"In China, it's always about big, think bigger, bigger is better," says Jules Kwan. A philosophy he totally ignored when he built a boutique hotel in the heart of urban Shanghai.

For an Australian transplant with an American business partner, starting up such a hotel in Shanghai was born out of a simple desire: to hook up friends, colleagues and clients with "a cool place to stay" when they visited.

But more than just a sweet 26-room hotel, it's an eco-friendly hotel experience that allows guests to connect with the city on a cultural level.

URBN Hotels Shanghai makes its home (randomly enough) in what used to be China's biggest prosthetics factory. Since they didn't have to build from scratch, Jules and his team were able to construct the hotel within about four or five months using plenty of recycled materials – from old floorboards to bricks from houses that had been knocked down for the development of new high rise buildings. Getting addicted to a green building process, they took the URBN concept much further to claim the title of China's first carbon-neutral hotel.

Beyond low VOC paints, energy-saving lighting and AC systems, carbon offsets of guests' travel and employee commuting, Jules talks about some of the other features that make them different: "Cultural services like Chinese cooking classes, language classes, architectural tours, acupuncture, Tai Chi and yoga classes... we offer all kinds of stuff that you don’t usually get in a normal hotel."

When I asked him if people actually take advantage of those things (they sound good on paper, but...), he says that many guests have stayed there simply because they've found out about those services and he even admits to being quite surprised that so many folks were interested in participating.

"The whole point of us doing this was that we would be at the forefront of all the hotels and the accommodation industry in China and everyone would hopefully follow us – and maybe in Asia as well," Jules says. "We want to be the leading boutique hotel and resort company in China."

Now that the hotel is up and running, Jules is focusing on expanding the brand. "The concept for URBN Hotels is meant to be very much a healthy lifestyle product," he explains. "We would like the next hotel to be slightly larger and have components of environmental, pro-green companies, like maybe a retail section with home-grown organic companies. We definitely want to make that part of the ethos of the brand."

And this is one brand that has some pretty aggressive plans – Jules and his partner are slated to open up 20 more hotels throughout China within the next three years. Who knows, maybe they'll extend this concept westward....

For more info, check them out at www.urbnhotels.com.