Overnight visitors have a choice of the Château village's various hotels, including modern, country style rooms or high-end luxury accommodations. For those looking to relax, a full Spa is on hand to pamper your body. The town also features several first-rate restaurants with a choice of Chinese or Western cuisine. Conferences and seminar venues will please business function organizers. Come on a quiet weekday, or on a bustling weekend, and you will find both Chinese and foreign guests here soaking up the natural environment and the European setting.

For those looking for mementos or gifts for other fans of the grape, the Château features fun customized bottle labels: simply provide a photo or a design and you can have your own private label. These make great gifts either for a private company wishing to promote its brand, or for those special occasions like weddings or births that one wishes to commemorate.

Future of the World's Vineyards

The founders of Changyu knew that it would take time to cultivate a wine culture in China, so in 1958 they founded a wine training school for Chinese youth. Today they continue to educate and train on wine culture. Changyu hopes to bring Chinese wines to the world. With its marketing already well-established in Asia, the group's efforts to seduce the West may pay off soon. "The future of the world's vineyards is in China," Robert Tinlot recently claimed. He sees the wine culture of this country growing steadily both in quantity and quality, and thinks that China possesses just the right local conditions to develop an exquisite wine culture.

So far, so good. Over the past century, Changyu has maintained its reputation and influence in the Chinese wine industry while innovating to expand the customer base. It was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1997 and the Shanghai Exchange in 2000. Since 1997, it has ranked first among China's wine market shares. Globally, it was among the world's top 20 wineries in 2005; by 2006 it was in the top 15. Today it ranks seventh on the list, and is maturing into a fine winery.