The stark contrast of old and new China is on view as soon as you enter The Temple House, which opened in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu in July. The wooden gate and 100-year-old bitieshi, the main heritage building framed on bamboo and named for the scholars who transcribed decrees from Qing dynasty emperors, are the first things you notice. Just beyond that lies a boat-shaped gold wire reception desk and glass towers housing a modern hotel complex and serviced apartments-the third entry in the Hong Kong-based Swire Hotels' House Collective. On one side of the buildings are the gray, decaying apartment blocks of the city's past, on the other is Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li, a 1.2-million-square-foot retail complex (jointly developed by Swire) with 300 luxury boutiques, including C artier, Hermes and Gucci. And next to it all sits 1,600-year-old Daci Temple, one of the Four Eminent Buddhist Monasteries along the Yangtze River Basin.
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