Three custom-made trains are being readied to run over the world’s highest railway.They will run between Beijing and Lhasa, and also between Beijing and Lijiang in Yunnan province.

Financing for the trains, known as Tangula luxury trains, totals $140 million

The Tangula rail cars are locally manufactured in China by BSP, a joint venture between the Canadian-based transport manufacturer Bombardier and its Chinese partners.

Each of the three trains will be equipped with 12 sleeper cars, two dining cars and a lounge car, and will accommodate up to 96 passengers in 48 spacious suites.
The suites will feature an en suite bathroom with shower, mini bar and in-room entertainment system with music, TV and satellite internet.
A butler, but of course, is on call throughout the journey, while a doctor is available during the ascent to Lhasa. Tickets are expected to be priced at about $5,000 per head compared with $50-$150 for the regular service.
For hospitality management and marketing of the trains, RailPartners has entered into an agreement with Kempinski, one of Europe’s oldest and most established five-star hotel groups.

Think superior-Orient Express and you have it about right.

The regular train service between Beijing and Lhasa that has been in operation since July 2006 takes almost 48 hours. But the luxury trains will take five days and four nights with stops along the way to visit tourist attractions. You cannot hurry perfection.
Source: Finance Asia.com

It is difficult to know what expectations there were for tourism to the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region once the rail connection to Lhasa was opened. How could it possibly be estimated except on the basis of total ticket sales for the train? As in not an empty seat.

By the end of July, Tibet has received more than 1.7 million tourist arrivals.

The tourist administration originally forecast about three million for the year. Now the figure has been upped to 3.5 million.

Wang Xinwen, head of the Lhasa Railway Station said that on the world’s highest railway there is now a seasonal shortage of tickets on trains to and from Lhasa.

Zhang Lingjie, a manager in charge of domestic routes at China International Travel Service, one of the country’s largest travel agencies, said the company sent more than 500 tourists to Tibet in the first seven months of this year, compared with 400 for the whole of 2006.

He said, ‘Many people like to travel to Tibet by train during the summer vacation. We had to impose a 20% price hike for our package tours since July 15, because our running costs were increasing as a result of higher costs for food and lodging in Tibet and hard-to-get train tickets.’

He said nearly every train to and from Lhasa is fully booked.
Source: China Daily

Four Points by Sheraton has announced plans for its first hotel in Tibet. It is also opening Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang and Four Points by Sheraton Sanya Bay. These three new hotels are scheduled to open between 2007 and 2010 and quadruple the size of Four Points by Sheraton in Asia Pacific in one year.

Four Points by Sheraton hotels cover all the basics including a comfortable bed, a great shower, and free high-speed internet access. To this it adds warm pie, fresh coffee, free bottled water, and a wide selection of beers. It clearly understands the basic needs of the frequent traveler. You get the idea from the illustration.
The hotels are:

Four Points by Sheraton Lhasa which is scheduled to open this year. It is on the corner of East Lingkor Avenue and East Lingkor Road which gives easy access to the city’s primary tourist attractions, shopping areas and entertainment districts. 93 guest rooms, a meeting room, two restaurants and a lounge.
Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang which is the first internationally branded hotel to open in Lianyungang. One of the first 14 coastal cities in China to open to foreign trade, Lianyungang attracts business travelers but also tourists for the nearby Yuntai Mountain and Liandao Island. Scheduled to open in 2009. 254 guest rooms, more than 14,000 square feet of meeting space, two restaurants, and a bar and lounge.
Four Points by Sheraton Hainan, Sanya is a new resort hotel in which is arguably China’s premier resort destination. Sanya is not only a popular tourist destination, but also a political, economic and cultural hub and foreign trade port. When it opens in mid 2010, the 405 room resort will have three restaurants, a spa and health club and more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space.

Source: BusinessWire

There is a long-term plan for the tourism industry’s sustainable development on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The scheme (2006-20) plans to develop the region along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway into a top-quality tourist destination, which it is hoped will attract some 3 million tourists each year, staying for an average of seven to 12 days by 2020.

Yang Kaizhong, an economist and professor with Peking University who heads the planning team, supported by the China National Tourism Administration, said the development should not be achieved at the cost of the environment.

As a preventive move, Yang’s team has defined ‘no entry’, ‘entry limit’, ‘free entry’ and ‘encouraged entry’ sections in the region.

