Emerging phoenix like among the magnificent mist enshrouded lime stone karsts of China's Guilin province is one of the most quixotic luxury resorts found anywhere in the world, Yuzi Paradise and its stupendous Hotel of Modern Art (HOMA).
As a premier five-star hotel and a member of the prestigious Relais and Chateaux group, Yuzi Paradise presents a destination like no other on the planet.
Locally Yuzi means fool, so this place could simply be called a Fool's Paradise except that it is also houses one of the world's largest modern sculpture gardens and workshops.
Yuzi Paradise's creators took its name so far as to open on April Fools Day in 2003, seven years after construction first began.
Since then it has hosted 10 International Sculpture Symposia and sponsored a couple of hundred of the world's top sculptors from 47 countries, who have created over 200 works that make this place an international focal point for modern sculpture.
It is also a place where guests and tourists can come to immerse themselves in the fantasies of nature, art and luxury.
Yuzi Paradise is the dream child of a Taiwanese businessman, Tsao Rhy-Chang, who made his fortune out of reclaiming and beautifying land for cemeteries.
Today, the old man has handed his dream to his son, Tsao Guang-Tsann, who now has the duty to complete the planned 30-year project aimed at gaining its own immortality.
"As our main business is a cemetery in Taiwan, we've spent some time thinking about what persists after death. What is eternal? The answer is art," Guang- Tsann says.
Only by walking around the 50 hectare estate do you can get an idea of the vastness of the project and how easy it would be to term it foolhardy.
Centred around Yuzi Mountain the estate spirals out into lakes pathways, hotel buildings, the immense sculpture workshop or atelier, restaurants, galleries and reflective spaces.
Everywhere you look here you can see the harmonious blending of eastern and western art, culture and philosophies.
If there is one central motif to the vision of Yuzi Paradise it would be Flying On Water, a massive work by Bulgarian sculptor Gheorghi Filin.
Set in the middle of a small lake this enormous granite wing like form appears to defy gravity as it balances on its own reflection at the very edge of the water's surface.
Leaping out as a shriek of colour and fantastical shapes is an interactive sculpture area called Jimmy's Pourquoi World, the brainchild of Jimmy Liao, Asia's most popular children's book illustrator.
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