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Signyan Design 尚壹扬设计

@signyandesign

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Interior & Architecture Studio
Chongqing, China
@yiji_collection @qingshan.49 @sisanhotel

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One year ago, we started @chinamoderne to document the past, present, and future of Chinese design. Today, a new generation of artists and designers is looking to China’s own materials, histories, and traditions while bringing a distinctly global perspective. That meeting of old and new, local and global, is what draws us to China today👉🏻

📍 @qingshan.49 , Dali, Yunnan 🇨🇳

#chinamoderne #newchina

But our friendship began on the other side of the world nearly a decade ago, when we met on an Asian women’s retreat in Joshua Tree. That weekend turned strangers into sisters, and truly felt like it could only happen under the magic of a vast desert sky 💫

📍Joshua Tree, California 🇺🇸

In the years since, Phoebe moved back to China, where coming home turned into reclaiming her heritage and finding her own voice. She began traveling in the qipao, photographing it everywhere from village lanes to contemporary design spaces, and sharing it all as @thetravelingqipao.

📍 Four Seasons Hotel, Beijing 🇨🇳

Diana stayed in Los Angeles but traveled regularly across the Pacific: to learn the stories and recipes of Chaoshan and its diaspora, documenting them in #jiabookcook, and to source loose leaf teas and design colorful teaware and tea rituals for a new generation through @threegemstea.

📍 @nowservingla, Los Angeles 🇺🇸

On opposite shores, we were each finding our own way to share the richness of Chinese culture with a global community. Then, in 2025, we founded @studioseesee together. We realized that what we’d each been doing all along was cultural translation: carrying stories, flavors, and perspectives from one culture to another. And we’d never forgotten Joshua Tree, or how much that weekend owed to where it happened. Now we help travel and hospitality brands tell stories rooted in their own places, for audiences far beyond their borders.

Through our work with designers, hospitality brands, and creative communities, we were also watching Chinese design evolve in real time. We wanted more people to see what we were seeing. And so, @chinamoderne was born. What began as a visual journal has grown into a community of people who share our curiosity about where C

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Chongqing is built in tiers, stacked against mountains and rivers. This guide follows its everyday rhythms: the exchange between old and new architecture, and the neighborhood life that happens in between.

Our host here is @signyandesign, a design studio whose projects range across hotels, restaurants, galleries and shops, from the Tibetan plateau to central Shanghai — but which works from here in Chongqing.

Spend 24 hours exploring their version of Chongqing: the neighborhoods, buildings, and warm hospitality that make it worth the climb.

Comment “Chongqing” to receive the full guide with our design commentary for each stop ❇️

#chinamoderne #newchina #chongqing #cityguide

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At the end of a small village path in Dali, Yunnan, you will find what appears to be a traditional Bai courtyard. But step over the threshold and you'll discover an updated private hot springs retreat, meticulously designed by @xieke.505 @signyandesign to provide modern comforts and fine dining within its well-preserved rammed earth walls and timber framing. Travel Designer @rosana__hk recently brought guests to experience this uniquely Dali form of luxury, and captured these photos from their day at Xiashankou.

Interested in a historic hot springs soak too? Let's plan your Yunnan escape.

#blueskyescapes #notesfrom #dali #yunnan #luxurytravel

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6 years of traveling China and my hotel bookmarks are getting slightly out of control. So here’s Part 2: more homegrown stays worth taking the long way, the rocky road, or even a hike to get to👉🏻

#thetravelingqipao #chinacurated

What I love most about @hyllavintagehotel is how private it feels despite being in one of Lijiang’s busiest tourist areas. The moment you step inside, it feels like entering a different world — intimate courtyards, beautiful vintage pieces, and its own uninterrupted view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

Interior design: GTD / Hangzhou Guantang Design
Landscape: Z’scape

Dress by @sensebymei

I’ve always loved when a hotel gives an old building a completely new life, and Sugar House is the best examples. A former 1960s sugar mill, its original brick buildings and industrial structures now sit alongside contemporary architecture by @donggong_vectorarchitects , all surrounded by Yangshuo’s dramatic karst mountains. I especially love how the new never tries to erase the old and somehow the raw industrial architecture feels completely at home in this landscape.

