As Swire Hotels prepare to open their latest design-led, art-filled spectacle – EAST, Beijing – we’ve partnered with them, and the chain’s very own culture and design blog You’d Be Much Better Here, to celebrate their portfolio of jaw-dropping Far Eastern hotels. Over the coming weeks we’ll be profiling each of their properties, along with interviewing key design and art figures that have helped shape their internationally renowned hotels. First up? It’s opulent, design-wonder The Opposite House…

With its glass and glamour swagger, Beijing’s The Opposite House is an oriental marvel; its breathtaking stainless steel pool is perhaps one of the hotel world’s most staggeringly beautiful, its public spaces – stocked heavily with contemporary art – resemble a modern gallery space, and its numerous bars and restaurants are Neri & Hu-designed masterpiece; take them out of the hotel and they’d easily stand alone as some of the world’s most beautiful.

The bold eclecticism of the public spaces is counteracted by the tranquility of the bedrooms… away from the shimmering glass, architectural interventions, art and hyper-design; the calm, minimal bedrooms offer an oasis of refined elegance. This is very much 21st century luxury, in the overwhelming vibrancy of Beijing, your Opposite House bolt-hole will allow you to find your inner-Zen. As the name suggests, The Opposite House is a place of stark contrasts, but as a whole, its position amongst similar hotels is practically unassailable.