Yes, why not a Hotel of Modern Art. To be more exact, perhaps a hotel of modern sculpture: this resort outside Guilin, in China’s south central Guangxi province, is surrounded by a thousand and a half acres of outdoor sculpture, by a wide-ranging array of international artists. It’s the folly (in the respectful old English manor-house architectural-folly sense) of a Taiwanese cemetery developer, and it’s a self-aware folly — the name of the place, Yuzi Paradise, translates roughly as “fool’s paradise,” and the sculpture garden just happens to have opened on April Fool’s Day a few years back.
You’d expect that a folly would be above all enjoyable for its visitors, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Amid all this visual stimulation is a smart and comfortable boutique hotel, 49 bedrooms’ worth of crisp modernist design, all smooth surfaces and luxe fittings. All the resort-hotel basics are covered as well, from pool and spa to fancy restaurant. And there’s plenty of outdoor activity beyond the expansive sculpture gardens — play some golf, hire a guide for some sightseeing, go for a raft trip down the Li river, or take a hike or a bicycle tour of the scenic Guangxi countryside.
author watson@mouselink.net, source www.tablethotels.com