The mainland has one of the world's most impressive collections of new buildings - the Bird's Nest stadium, CCTV tower, the recently opened China World Tower and the towering Shanghai World Financial Centre, to name just four - and not surprisingly its architects are becoming increasingly in demand worldwide.
Beijing-based Ma Yansong's innovative designs have begun to make waves internationally - he was commissioned to design the Absolute Tower in Toronto, a building with curves that have earned it the nickname the Marilyn Monroe Tower. Two other projects on Ma's books are the twisting Urban Forest building in Chongqing, which has platforms at selected levels to house plants and trees and, in the resort city of Beihai, a waterfront residential building that resembles a giant glass roller coaster.
Another architectural firm making waves is Neri & Hu Research and Design Office (NHRDO), headed by Lyndon Neri, a Filipino of Chinese ancestry and his Taiwanese wife, Rossana Hu. Neri first came to Shanghai to work on the groundbreaking Three on the Bund project and ended up starting an architectural and design studio in the city.
NHRDO's projects have been so eye-catching that offers for work regularly pour in from all over the country and overseas asking the firm to design hotels, offices and private homes. Neri says the attitude towards mainland-based architects is changing.
'China architects are increasingly seen as more adventurous, as opposed to cheaper. A different mentality is emerging.
'We are seen as different and avant-garde, and forward-thinking. People are seeking our company out: we have been commissioned for up to six projects in Europe. It is an exciting time to be in China with so much on the go.'