Kate Whitehead

What is it? A brand new 266-room hotel on its own island (below) within the Venice lagoon. Isola delle Rose is an artificial island, built in the 19th century, and JW Marriott spent several years transforming what had been a sanatorium before the hotel opened in March.

Take two of Sydney’s most historical buildings, add some seriously cool design, a little humour and a lot of attitude and you’ve got QT Sydney, the hottest new hotel to open in the city for years The QT Sydney is no ordinary five-star hotel — it’s a piece of theatre and without doubt the most…

The dire state of mainland orphanages 15 years ago spurred filmmaker Jenny Bowen into action. Her charity, Half the Sky, has been a huge success and now works with officials across the country

Exploration is challenging. If it’s too easy, then it’s not real exploration. So says Wong How Man, a Hong Konger who in 1974 began leading expeditions into what was then one of the world’s most isolated countries — China. “It was a time when China had very few friends, so we decided to step in…

This old Chinese neighborhood in Hong Kong’s Western District is changing fast. A new escalator and the promise of an MTR station later this year are ushering in a fresh crop of bars and restaurants worth checking out.

Born in Shanghai in 1948, the artist spent the Cultural Revolution drawing propaganda posters and admiring Buddhist art in temples and the Dunhuang caves, then married into a family entitled to live in the United States, where he could earn a living painting, he tells Kate Whitehead