provides
better opportunities for rural neighbors than large-scale projects, which tend to displace people and make them strangers
in their own land.
Green Star Rating Results:
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Overall Rating: ★★★★ (4)
Special Achievements:br:
One of the Top Five Hotels in China 2009 -- Wild China
Best Sustainable Communities Hotel in Asia-Pacific 2009 -- HICAP
Energy Rating: ★★ (2)
Staff Comment - All of our rental homes started off as peasant dwellings and we have retained these existing footprints so that energy involved in tear down and new materials has been minimized. We have installed efficient radiant floor heating, employ passive solar heating, and put in thermal-paned windows and exterior doors. All of our windows are double-glazed to reduce energy loss. We have sealed cracks and also installed insulation (where aesthetics did not demand leaving the original structure exposed) Roof windows and other big window surfaces are employed to great extent in most of our rental houses, not only for views but also to get as much natural light as possible to reduce the need for using lights. The houses all employ natural ventilation and the room air conditioners are rarely used.
Power consumption is minimized when houses are unoccupied by employee adjustment of heat settings in winter and flipping the master breaker at other times. When houses are unoccupied the master circuit breaker is turned off to halt all needless energy consumption. During winter opening only sufficient heat is used to prevent freezing of pipes. During winter closing pipes are emptied so no energy use.
Staff and guests are all reminded to conserve energy - our info sheet in every house, both in Chinese and English, encourages guests to turn off the lights and air-conditioners when not needed and especially when leaving the house. We ask guests to walk to and from the houses to our check in and check out at The Schoolhouse (except for those houses situated in the neighbouring village – for those customers we still try to “advertise” a beautiful hiking route to The Schoolhouse).
We serve local products to a great extent, and we serve our own-grown in increasing quantities. In the future the goal is to serve only local or own products, which significantly reduces energy consumption. We changed our T-bone steak from Australian to Chinese one – the energy needed for transportation is now significantly lower. No meat is imported anymore. We constantly try to find local suppliers for different products. We stopped serving breakfast to houses and instead serve breakfast here at The Schoolhouse now. This reduces energy consumption as well as package waste. We avoid imported goods as much as possible, although we do import chocolate, cheese, coffee etc.
Our energy usage is monitored on a monthly basis by the management.
Water Rating: ★★★ (3)
Staff Comment - Most of the houses have showers only. We avoid chemical cleaning products as an operational principle. We change linens only weekly unless guests have soiled. Staff are trained not to change clean and unused linens. All our toilets are dual flush systems giving customers a chance to save water. Our info sheet in every house, both in Chinese and English, encourages guests not to keep the water running in vain.
Our water usage is monitored on a monthly basis by the management.
Disposal Rating: ★★★★★ (5)
Staff Comment - Plastic and paper garbage is all recycled. Bulk oils are recycled. Proceeds from recycling sales are used for staff benefits.
We intentionally do not offer any pre-packaged amenities in the houses. Soaps and shampoos are provided from refillable dispensers. We don’t have toothbrushes, toothpaste, slippers, razors or other “use&throw” things in the houses (some of them we can provide in the reception if separately asked).
Organic kitchen waste (non-meat non-diary) from our businesses is composted by our farm provider. We have built a three-section compost pile our of brick next to our garden. Finished compost product will be used as a natural fertilizer in our garden.
Solid toilet waste is collected in septic tanks and is recycled.
Our operating procedures call for use biodegradable or recyclable items.
We do not offer plastic plates, knifes or forks in the restaurants, unless separately asked. We have plastic take-away boxes, but we do not offer “dog-bags” unless separately asked. Our chopsticks are not in paper covers or “use&throw” as in so many Chinese restaurants.
In the office, we re-use used paper whenever possible, not just throw it away.
All the paints used in our businesses is lead-free, interior paints are also low-voc.
Eco-Active Rating: ★★★★ (4)
Staff Comment - We have implemented a regular program to train and re-train staff regarding how to operate consistent with basic environmental principles including re-use, recycling, composting, and conservation. Used sheets and towels are first used for cleaning in our businesses and then passed on to a local recycler.
We have created three curriculums for children, teaching them about the importance of eco-friendliness, sustainability and composting. This will be given to schools around, and we are looking for school classes to come here and learn about these things. We are also going to teach these curriculums to our staff to some extent.
We have published (and sell them here for customers) two books to make customers aware of the local environment, nature, culture, history, people and traditions. This hopefully encourages guests to protect the environment here and act sustainably. Third book is currently being written - it is a biking guide around this area (Bohai Township), encouraging guests to explore a little bit further and learn more about this precious area.
Our staff takes part of cleaning the village in form of “community service day” once a year.
We have a weekly meeting concerning our sustainable food program and it’s different aspects. Staff is also regularly reminded about the importance of composting etc in staff meetings.
We have a project going on to make a sustainability leaflet to each house describing the sustainable aspects of the building and its facilities.
We have started a project to move to Fair Trade certificated chocolate, coffee and tea products.
All the food in our restaurants is homemade from scratch and mostly from local ingredients. We don't use any artificial additives. When it comes to fish, we serve only trout (from local area) and tuna which are both NOT under thread according to International Marine Conservation Society, thus ok to serve. Our menu also includes many non-animal protein choices.
Protection Rating: ★★★★★ (5)
Staff Comment - We operate a public service website (www.mutianyugreatwall.net) to educate all guests and visitors about the Great Wall. We have privately published a book, Mutianyu: Off the (Great) Wall, that is shared with guests and profiles the area and its people. Another book, A Walking Guide to Mutianyu Great Wall Area, is about to be published. We maintain a display board near the check-in that showcases local activities. Each house contains a booklet that explains the history of that house and that provides background and information about the Great Wall, our community, and healthy activities for recreation.
Our main social missions are to provide employment and training to people in our local community, support other local businesses, promote handicrafts, and procure food locally or grow it ourselves. We preferentially hire residents from our own and nearby villages. We obtain all of our outdoor cleaning, gardening, and farming from a local company we helped a neighbour establish. We procure food and supplies from our district to the maximum extent possible. Garden plantings are limited to native flora long cultivated by our neighbors. Nearly all the houses have vegetable gardens which we use to supply our restaurants. Most of the houses have fruit trees and we harvest and use the fruits.
Our village is situated within the boundaries of the Mutianyu Great Wall Tourism Zone, a park. We work closely with the park officials to ensure that we, our employees, and our guests observe park rules respecting protection of the Great Wall and the natural environment in our area.
We lease under-utilized buildings and properties from local government or private owners at market rates. No one has been displaced from a local home by our activities. To us, a big part of sustainability is social. The market value of properties has increased and those who lease out their homes have collected substantial fees providing capital for them to care for elderly family members, educate children, and start businesses.
When we transform existing buildings we take care to involve neighbours and local government in our plans. As few trees as possible was (and is) removed during the construction of the sites, we try to preserve as much nature as possible. We are interested in development that preserves the sense of the vernacular community and its history. We believe that small-scale development provides better opportunities for our rural neighbors than large-scale projects, which tend to displace people and make them strangers in the land of their own heritage.
Contact Details
Name:
The Schoolhouse Homes by China Countryside Hotels
Address:
12 Mutianyu Village,
Huairou District,
Beijing 101405
China
Telephone:
+86 10 6162 6506
Website:
www.chinacountrysidehotels.com
E-mail:
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