Beijing show spotlights reform-era landmarks in China

High-rise buildings that dominate the skylines of major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou include well-designed luxury hotels that passers-by take for granted.

But in the eyes of Cole Roskam, an associate professor of architectural history at the University of Hong Kong, these skyscrapers started to grow since the 1970s and '80s, during which time the construction of several international hotels helped China to connect with the rest of the world and provided physical evidence of the reform and opening-up.

And, Roskam's interest in China's international hotels of those two decades isn't only academic. He is now co-hosting in Beijing an exhibition, Accommodating Reform: International Hotels and Architecture in China, 1978-1990, which is being held at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art through Oct 23.