A new art building opened in Beijing on Sept 28, just two blocks away from the Forbidden City. The nine-floor Guardian Art Center is a one-stop art facility that will host auctions and exhibitions. It also has a hotel and secure art storage.

The center, which cost more than 2 billion yuan ($303 million), is hosting the fourth edition of Guardian Fine Art Asia in October, which features about 40 galleries, mainly antique dealers, from home and abroad, and the autumn auction of China's leading auctioneer China Guardian Auctions, to be held in December.

Kou Qin, general manager of Guardian Art Center and director of China Guardian, says the opening of the art center is China Guardian's attempt to diversify its art business to attract museums, art dealers, artists and art lovers, instead of only art buyers.

"It shows our confidence in China's art market and cultural scene. China's economy has kept booming for years, and the government is now calling for improvements in culture and art," says Kou.

China's art market surpassed that of the United States in 2016 to become the biggest in the world with a turnover of $4.9 billion, according to the 2016 Global Art Market Annual Report launched by Artprice.

Kou says that the local government has long supported their construction of the art center, which was designed by German architect Ole Scheeren.

Meanwhile, the art center plans to set up branches in different cities across China, a proposal that has been warmly welcomed by local governments, says Kou. The building of its first branch in Suzhou in Jiangsu province - a city that is famous for its traditional Chinese gardens - just finished construction. And its second branch in the coastal city of Sanya in Hainan province is under construction. In total, Kou says it will probably set up about eight branches.

The modern complex of the Guardian Art Center in Beijing, facing the traditional Chinese-style complex of the National Art Museum of China, houses a three-floor space for exhibitions, halls for auctions, an underground art warehouse and a five-star hotel with about 120 rooms.

"When the elevator opens, our guest can walk from the auction house to their hotel room or the art warehouse," says Kou.

Guests can watch live auctions via the in-house TV and make bids. There's a specially-made safe box in each hotel room, about one-meter wide, for buyers to temporarily store their art purchases.

Apart from auctions, the other major function of the center is to hold the annual Guardian Fine Art Asia, which was set up in 2014 and mainly focuses on antiques.

This year, the art fair, to be held from Oct 25 to 29, has attracted antique dealers from the United States and Europe.

Kou says fairs featuring contemporary art in China are enough in numbers, but ones featuring antiques are rare as they need to be organized based on legal requirements intended to protect the nation's cultural heritage.

The upcoming fair will not only focus on antiques, but also furniture and jewelry.

"We hope the art fair can become China's TEFAF," Kou adds.

The European Fine Art fair is an annual fair of art, antiques and design, and it is considered the best of its kind in the world.

When China Guardian was set up in Beijing 24 years ago, its founder Chen Dongsheng said to media that he hoped his auction house would become China's Sotheby's, one of the world's leading auction houses.

Last year, Chen's insurance company, Taikang Life, purchased a stake in Sotheby's, becoming the auction house's largest shareholder. And China Guardian is the biggest shareholder of Taikang Life.

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