An enormous but practically useless Chinese-style hotel and retail project in Sweden is up for sale—again—and the current owner told local reporters who might buy it: “We need someone who is as crazy as we were.”
Dragon Gate, along a motorway on Sweden’s east coast, began its life as a relatively ordinary hotel. Then, in 2004, it was bought by a Chinese billionaire who planned to expand it and turn into a place where east meets west, with a hotel, restaurants, a museum and a souvenir shop.
The site includes the hotel, which was completed in 2014 but can’t be used because it doesn’t meet fire regulations, a restaurant that has since closed, a variety of Asian-styled statues and a museum that includes 200 replicas of China’s famous terracotta soldiers.
The original owner returned to China, and in 2017 the site was bought by Sisyfos, a Swedish construction and development group, which started off by organizing a techno festival at the site, only to run into the pandemic. Sisyfox put the complex on the market a year ago, but has not found a buyer at a price of $3.8 million.