Yang Kaizhong said, ‘Ten natural reserves in the region, such as the core region of Hoh Xil national nature reserve, will be barred from any entry or tourism development.’

Somewhat fragile and totally irreplaceable scenic spots like the Potala Palace and Tar Lamasery are areas where limits will be set for tourist entry.

But entry into major towns, such as Lhasa, Nagqu, Golmud and Xining, and some scenic spots that are capable of receiving unlimited numbers of tourists, such as the formal research base of China’s first atomic bomb, are encouraged.

It is expected 85,100 hotel rooms will be needed along the railway by 2020, most of which should be located in the towns.

Yang Kaizhong said, ‘We do not encourage building high towers and star-rated hotels there. It is better to have more family hotels, small-scale inns and non-permanent facilities with strong local cultural and architectural features in the community’.

This plan neatly demonstrated the dilemma of all planning authorities. You build a railway and tourists will come. Tourists, if only through erosion by walking, can create problems. This plan seems most intelligently to accept that tourism is inevitable and that it needs to be contained.
Source: China Daily

UNESCO has expressed concerns that the Potala Palace, listed as a world heritage site in 1994, is being increasingly surrounded by nondescript modern Chinese buildings.

In response, Qiangba Gesang, palace director for 19 years, said, ‘Potala Palace has so far enjoyed first-class preservation. Seeing is believing. I hope the UNESCO officials can carry out an inspection of the Potala Palace, because a conclusion without an investigation is meaningless.’

A year after its inauguration, the Qinghai-Tibet railway has transported 1.5 million passengers into Tibet, nearly half of the total tourist arrivals in the region. Concerns have arisen that the weight of the tourist influx would pose a serious impact on the mud and wood structures of the 13-storey palace.

Qiangba Gesang said, ‘For the overcrowding of tourists, we have found solutions.’ That is by restricting the numbers of visitors to 2,300 a day and keeping the visiting hours from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM.

Qiangba Gesang said, ‘The restriction of visitors proves our commitment to the protection of Potala Palace. We can’t fully satisfy the needs of all tourists, but we have no other way around it.”

He said that in 2002, the central government invested a total of RMB179.3 million (about $23.6 million) in the renovation of the palace and plans to invest more in the near future.

Potala Palace, the essence of ancient Tibetan architectural art, was first built by the Tibetan King Songtsa Gambo in the 7th century during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), and was extended during the 17th century by the Dalai Lama.

The palace, together with the Norbu Lingka and the Sakya Monastery, are the three main Tibetan cultural heritage sites.
Source: China.org.cn

New players are about to enter the luxury hotel market in China. You could argue that it is already very fully supplied in the major cities but this seems not to be a deterrant. And that is not the case in some of the second-tier markets of China.

The Jumeirah Group from the United Arab Emirates, which runs the world’s most luxurious hotel Burj Al Arab in Dubai (nothing exceeds like excess) is very keen on China.

The Dubai-based company, which aims to expand its global portfolio to 57 hotels by 2011, will open its first China hotel, memorably called the HanTang Jumeirah Shanghai in Xintiandi in July 2008. It will have 338-rooms. It is also considering opening in more Chinese cities as well as Hainan island.

Conrad Hotels & Resorts, a luxury brand under Hilton Hotels Corporation, which runs 18 hotels globally, has announced it will open its first mainland facility in Shanghai next year. It also said that it will open in Beijing although no specific timetable was given.

The 362-room Conrad Shanghai, again located in the city’s prime Xintiandi area, is under construction and due to receive guests between the middle and the end of next year.

Kempinski, Europe’s oldest luxury hotel firm which now runs 11 properties in the country — eight hotels and three resorts — said it plans to boost its portfolio to 21 by 2010 as it hopes to further boost its role as a major player in the Chinese market.

Rene S. Schmitt, Kempinski’s senior vice president for China said the German hospitality company, which entered the China market in 1992 by opening the Kempinski Hotel Beijing Lufthansa Center (seen above), will open hotels in Shanghai, Hohhot, Huizhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Wuxi, Xi’an, Suzhou, Guiyang and Yinchuan within three to four years.

Kempinski also announced that it will launch the luxury Tangula Express trains in the second quarter of next year. The trains, to be managed by Kempinski and featuring spacious suites, gourmet cuisine, 24-hour butler service, spa and wellness treatment as well as an in-room entertainment system, will run from Beijing to Lhasa via Xi’an during the warm season and from Beijing to Dali, Guilin and Lijiang via Xi’an during the cold season.
Source: Shanghai Daily

In Lhasa, a new hotel is being constructed by the Lhasa Yungao International Hotel Company and should be ready by the end of 2008. The hotel will be officially named the St Regis, Lhasa and room prices will probably be around $400 a night so it is not for the backpacker set.

