‘Luxury pig-view hotel room’: China suite offers US$1,230 a night stay with ‘panda pigs’, year’s supply of famous ham and hog to take home
- Theme park gives guests chance to experience some of China’s rarest and most highly-valued pigs at close quarters
- Viral video of hotel room with view of piggery shows it has a sealed window so visitors can see the famous porkers, but not smell them
Tourists in China are paying 8,888 yuan (US$1,230) for a hotel room with a view into the lives of some of the country’s rarest and most highly-valued pigs, traditional source of China’s world famous Jinhua ham.
The first-floor room in a castle-shaped building at the theme park in Zhejiang province in eastern China includes a sealed window looking on to the ground floor piggery so that guests can look at – but not smell – the animals below.
A video clip of the room and its unique outlook has been viewed 6 million times on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, since it was posted on June 25 by Zhejiang media outlet, Tianmu News.
Dubbed Jinhua’s Disneyland, the theme park opened in 2021 to promote the breed, nicknamed the “panda pig” because of its unique black head and rear, with a white band around its middle.
The breed – originally named “two-end black pig” – has been prized in China for at least 1,200 years.
It is best known as the traditional source of Jinhua dry-cured ham, which ranks alongside Italy’s Prosciutto di Parma and Jamón Ibérico from Spain.