Club Med within the walls of the Imperial Summer Palace

Dear Matt: My friend says there’s a Club Med in China. Can this be true? — Doubtful, El Cajon

There was. And there will be. But there isn’t one now. In the late ’80s Club Med ran a sort of luxury guest house within the walls of the Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing, in an old mansion built for the Empress Dowager. And for several years, CM has been announcing the imminent opening of a resort village being built on the island of Hainan, off the southeast coast of China. What with one thing and another, they’ve stopped making predictions for the moment. But stay tuned. Sino-self-indulgence is just around the corner.