East meets West: the Mandarin Oriental combines a taste of the Far East with an unmatched view of New York in its brand-new Manhattan hotel.(city file)

IT'S REALLY ALL ABOUT THE VIEWS.

You can talk about the chic restaurant, the luxurious spa, the inventively decorated rooms, the stylish, apartment-like suites, and the accessible midtown Manhattan location all you want. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the views.

Sweeping vistas are just about everywhere you turn at the Mandarin Oriental New York, which opened on the city's West Side in November. Located high above Columbus Circle at the southern edge of Central Park, the views are panoramic--stretching across Midtown to the East Side, and across the Hudson River to the West. The hotel occupies 19 floors in one of two high-rise towers in the new Time Warner Center, a mammoth complex that now serves as world headquarters for the media giant.

From the hotel's front entrance, visitors are whisked up to the main lobby on the 35th floor. All the 203 rooms and 48 suites are located on floors 36 through 54, providing a high enough perch to afford the scenery below.

This being the Mandarin Oriental, it's no surprise that chinoiserie is ...