If you are looking for a resort in China where the whole journey — from the front gate to the dining table — is plant-based, Inward Life on Fuxian Lake is the name that keeps coming up. It was the country’s first resort to position itself as 100% vegan.
The basics
Inward Life sits in the Taiyangshan resort area on the eastern shore of Fuxian Lake, in Chengjiang, Yuxi, Yunnan, and opened for trial operation in 2020. The architecture folds Chinese Zen aesthetics, Japanese wabi-sabi and Western minimalism into one language: raw timber, white walls, a great deal of greenery — a mood the designers call “poverty chic”. The room count is deliberately small; quietness is the point.
The food
The kitchen cooks only with plants — no eggs, no dairy. The chefs source seasonal produce from local farms and make full use of Yunnan’s standing as a kingdom of plants, leaning on natural seasonings wherever they can. Beyond set menus in Chinese and Western styles, there is vegan tempura, skewers and plant-based desserts: the kind of dishes that make people say, “so vegetables can be eaten like this”. Breakfast is vegan, and a bowl of vegan crossing-the-bridge rice noodles with chickpea soup is a combination guests mention again and again.
Rooms and setting
Cotton and linen interiors, mid-century furniture, everything restrained. The toiletries come from a plant-based brand and are supplied in refillable large bottles — in a hotel whose whole argument is sustainability, that counts as practising what it preaches. Most rooms look onto the lake; the terrace is the place to be at sunset.
Service
A butler adds you on WeChat before arrival to talk through the itinerary, and there is a goodnight drink in the evening. The hotel also arranges late-night film screenings, pour-over coffee sessions and outdoor hikes. Families can use the children’s play area, while the reading room is good for losing an entire afternoon.
In one sentence: if you want a night where you never have to explain why you eat the way you do, Inward Life is the closest thing China has right now.
Details here were compiled from public sources, and the photographs are TeaVegVoyage brand assets rather than shots of the property. Prices, opening status and booking methods change — please check the hotel’s latest information before you travel.