The hotel will be managed by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. It will have 175-rooms at international five-star standards, and will be the first five-star hotel in China’s vast western regions including Tibet, Xinjiang and Qinghai. The illustration is NOT of the hotel but gives a wonderful feeling of Lhasa which is why it is a little larger than the normal illustration.

The region reported 110,000 visitors to Tibet in the first quarter of 2007, up 15.8% year-on-year, and is expected to receive more than three million tourists this year. The region will also start building its fourth airport in Ngari. There are now airports in Lhasa, Qamdo, and Nyingch.
Sources: Opodo and The Hindu

There are many family hotels in Lhasa, China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. The illustration shows tourists having dinner at a family hotel near Bargor Street in Lhasa.

There are now 34 family hotels with over 1,000 beds built in the old city area.

The residents are invariably Chinese tourists although with the authentic feel of the hotel it would have a great attraction for Westerners.
Source: China View

Should this be under Logisitics or Hotels? Hotels because the prime mover is Kempinski Hotels. It has got together with Tangula International to manage the new Tangula luxury trains in China.

Think of Orient Express level trains taking you from Lhasa, Lijiang and Beijing in spring 2008. The purpose-built Tangula trains will take guests on two distinctive routes through China, crossing wild grasslands, desert plains and vast plateaus.

Departing from Beijing, the five-day/four night journey to Lhasa goes across the Tibetan plateau.
The Beijing to Lijiang route also takes five-days/four nights and explores the landscapes of Guangxi and Yunnan provinces.

On all routes there are daily off-train excursions. Each Tangula luxury train will accommodate up to 96 passengers in 48 suites. The suites each have an en-suite bathroom with shower, mini bar and in-room entertainment system with music, TV and satellite Internet. A butler is on call throughout the journey, while a doctor is available during the ascent to Lhasa.

Reto Wittwer, President and CEO of Kempinski, said ‘Tangula is a very exciting project that matches Kempinski’s pioneering spirit perfectly. We are delighted to manage the Tangula luxury trains. We can introduce our guests to a very new and exclusive travel experience in China, courtesy of Kempinski.’

So why the name Tangula?

The Tangula (sometimes spelled with two ‘g’s) Pass is in Tibet and rises to over 5,000 meters. It is here the Qinghai–Tibet Highway reaches its highest point of 5,231 meters. The Tangula Pass is home to the highest railway in the world, surpassing the altitude of the highest Peruvian railway by 255 meters at 5,068 meters.
Source: Hotel News Resource

It is not that Lhasa is being banned to the hippy traffic. Rather that the focus is on getting more up-market travelers. New hotels, typically partnerships between a mainland or Hong Kong developer and foreign manager, will be offering luxury accommodation. Which has not always been associated with visits to Lhasa.

Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University, said, ‘In Tibetan urban areas, the kind of development China’s government has decided on is ultra-fast development. Five-star hotels are seen as highly symbolic of crystallizing that development.’

Tibet’s towns and small cities are changing fast and the region’s economic growth rate, at 13.4% last year, has been one of the highest in China.

Tourism to Tibet is soaring with the help of the new railway line, which opened last July, running south from Qinghai province to Lhasa. Nearly 2.5 million visitors landed in the region last year, up 40% from 2005. Although more than 90% of the tourists were domestic travelers the move is still inexorably upmarket.

Local tourism officials expect to host three to four million tourists this year. Tibet’s current population is 2.7 million.

An expatriate-run company, TZG Partners, is investing about US$100m to launch a luxury train service, offering king-sized beds and butler service, either this year or next.

There are already three high-end boutique hotels under construction with one opening last year and Starwood Hotels to open under its St Regis brand. There is also one due from Singapore-based Banyan Tree Holdings. The developers of these projects have already made land agreements and are now in the design phase.

Lhasa officials are very cautious about developing the city. Part of their strategy is to attract upper-class tourists so the city does not become a backpacker haven.

William Zhao, of hospitality consultants HVS International, does not expect activist campaigns to have a big impact on international hoteliers managing projects in Lhasa. ‘They must go to do business and not end up being politicized.’
Source: FTD