Quotes of the Day

Hotel art is often commercially expedient (think of identical framed prints hanging in hundreds of identical rooms). It can also be laughably bombastic (like those huge abstracts towering dozens of meters over many an atrium lobby). But Hong Kong's Langham Place Hotel takes a more sophisticated and uplifting approach. It houses one of the world's largest collections of modern Chinese art, giving guests a free grounding in what?judging by international auction prices?is currently the art world's hottest phenomenon. This isn't cut-price art by up-and-comers, either. There are works by established names like painter Yue Minjun (one of the leading lights of the Chinese avant-garde), Pei Jing (famous for his debauched scenes of scantily clad, voluptuous women), and top sculptor Jiang Shuo.

One of Jiang's celebrated Red Guard bronzes, Going Forward! Making Money!, greets you at the hotel's main entrance?an arresting augury for what awaits upstairs. In the Chinese restaurant, you'll see a gorgeous mountain scene by Hong Kong artist Lam Chung?a great exponent of modern brush-and-ink work. A heroic worker from sculptor Wang Guangyi's Materialist series stands in the barbecue garden. In fact, striking sculptures and whimsical paintings seem to leap from every corner of the building.

The quality and breadth of the work on display is a credit to the hotel's owner?cardiologist turned property developer Dr. Lo Ka-shui?and local art consultant Angela Li. Not content with turning his hotel into a museum, Lo also sponsors ambitious events at the adjacent office tower and shopping mall, which he owns too. In the past year, these have included Hong Kong's largest ever art installation, involving 31 artists and spanning 15 floors, as well as Urban Dream Capsule?a performance piece that saw four Australian artists living in a glass pod for three weeks, gawped at by shoppers on all sides. The proximity of the mall is, of course, the Langham Place Hotel's next great plus. When you've taken in all the satirical woodcuts and moody gouaches that your mind can handle, you can start on that other great Chinese cultural phenomenon: shopping.

• Liam Fitzpatrick
• Langham Place, Hong Kong, China