Bankable way to being head and shoulders above the competition

THE BEST The clear winners, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the Bank of China, were chosen by all, including fung shui master Raymond Lo Hang-lap, for their modern and interesting designs.

Joseph Fung King-cho describes himself as 'middle-aged'. Harvard-educated, he has practised in Hong Kong for 15 years and heads Studio Pantheon II, where he works on 'little things of no significance'.

His choices: the Fung Ping Shan Museum at the University of Hong Kong, the old part of the Peninsula Hotel and Government House.

'The Fung Ping Shan Museum is a little jewel. It's not incredible in the sense it's the type of space which blows your mind, but you go in and everything's right, and it's not pretentious, and it does celebrate what it's supposed to do well.

'The Peninsula hotel is very classic, [the lobby is] a celebration of arrival, the space is very grand. It has class.' And Government House is 'probably the most gracious big house in Hong Kong' with 'a very grand proper [covered] entrance' which sadly other buildings lacked.

Mr Fung commented: 'Hong Kong is really not a place for fine architecture, because people don't care very much. But anybody can be an armchair perfectionist, it's very easy.' Dennis Lau Wing-kwong, Hong Kong-trained and past president of the Institute of Architects, is designer of Central Plaza and the newly-refurbished Lee Theatre Plaza, which he included on his list.