Most international trips to Mexico land at a coast and stay there. The country's reputation rests overwhelmingly on its beaches — the Riviera Maya, the Pacific resorts, the bay sequence of Tulum, Cancún, and Playa del Carmen. None of these are wrong reasons to visit. But they account for a fraction of what the country is, and for travellers willing to look slightly inland, the most rewarding Mexico tends to live in its cities.

Certain hotels feel inseparable from their city. Shangri-La Kowloon belongs firmly to this category — a property defined as much by its vantage point over Victoria Harbour as by its longstanding identity as one of Hong Kong’s classic luxury hotels.