Royal Park Hotel in Sha Tin becomes the HK Olympic Village

If you have out-of-town friends thinking of visiting Sha Tin ('what?' - it could happen), you can forget about booking them into the Royal Park Hotel, connected to New Town Plaza, for the next two months. That's because from tomorrow, the 443-room hotel will become the official Olympic Village for the equestrian events.

As a result, it is not taking any bookings from next Monday, July 21. Its 2+2 Cafe and One+One Bar will also be temporarily closed for the exclusive use of the athletes (the human ones - the horses will be elsewhere). But the hotel's Japanese restaurant, Sakurada, and the Royal Park Chinese Restaurant will remain open to the general public.

After the completion of the Games, all the catering and hospitality services will return to normal operation from September 15.

So have fun trying to spot all your favourite dressage competitors in the lobby.