The White Moonlight Hotel

🌟 Exploring the Fairy Tale Castle of Shanghai: The Past and Present of Moller Villa This Nordic fairy-tale-like building stands quietly on South Shaanxi Road, forming a fascinating contrast with the surrounding modern skyscrapers. In the 1930s French Concession of Shanghai, a British merchant named Moller built this real-life fairy-tale castle to fulfill his daughter's dream. 🏰 Normandy-style Spires The most striking feature of the villa is its staggered spires, as if taken straight out of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. It is said that young Moller once described her dream castle to her father, and these spires were recreated based on her watercolor paintings. Standing in front of the villa and looking up, sunlight refracts through the stained glass, creating dreamy light patterns. 🌲 A Custom-made Garden Forest Unlike the symmetrical gardens of traditional European architecture, Moller Villa's courtyard is designed as a "miniature forest." It features rare tree species from around the world, with winding paths hiding the owner's whimsical ideas from back then. While wandering here, we unexpectedly discovered several rare dove trees, a "living fossil" plant rarely seen in the heart of the city. ⏳ Every Tile Tells a Story Inside the villa, the exquisite details are breathtaking. Imported Italian mosaic tiles form patterns of marine life, the hand-carved oak stair railings by British craftsmen are inlaid with ivory, and the church-style stained glass windows depict biblical stories. The most interesting detail is an irregular tile at the corner of the second floor, said to be an intentional "misprint" left by workers during construction, now the villa's most unique mark. ✨ A Glorious Transformation at Nearly 90 Years Old This building, which has witnessed the changing tides of Shanghai, has now been transformed into a boutique hotel. Guests can experience the wonder of staying in a historical relic. When we tried staying here, we found that the room keys were vintage brass keys, emitting a crisp click when turned, as if opening a door to the past.