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Anyone who has been in China for a while will start to notice strange patterns. I’m not talking about the pajama thing or queuing etiquette, no – I’m talking about numbers.

It will begin with a distinct absence of the number four from your day to day experience and the gradual realization that wealthier people tend to have more 6s and 8s in their phone numbers. You might start to realize that you are always invited to weddings and housewarmings on certain days of the month, and that elevators sometimes seem to skip the fourteenth floor.

Once you start to see the patterns, it’s like discovering the Matrix. You realize that the world that surrounds you is a web of human design, and woven into it is a code – a code that will decide your fate. The mission is to break the code, to control our destiny.

It was with this in mind that I entered the lobby of Le Royal Meriden hotel, wearing a leather trench-coat, my briefcase loaded with Uzis. Only joking – I wore a pink shirt and carried a notebook – but I kept my eyes peeled, all the same, for the code.

I knew the elevator was the place to start, and sure enough we began to rise to Ai Mei restaurant on the eighth floor. I knew it! Eight – definitely a clue.

Exiting the elevator I realized I was being drawn zombie-like towards an eerie blue luminescence, a cuboid fish tank forming an archway to the fore of the restaurant. I found myself drawn to the floating, gliding shoal of goldfish. I could feel something, sense it. In the patterns they made something was speaking to me, and I felt my little-known savant gifts awakening – yes…it was here…another number – 2,888 goldfish!

We eight, I mean ate, in a private room, elegantly furnished with the degree of comfort to be expected from a hotel of this standard, but, of course, no lack of Chinese characteristics. I appreciated the shattered glass walls, which give a degree of privacy without cutting the room off entirely from the restaurant. They also gave an edge to the whole dining experience, splintering reality to create the impression that a massive shoot-out has occurred very recently.

I reflected ever so briefly that perhaps I should have brought those guns after all, but quickly recognized that I don’t actually own any and never have. I came to my senses, though, when the sweet scent of Shanghai-style deep fried fish that had just arrived at our table began to drift in my direction. This local delicacy, served cold, had been well-cooked with a slight crisp around the edge, lightly coated in a very nicely flavoured five-spice sauce. It headed up a stream of good food to come.

Most of the dishes in this restaurant hail from either Cantonese or Shanghainese culinary traditions. We enjoyed, for instance, Shanghainese xiao long bao dumplings – a flour noodle dumpling filled with pork (and to be eaten with a bite and a slurp as they are very juicy) – alongside Cantonese shrimp dim sum – a generously-filled translucent rice noodle dumpling. Other dishes included deep fried crispy chicken with garlic (a good deal at 78 RMB), a signature salad with avocado (which I thought a little modest for a signature dish) and a healthful double-boiled chicken soup with ginseng.

The soup brought with it a revelation. Until this dinner, ginseng was something of a mystery to me. I had seen the word written on numerous energy drinks back home, and I had also seen unidentified and obscenely expensive roots in shop windows – such as one in Hangzhou for 888,888 RMB – but never made the connection. Well, I now know that they are one and the same. It’s prized for its medicinal purposes and supposed to give you ridiculous amounts of energy. You can’t taste it in the soup, but just knowing that it’s there makes you feel good. You know, sort of.

What made me feel much better, though, was the diced beef tenderloin with black pepper and cashews. Every chunk of beef was as soft and tender as I have never before known been to be and I had no choice but to help myself to everyone else’s share. Another favourite was the chilled avocado cream – slightly sweet and entirely refreshing, eating this I managed to leave my years of inner avocado conflict (What? Why? How?) behind me.

As if this barrage of culinary revelations was not enough, I was soon to be further enlightened about the code of numbers. “Yes, this building has 66 floors because 6 is a lucky number,” explained Le Meridien’s Shirley Xiao. “Also, you may have noticed the two ‘chopsticks’ on the roof? They are both 88m tall because 8 pronounced in Cantonese sounds like the word for fortune.” Yes, people of Shanghai, you’ve seen them protruding out of the vicinity of People’s Square, but I bet you didn’t know they were 88m tall chopsticks! Well, they are. Apparently it’s something to do with feng shui.

The more I discover that the surrounding environment is intentionally designed according to a code of which I formerly had no knowledge, the more bewildered I feel. My friends at Le Meridien let me into more secrets about their own code, the three core principles of which are fashion, art and cuisine. There is a group of 19 international artists, designers, musicians and other professionals – known as Le Meridien 100 – whose own creative strands are all woven into this highly sophisticated brand. For instance, in every Le Meridien hotel you will hear a whisper of the 24-hour background music exclusively composed by Henri Scars Struck “for the Transitional Portals and Elevated Experience in the hotels”. You might also catch a faint whiff of perfume in the air. It has been designed specially by Le Labo to smell like old books.

You see, I was joking about the guns, but the Matrix is very real and it’s all around us. At Le Meridien’s Ai Mei restaurant you’ll find yourself at the confluence of Chinese superstition and tradition, and 21st century comfort and design. And whether you like it or not that your reality has been constructed according to a code you barely understand, you’ll still find the food tastes just as good. Just like that man in the Matrix said – the baddie.

-by Duncan Rickelton

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