Where do discerning villains stay in Hong Kong? In Chinese drama about graft, always the ‘Three Seasons’
Although the hotel only exists in the fictional television series about corrupt tycoons fleeing the reach of the Communist Party, many viewers were quick to find a real-world counterpart
A hit TV series on China’s anti-corruption campaign surprised audiences when it featured a “Three Seasons Hotel” in Hong Kong as a refuge for well-connected mainland tycoons fleeing graft investigations, which many interpreted as a blunt reference to the city’s Four Seasons Hotel.
The Four Seasons was swept into the limelight in February when Chinese billionaire Xiao Jianhua was taken from his long-stay residence at the hotel and spirited across the mainland border to assist investigations.
Two months after the incident, with Xiao’s whereabouts still a mystery, Tuesday’s episode of In the Name of People featured a wide shot of Connaught Road in Hong Kong’s Central district, where the Four Seasons is located, then cut to a conversation between two major characters inside the hotel.
The son of a retired senior Communist Party leader – the main villain – is meeting a woman who heads a company laundering his money after escaping the mainland with one of his five passports.
He says he chose the “Three Seasons Hotel” because of its “concentration of information”.