Interview with Mr. Simon McHendry, General Manager, The Temple House
The Temple House is one of four Houses in The House Collective and is located in the heart of Chengdu within the Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li, a bustling open-plan shopping area. The 100-room House and its 42 serviced residences form an integral part of the city government’s conservation project to preserve the surrounding heritage buildings next to the thousand-year-old Daci Temple. Elegant bamboo trees frame the House’s entrance, which is set in a beautifully restored Chinese courtyard built in the Qing Dynasty.
Mi Xun houses the award-winning spa, which includes a pool and fitness centre, as well as Michelin-starred teahouse serving vegetarian Sichuan cuisine. The Temple House also offers a dynamic collection of outlets including The Temple Café – the all-day dining restaurant, Tivano – a Michelin guide recommended Italian restaurant, and Jing Bar – a lively bar featuring live music.
In 2019, Mr Simon McHendry relocated to Chengdu and took on the role of General Manager at The Temple House. Having been a part of the Swire Hotels family for over six years in both The House Collective and EAST brands, and with 20 years of hospitality industry experience, Simon embodies the Swire culture as well as a wealth of knowledge and experience in both back-of-house and front-of-house operations.
As one of the most popular and award-winning hotel in China, The Temple House always carries a strong sustainable concept during its daily operation. SpaChina interviewed Mr Simon McHendry to learn about their sustainable practices.
How do you see China travel trends now, especially after Covid?
In my opinion, consumers are looking more into wellness and sustainable living, and their spending habits reflect this trend. Guests also tend to be more health conscious and health and safety is a greater consideration when hotel choices are made. Additionally, experience will always be a priority, so engaging hospitality and the introduction of new initiatives and service offerings continue to be of utmost importance. Travellers would probably seek out places that they can fully trust to give them a good balance between wellbeing and an impeccable guest experience.
The Temple House provides variety, availability and accessibility to a range of health and wellness professionals and practitioners activities and events. What kind of activities and events do you usually host?
At The Temple House, we have on-going wellness initiatives from healthy menu selection at our restaurants to cross-brand collaborations to create unique experiences for our guest. We provide integrated wellness offerings, including a unique Bamboo Massage taking from local inspiration, fitness programmes, and regular yoga classes favourited by House friends every Saturday morning. We also offer a bike tour for in-house guests every Sunday morning to cycle around our historic neighborhood as well as some other exciting places of interest on handmade bamboo bikes.
Additionally, we host diverse wellness activities monthly in cooperation with different brands and partners. We’ve conducted outdoor running, yoga, water meditation, and sleep therapy training to promote stillness, happiness and well-being with our guests and communities. We’ve created amazing experiences for groups of like-minded people who also share the same interests and passions.
Recently, we’ve worked with SpaChina to bring its readers and our House friends livestream yoga classes, which allowed participants to find inner peace and joy with our instructor to practice meditation, deep breathing and stretches at home.
What are The Temple House highlights in terms of the “sustainable” concept?
People are what makes us different. At The Temple House, sustainability starts with our people. We deploy our philosophy of thinking differently to explore ways that we can drive positive changes in energy conservation, water conservation and waste management while crafting exceptional, more eco-friendly experiences for our guests.
For instance, sustainable seasonal celebrations are a tradition at The Temple House. Every Christmas, we incorporate recycled materials as whimsical and thought-provoking festive decorations for our community-driven tree-lighting ceremony. In the past years, we’ve featured recycled bamboo, recycled glass bottles from guest rooms, upcycled bottles from Tivano and Jing, used tea candle shells from Daci Temple and repurposed wooden floorboards from our House.
We have reduced and removed single-use plastics from our House – replacing all straws, hampers, room amenity wrappers and toothbrushes with products made from biodegradable materials. In our rooms, we have changed all plastic Bamford amenities to aluminium packaging. Additionally, plastic water bottles have been replaced with glass and reusable cloth bags are now provided. Every small change helps us achieve our goal of reducing our carbon footprint.
In what ways does The Temple House consider the quality-of-life for locals who benefit from the creation of a market for locally-made products and services?
The Temple House is located in Chengdu, Sichuan, and nowhere is China’s tea culture better represented than in Sichuan province. As Sichuan’s capital city, Chengdu naturally has its fair share of wonderful teahouses. Many locals, seem to spend all day at our Mi Xun Teahouse, ordering a pot of locally-made jasmine green tea on a beautiful sunny day. Continuing The Temple House’s design theme, the tea house captures authentic elements of Chengdu’s heritage with modern sophistication.
How important are natural and historical assets important for The Temple House?
The overall design of The Temple House respects the local natural landscape, history and cultural elements of Chengdu, and through traditional architectural elements such as bamboo, timber and green bricks, the building is naturally integrated into its surroundings in a modern and unique aesthetic way. Honouring the heritage and cultural touchstones, our House incorporates a number of Chinese courtyards and historic building into the design. The Temple House is an integral component of the Chengdu Daci Temple Cultural and Commercial Complex. To evoke a sense of history, guests enter The Temple House via a beautifully restored Qing Dynasty heritage building. The grand staircase connecting the reception area to the courtyard resembles Sichuan’s steep hillsides while the courtyard’s undulating landscape mirrors the region’s rolling rice fields.
Could you introduce any in-house restaurants or independent restaurants offering healthful cuisine prepared by chefs committed to clean eating and who work in partnership with local growers?
Nestled in a historical heritage Zhanghuali building, our Michelin-starred restaurant – Mi Xun Teahouse is immersed in an ambience of elegance and tranquillity that seems worlds away from the bustling city. Since its opening in 2015, it has immediately become a favourite in the city for its fine tea and delectable vegetarian offerings. The refined vegetarian menu at Mi Xun Teahouse is in turn inspired by the healthy dishes once served at Daci Temple. Whether its signature Sichuanese delicacy – Mapo Tofu and the delightful Handmade Spinach Noodles with Dandan Sauce, the Teahouse’s balanced offerings are light yet tasty and prepared with fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. A Sichuan native, our Executive Sous Chef Tony Xu brings more than 20 years of culinary experience. He is very particular with the ingredients he uses and only creates unique, seasonal dishes using the freshest local ingredients of the highest quality. Chef Tony also insists on using traceable ingredients, sourced from farms around Chengdu, and on using natural ingredients rather than synthetic vegetarian meals.
Please recommend some of The Temple House wellness and sustainable packages to our readers. We will soon launch our new summer vegetarian menu at Mi Xun Teahouse. We also have a fantastic selection of wellness packages and treatments at our award-winning Mi Xun Spa including our new Himalayan Crystal Salt Singing Bowl Treatment and Eaglewood Singing Bowl Treatment. Both treatments create an ultimate experience that relax and nourish guest’s body and mind.