In the newsroom of Caijing, a sleek and open gray brick space on the nineteenth floor of the Prime Tower, in downtown Beijing, her arrival is heralded by the urgent click-clack of heels down the hallway.

NEWYORKER: The Forbidden Zone

She hired designer Kristy Kropat, who turned a Mediterranean-style casita into a modern-industrial room with modular furniture, LED accent lights, metallic gray walls with pixelated Space Invader vinyl decals and bright pops of color.

WSJ: The New Luxury Kids' Rooms��WSJ Mansion

The New Amsterdam Room, originally the men's smoking retreat, is a marvelous elliptical space ringed with rotund plaster columns resembling gray Caen stone, and murals of New York from Dutch days to 1900.

WSJ: Miracle on 42nd Street | By Ada Louise Huxtable

Once a gray-ish, functional agricultural exchange, now artesian cheeses share shelf space with organic produce and local arts and crafts.

BBC: Neighbourhood spots in the nation's capital