Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (MOHG) (Traditional Chinese: 文華東方酒店), a member of the Jardine Matheson Group, is an international hotel investment and management group with luxury hotels, resorts and residences in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

History

The Group began with the opening of The Mandarin, in Central District Hong Kong Island in 1963,and the group second opening of The Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay in 1973. In 1974, Mandarin International Hotels Limited was formed as a hotel management company, with the intention was to expand into Asia. That year, the company acquired a 49% interest in The Oriental, Bangkok, resulting in two "flagship" hotels for the company.

In 1985, the Company combined the two hotels under a common name, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. In 1987, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group was floated on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong under the name of "Mandarin Oriental International Limited." Mandarin Oriental International Limited, is incorporated in Bermuda, and listed in London, Singapore and Bermuda. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Limited, which operates from Hong Kong, manages the activities of the Group’s hotels.

Miami

Miami (/maɪˈæmi/; Spanish pronunciation: [maiˈami]) is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County. The 44th-most populated city proper in the United States, with a population of 417,650, it is the principal, central, and most populous city of the Miami metropolitan area, and the most populous metropolis in the Southeastern United States after Washington, D.C. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Miami's metro area is the eighth-most populous and fourth-largest urban area in the United States, with a population of around 5.5 million.

Miami is a major center, and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2012, Miami was classified as an Alpha−World City in the World Cities Study Group's inventory. In 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked 33rd among global cities. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami "America's Cleanest City", for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets, and city-wide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, and the world's fifth-richest city in terms of purchasing power. Miami is nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America", is the second largest U.S. city with a Spanish-speaking majority, and the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.

Mandarin Oriental, Miami

Mandarin Oriental, Miami is a hotel located on Brickell Key in Miami, Florida, overlooking Biscayne Bay. The 326-room waterfront hotel opened in November 2000 and is managed by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. In addition to the 295 guestrooms and 31 suites, the hotel operates the restaurants Azul, La Mar by Gaston Acurio, and MO Bar + Lounge. Additional hotel features include a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star spa, private beach, sushi and pool bar, and events facilities.

Location

Mandarin Oriental, Miami is located on the southern tip of Brickell Key, a 44 acres (18 ha), man-made island, looking onto Biscayne Bay. The island was built in 1943 and today is home to numerous commercial and residential buildings. Due to the lack of natural beach along the island’s edge, Mandarin Oriental, Miami brought in 260 tons of white sand from Lake Welles in Orlando to build the hotel’s private beach.

The Hotel

The hotel contains 295 guestrooms and 31 suites with balconies and terraces overlooking Biscayne Bay, the Atlantic Ocean and Miami skyline. In addition to the 326 guestrooms, the hotel operates two restaurants, a bar and lounge, as well as a Five-Star spa, private beach, sushi and pool bar, and 15,000 sq ft (1,400 m²) of events facilities.

Brickell Key

Brickell Key is a man-made island off the mainland Brickell neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Also called Claughton Island, the neighborhood is just east of Downtown Miami and the Miami River.

History

In 1896, Henry Flagler organized a 9-foot (2.7 m) deep channel dug from the Miami River mouth, creating two islands in the process. In 1943, Edward N. Claughton, Sr. bought the Brickell Key islands and other land to combine them into a 44-acre (180,000 m²) triangle-shaped tract. In the late 1970s, Swire Properties bought most of the island from Claughton.

Demographics

As of 2000, the population of Brickell Key had 2,189 people (excluding the demographics and population of Brickell and Mary Brickell Village). The zip code for Brickell is 33131. The area covers 0.162 square miles (0.42 km²). As of 2000, there were 1,154 males and 1,035 females. The median age for males was 33.9 years old, while the median age for females was 31.9 years old. The average household size had 1.7 people, while the average family size had 2.5 members. The percentage of married-couple families (among all households) was 30.6%, while the percentage of married-couple families with children (among all households) was 8.2%, and the percentage of single-mother households (among all households) was 1.4%. The percentage of never-married males 15 years old and over was 24.4%, while the percentage of never-married females 15 years old and over was 16.4%.

Orient

The Orient means the East. It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Middle East (aka Near East) or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the continent of Asia. In France and other countries of Western Europe, it also denominates the countries of North Africa.

Derivation

The term "Orient" derives from the Latin word oriens meaning "east" (lit. "rising" < orior " rise"). The use of the word for "rising" to refer to the east (where the sun rises) has analogs from many languages: compare the terms "Levant" (< French levant "rising"), "Vostok" Russian: Восток (< Russian voskhod Russian: восход "sunrise"), "Anatolia" (< Greek anatole), "mizrahi" in Hebrew ("zriha" meaning sunrise), "sharq" Arabic: شرق‎ (< Arabic yashriq يشرق "rise", shurūq Arabic: شروق‎ "rising"), "shygys" Kazakh: шығыс (< Kazakh shygu Kazakh: шығу "come out"), Turkish: doğu (< Turkish doğmak to be born; to rise), Chinese: 東 (pinyin: dōng, a pictograph of the sun rising behind a tree) and "The Land of the Rising Sun" to refer to Japan. Also, many ancient temples, including pagan temples and the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, were built with their main entrances facing the East. This tradition was carried on in Christian churches. To situate them in such a manner was to "orient" them in the proper direction. When something was facing the correct direction, it was said to be in the proper orientation.