Construction has begun on a luxury five-star hotel being built INSIDE a 100-metre deep, water-filled abandoned quarry in China at the base of the Tianmenshan Mountain.

The $528million cave hotel in the Songjiang District has been designed by British-based firm Atkins and will have 380 rooms over 19 storeys – two of which will be underwater.

The rest of the InterContinental Shimao hotel will be built into the mountainous landscape and guests will be able to do watersports on the lake and use the nearby cliffs for rock-climbing and bungee jumping.

It is expected to take around three years to build and guests could be staying in the resort by 2015 – with rooms likely to cost around $400 a night.