Word: courtyard
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...days, giving them glamour and letting people revisit them?for a tidy price. Brahm owns Jiang's limo and a treasure trove of other Communist Party artifacts. They decorate his restaurant, the Red Capital Club, and his boutique hotel, the Red Capital Residence, both housed in 200-year-old courtyard compounds in Beijing's Dongcheng district. Brahm has seized upon a romanticized notion of China at the cusp of revolution and turned it into a luxury-entertainment brand that appeals not only to visiting foreigners with a sense of irony but also to young Chinese and old generals nostalgic...
...first venture, the Red Capital Club, opened in 1999 and was inspired by the comments of high-ranking Chinese visitors to his renovated courtyard home. They were awed by his collection of revolutionary furnishings, so he came up with the idea for a restaurant that celebrates what he calls communist chic. "China has modernized so much, so quickly, that Beijing now looks like Los Angeles," says Brahm. "The people have lost the kind of cultural spirit that used to drive the place. It used to be that China was all ideology and no material goods; now it is all materialism...
...Jagmandir, a 17th century fortress topped by a dome that Marco Polo called "a jewel of white marble." The palace stands in a landscaped garden heavy with jasmine, frangipani and bougainvillaea. Formal water gardens enclose regal cupolas and elegant archways. Inside the fortress, a black-and-white-tiled courtyard hints at a sumptuous past. In 1623, the palace served as a refuge for the young Shah Jahan, future Mughal Emperor, after he revolted against his father. Legend has it that the galaxy of semiprecious stones?rubies, onyx, jasper and jade?laid into its marble interior so impressed the prince that...
...leave as quickly as we can, to wait in the small courtyard. Nadam joins us within minutes, claiming to have finished his meal. More likely, he couldn't bring himself to eat while his guests went unfed. For a poor, 65-year-old chauffeur, that is one indignity too many...
...addition to Michelangelo, there were lesser but still extraordinary sculptors waiting pliably at Cosimo's beck and call. There was the fabulously eloquent Giambologna. There was Bartolommeo Ammannati, who made the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria, designed the courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti and created the exquisite curve of the Sta. Trinita bridge over the Arno. Benvenuto Cellini did for Cosimo the bronze Perseus decapitating Medusa that still stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi, an allegory of the triumph of Virtue over Cosimo's enemies. Medusa's gore, solidified in bronze streams, is one of the most...