Architecture: @vectorarchitects by @donggong_vectorarchitects
Interior design: Ju Bin / Horizontal Space Design

@dagidaliresort is one of those places where I remember the people as much as the design. Their philosophy is “宠客人无底线” — pamper the guests without limits — and they really live by it. Surrounded by farmland at the foot of Cangshan, life here feels very much part of the Dali countryside, from the fields outside your window to the geese wandering around the property. Designed by Dali-born Bai architect Ba Xun, it’s a contemporary interpretation of Bai architecture that still feels completely at home in its surroundings.

Architecture: Ba Xun (八旬)
Soft furnishings: @yiji_collection

Azara Nomad still feels like a real hidden gem. It’s remote, not widely known, and definitely not the easiest place to reach — but once you arrive, you understand why the journey is worth it. It has the feeling of a campsite, but everything is thoughtfully elevated, with small design details and corners you keep discovering throughout your stay. Surrounded by the vast landscapes of western Sich

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fell in love with this quieter side of #Dali Yunnan 🤍

slow mornings in Shuanglang Ancient Town—
freshly baked rose cakes 鲜花饼 for breakfast 🌹
wandering through a thousand year old Bai fishing village, and an unexpected friendly encounter with the cutest alpaca along the way🦙

afternoons at @sisanhotel over tea, a good book, and a stroll through its hidden courtyards.

evenings exploring a seasonal mushroom art exhibition 🍄‍🟫 and watching the sky turn gold by Erhai Lake.

📍 Sisan Hotel Dali, Yunnan

save this for your next trip to China 🇨🇳

follow @oursummersojourn for more curated travel tips.

#China #Travel #Yunan SlowTravel

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found a sanctuary nestled within 下山口村 in 大理 and i can't forget about it

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Wrapping up this Asia interior design series with a special tour of @qingshan.49 — an exclusive, deliberately unmarked seven-room guesthouse and retreat in the traditional Bai village of Qingshan, near Shuanglang in Dali, Yunnan. The property sits between the Cangshan mountain range and Erhai Lake.

Conceived by acclaimed architect and interior designer Xie Ke, co-founder of @signyandesign , as his own home turned boutique stay, the retreat is defined by stillness, Eastern minimalism, and a deep connection to its regional roots.
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Via: @qingshan.49
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#qingshan49 #signyandesign #chengchungdesign #vectorarchitects #neriandhu #madarchitects #adaptiveresue #timeless #wabisabi #wabisabistyle #interiordesign #interiorarchitecture #pierrejeanneret #modernistdesign #stylishinteriors #minimalistinteriors #homedecor #inspiration #axelvervoordt #modernclassic #ad100 #interiors #instahome #midcenturymodern #midcenturydesign #homedecor #charlotteperriand #minimalistdecor #modernclassic #parisianinterior #japaneseinterior

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Tonight we tour Sunyata Datong Jixiashan — a luxury heritage hotel set within the ancient walled city of Datong in China’s Shanxi Province, and one of the most quietly extraordinary hospitality projects in recent memory.

Designed by @goa__architecture over five years alongside the regeneration of Datong’s Southeast Yi Historical and Cultural Block, the hotel integrates itself into the historic urban fabric through courtyards, passageways, restored Ming and Qing dynasty houses, and contemporary architectural volumes — rather than announcing itself as a detached landmark. One third of the site consists of heritage structures, now transformed into suites and private dining rooms. The interiors, designed by @ccd_chengchungdesign under the concept “Dreaming Back to Pingcheng,” draw from Northern Wei Dynasty culture, the Yungang Grottoes, and Shanxi courtyard traditions — translated through stone, rammed earth, terracotta, and sharply controlled daylight rather than literal historical reconstruction.

