The Hotel With NO VISITORS in 15 Years | Dragon Gate

For 15 years people driving on the E4 north of Stockholm have wondered about the huge Chinese pagoda that's visible from the highway....
I'm on a road trip from Stockholm to the far north of Sweden, and I'm checking out all the weird and wonderful things I can find along the way. This time I'm exploring Dragon Gate just south of the town of Gävle.
Dragon Gate (Drakporten) was intended to be a meeting place for Swedish and Chinese businessmen. The plans were later expanded to include a museum, a hotel, a Shaolin temple, a martial arts school, and much more. Great ambitions and great plans were made, but somehow the place never opened up for business.
In this video I tell about the origins of Dragon Gate, how it exchanged many owners over the years, and how the construction has been plagued with disasters and corruption.
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#dragongate #drakporten #sweden

[@aashishkandel2023]

I love your Vlogs! Keep posting more!

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

Thank you so much! :D I shall definitely do so :D

[@LifewithMiu]

Wow, thought I'd check out one of your older videos, and I certainly wasn't disappointed!! This is super!!! The place is SO huge! It's magnificent, it's a shame that it never really opened. :( Thank you for all the wonderful footage!

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

Oh nice! Thanks for checking it out - I loved exploring that hotel. Haha, I had no idea what to expect when I went there but I was pleasantly surprised

[@LifewithMiu]

@@ThreeStarVagabond Yes!! Exploring is SO fun. It was a great video!!! :)

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

@@LifewithMiu Thank you so much! Really happy that you liked it :D

[@LifewithMiu]

@@ThreeStarVagabond Yes! It was great!! :)

[@pointofviewgr]

I consider this is a great place for visitors! Nice job!!!

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

Thank you! It really is an unexpectedly cool place!

[@OurCrazeeAdventure]

Cool video love exploring unique places

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

Thanks! I love finding weird spots with a strange history :D

[@geekyadore]

Oh, never knew about this place! Nice to see.

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

A pleasure to spread info about weird places! :D

[@samengle8068]

nice

[@CloudGamingTheOriginal]

Wow this one looks pretty awesome. I like the structure.

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

It was really cool to see! Not what you expect next to a highway in Sweden :D

[@DanOnPlanetEarth]

Amazing building.... with so much scandal!. Who would have thought?!.... Hopefully that hotel will open one day.

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

My sister told me that they're apparently trying to rent out rooms long term to people now... Haha, this place is such a mess, but so cool.

[@skatez1986]

Looking forward to the next hidden treasure!

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

I hope I can offer some cool stuff soon then! :D

[@mah2126]

So much was completely bungled with this place. When the Chinese buildings was planned, building plans and permit applications was turned in to the Swedish authorities -written in Chinese only. so building permits was withheld. Building started before permits was granted, using only building-material and builders shipped in from china for the project. Building plans was changed during construction. They had no clue about Swedish building regulations and... cut corners. Especially concerning safety. One of the reasons the Swedish "bureaucracy" kept preventing the hotel from opening due was the inadequate, or non existing fire safety. But there was also the issues of faulty electrics, inadequate ventilation, damp problem, totally inadequate (and partially non-functioning) heating for the region, and the list goes on. It was a shoddy construction, and the swedes did not approve! Oh yeah, the Chinese building crew was paid slave wages, and used junk equipment as well as (surprise!) completely inadequate safety equipment. They had to pay heavy fines. Eventually the Chinese businessman had to pay several millions to get the place reasonably up to code just so that he could sell the place. And it was still not even close to the code required for an actual hotel (I think they eventually got that mostly sorted years later, but I not sure). The new owner tried to use parts of it as restaurant and some other stuff and held events, but eventually gave up in 2022. The place is currently closed down and shuttered up.

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

It's such a tragic tale really. Thank you for all of these details - if I go back there again I'll make sure to give the story better justice with more information! It really deserves to be told.

[@slussbron]

Wow! I'm from China so this looks like an awesome place to me!! Interesting and weird story behind it though. Where in China have you been? My Chinese is poor though so I don't know what the sign says. But I can say 谢谢你的视频

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

The place has a pretty cool story! But yeah, I can just say xie xie basically myself - even though I tried to learn a little bit on a visit. Been to Beijing and Shanghai mostly, and some places around those cities :)

[@abcwildlife6423]

Wow your energy is congratulations! So glad everything went great for you. Congrats again and have a great week.I enjoy watching your happy make me happy too I did joined you subscribed my best channel. I'm evo From Australia

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

Thank you so much! It's comments like this that make my entire day! Cheers :)

[@sayamoargon6374]

wow supper

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

Thank you! :D

[@AmsterdamComicGeek]

Looks very nice. Great film location for a Swedish kungfu movie 😉.

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

Now, that would be something sweet... Viking Kung Fu! :D

[@AmsterdamComicGeek]

@@ThreeStarVagabond Haha. Yes, that's going to be a hit I bet.

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

@@AmsterdamComicGeek I'm getting ideas here.. Animal styles like in Kung Fu, but with the Midgard serpent style etc...

[@AmsterdamComicGeek]

@@ThreeStarVagabond sounds interesting! Could be a whole new direction for your channel 😉

[@Momo-tw8lv]

A perfect place for fugitives from GAZA ...lots of SPACE and can get everything for free from region Stockholm...and best of all Shakyamuni can keep them in sight and tell them the right way to live👌

[@scandinaviannaturediaries8892]

Bizarre 🤨

[@ThreeStarVagabond]

It's interesting what you can find on the way north... It looked pretty nice at least

[@janomudrak6602]

Its even more bizzare from inside mate

[@annanorlander7398]

Inte så jättemycket research gjort av dig. bara genom att läsa lite tidningsartiklar hade du kunnat ha en betydligt bättre storytelling. nu var det mycket gissa hit å dit och en bunt wow! cute!