Langham Place: art gallery masquerading as a hotel

Red Guards – Going Forward! Making Money! – Jiang Shuo

Rainbow by Cheng Xiang

Langham Place Hotel has become the first hotel in the world to offer their guests iPod tours of their contemporary Chinese art, which is one of the world’s most impressive collections.

The hotel owns more than 1,500 pieces of contemporary Chinese art estimated to hold a readily increasing value of more than HK$20 million. The collection includes pieces by numerous legendary Chinese artists including Wang Guangyi, Yue Minjun and Jiang Shuo.

The iPod art tour takes guests from the ground level to the 41st floor highlighting the hotel’s top 21 pieces. Via the iPod, Angela Li, Langham Place’s art consultant guides the guest explaining the philosophy and history of the art and artist and the key contributors guiding the artist.

Each level of the hotel carries a different theme designed to suit the likely state of mind of the guest. As an example, the entrance to the hotel (lobby level) is all about the essence of life while signature bar Portal – Work & Play (level 5) looks at humanity and the exhaustion of the modern world (yes, that’s when you know you need a strong drink).

iPod Art Tour Guide

Langham Place general manager Shaun Campbell says: “We’ve introduced these tours in an effort to ensure that our art is easily accessible and fully enjoyed. We hope everyone gets something different out of it – some pieces will inspire, some will provoke, several are also controversial – most importantly it’ll make you think.”

The tours are conducted in English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese and are free for all guests to experience. The iPod tour is accompanied with a complimentary take-home petite box-set guide with image prints and written explanations in English and Traditional Chinese.

Guests can do the tour at their own leisure seven days a week from 6:00am – 11:00pm.

For more information on Langham Place, Mongkok, Hong Kong visit http://hongkong.langhamplacehotels.com

More information on Angela Li and her gallery Contemporary by Angela Li