Luxury here is defined not by spectacle but by stillness. A hotel where architecture becomes memory.
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Via: @chielnobels
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#sunyata @sunyataDatong #chengchungdesign #vectorarchitects #neriandhu #madarchitects #adaptiveresue #timeless #wabisabi #wabisabistyle #interiordesign #interiorarchitecture #pierrejeanneret #modernistdesign #stylishinteriors #minimalistinteriors #homedecor #inspiration #axelvervoordt #modernclassic #ad100 #interiors #instahome #midcenturymodern #midcenturydesign #homedecor #decoration #charlotteperriand #minimalistdecor #modernclassic #livingwithantiques #parisianinterior #japaneseinterior

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YINJISPACE EVENT REVIEW
“MATTER · LIFE · PLACE”

This September, YINJISPACE brought together Aagnes Studio from Mexico and Xie Ke, founder of China-based Signyan Design, in Hangzhou. Beginning with the places where they have lived and practised over time, they spoke about materials, craftsmanship and space, as well as the real, everyday experiences behind their work.

@____aagnes Aagnes Studio began with the land and traditions of Mexico. They explained that design is not simply about “using materials,” but about understanding the distinct qualities of stone, copper, ceramics and natural fibres, while embracing the textures and variations that cannot be entirely predetermined in the making process. Materials are therefore more than surface or texture; they carry traces of place, craftsmanship and time.

@xieke.505 Xie Ke reflected on his many years of living and working in Dali. What draws him there is not only the landscape of Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, but also the more relaxed and direct relationships between people, and the spatial conditions that emerge naturally through everyday life. As families and their needs change, their homes evolve with them, allowing space to become a genuine part of life.

One conversation began in Mexico, with materials and tradition; the other in Dali, with villages and everyday life. Though seemingly distant, the two practices met naturally through shared reflections on place, time and how design might enter life with greater honesty.

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GUESTS
Aagnes Studio｜Mexico @____aagnes
Xie Ke｜China @signyandesign

ORGANIZER｜YINJISPACE
EVENT SUPPORT｜Signyan Design
VENUE SUPPORT｜YIJI @yiji_collection

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A few days in Hangzhou, sharing our practice, our way of understanding Mexico, and the ideas that shape Aagnes.

Thank you @yinjispace for the invitation to Matter · Life · Place , and for creating a space for dialogue between China and Mexico through architecture, interiors, materiality and culture. It was an honor to share the stage with @signyandesign @xieke.505 in your beautiful space @yiji_collection

Very thankfull to share the work and photographs of @manuelzuniga , @cesarbejarstudio , and other talented friends and colleagues who joined us in the conversation.

Returning home with new perspectives, new connections, and the certainty that design can create meaningful dialogues across cultures.

🇨🇳 🇲🇽

#aagnesandspace

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Inspiring showroom visits in Chengdu 🤍

#interiordesign #showroom #art #chengdu

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YINJISPACE EVENT PREVIEW
“MATTER · LIFE · PLACE”

This September, YINJISPACE will bring together Aagnes Studio from Mexico and Xie Ke, founder of Signyan Design, for an exchange shaped by their distinct cultural perspectives and design practices.

Aagnes Studio will share its approach to hospitality and the emotional experience of spaces, exploring materiality, craftsmanship and the design process through a selection of its work.

Under the theme Dali: Another Home, Xie Ke will reflect on his connection with Dali, exploring how nature, place and everyday experience shape space—and offer another way of imagining home.

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GUESTS
Aagnes Studio｜Mexico @____aagnes
Xie Ke｜China @signyandesign

ORGANIZER｜YINJISPACE
EVENT SUPPORT｜Signyan Design
VENUE SUPPORT｜YIJI @yiji_collection

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