Jinmao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center.

The Shanghai World Financial Center, standing 492 meters tall and also nicknamed the ‘Wall Street of China,’ the biggest skyscraper in Chinese mainland and the third-tallest in the world has been officially inaugurated.

The 492-meter-high building is in the Lujiazui area of Pudong District overlooking the Huangpu River.

It covers an area of 381,600 square meters. It has 101 floors above ground and three floors underground.

The third to fifth floors are conference centers.

This fits in neatly with the Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel which takes up the 79th to 93rd floors. Hotel rooms with amazing views. On a clear day you can see forever.
Source: China View

Garden Hotel Suzhou

The historic Garden Hotel Suzhou, a former state guest house and private residence of Kuomingtang leader Chiang Kai-shek, has earned 5-star status.

This award comes from China’s National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and makes one wonder how other hotels can claim seven star status when CNTA does not issue them.

Garden Hotel Suzhou last year has a RMB260 million makeover. The former manor, which hosted visits by over a hundred Chinese and international political leaders as a state guest house, was approved in its  5-star rating after a series of unannounced checks of both service and facilities.

It features 238-rooms with comprehensive conference facilities. A modern business center, luxurious spa, gym and a boutique were also incorporated in the renovation so that it becomes a MICE hotel but still very much in a garden setting.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

Sheraton Dongcheng Hotel

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has signed its 100th hotel in China. The Sheraton Beijing Dongcheng Hotel will have 470 rooms, approximately 36,000 square feet of meeting space, 3 restaurants and bar, a health club, spa and indoor heated swimming pool.

The hotel is part of the final phase of the Global Trade Center (GTC) mixed-use complex development.

The complex comprises offices, retail shops, condominium, serviced apartments, and the hotel. The Sheraton Beijing Dongcheng Hotel is scheduled to open January 2011.

Starwood currently has two hotels under construction in Beijing: aloft Beijing Haidian and Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian; as well as 4 hotels in operation: Great Wall Sheraton Beijing, The Westin Beijing, Financial Street, The Westin Beijing, Chaoyang and St Regis Beijing.
Source: Japan Today

Pangu Plaza

The dragon-shaped Pangu Plaza in Beijing is surrounded by rumors.  Shaped like a dragon — and stretching the length of seven football fields — is a colossal row of stone buildings that boast a high-rise office tower, shopping mall and what is referred to as a seven-star hotel (the limit on stars is generally accepted as five.)

This building has attracted a raft of rumors which have everyone from Bill Gates to Henry Kissinger either buying in or staying there.

The building’s developers officially denies the project has any relationship to the Olympics or that Gates resides there. And a spokesperson for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation declined to comment on the private affairs of the Gates family.

But the property developers do acknowledge that ’someone very, very important’ resides in the building; that Buffett considered renting a courtyard space (all of which are on the top floor of the lower-rise buildings) and that Kissinger was a guest during the Olympics. Which is great publicity and cannot be proved either way.

Cai Xiaomin, a spokeswoman for Beijing Pangu Investment, the Chinese developer said, ‘We have had a lot of very important guests.’ Which is a neat trick if the hotel is not yet opened. Perhaps it is what the trade calls a ’soft opening’.

The report describes the so-called seven-star hotel which has hand-carved wooden sculptures hanging from the ceilings, prints of traditional Chinese paintings, a Japanese restaurant that charges about $600 per person and a presidential suite that goes for about $30,000 a night.

This despite the fact that the building is still under construction. And that the hotel is not, in fact, yet open although this should happen in a few weeks.

Much of the building is cordoned off by white tape and guarded by men who appear to be wearing paramilitary uniforms. More HERE.
Source: New York Times

Futian Shangri La

Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen, a new five-star, US$200 million, flagship Shangri-La hotel, has opened in the heart of Futian, the business district of Shenzhen.

The hotel is a few minutes’ walk from Shenzhen’s mass transit railway system, which links directly to Hong Kong via the Huanggang border crossing and Futian port. It also offers easy access to Shenzhen International Bao’an Airport and the Shekou ferry terminal.

The new hotel is in a a 40-storey building with 498 guestrooms, 50 suites and 53 serviced apartments.

Among the facilities available in the rooms are an iPod dock, a 37-inch LCD television in the room with a 15-inch version in the bathroom, wired and wireless Internet connectivity, and DVD and CD players.

As a MICE hotel, Futian Shangri-La has a 1,800-square-metre grand ballroom with a high ceiling of 9.5 metres and a hydraulic built-in stage. Also available is an auditorium, a junior ballroom, a boardroom and a range of 10 function rooms.

Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts currently owns and/or manages 55 hotels under the Shangri-La and Traders brands.
Source: China NewsWire

Hotel MGM Grand Macau

Helena Fernandes, deputy head of Macau’s tourist office, told a news conference that Macau wants to attract more international visitors to reduce its reliance on Greater China. It hopes to do that partly by moving upmarket.

Tourism in Macau has been affected by a massive expansion of its gambling industry.

Revenues in Macau’s $15 billion gaming industry overtook those of Las Vegas in late 2006. Macau now has 29 casinos and more are on the way.

Last year almost 30 million people visited Macau, a year-on-year rise of more than one-fifth, but less than one-tenth came from outside of mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, and most did not stay overnight.

Tourism and gambling revenues make up more than half of Macau’s GDP.

The push to look past China was partially sparked by new restrictions on mainlanders visiting Macau, introduced last month to try and slow the territory’s galloping economy and over concerns too many Chinese officials were frittering money away in Macanese casinos.

Helena Fernandes said, ‘Obviously from a strategic point of view we feel this is a very good moment for us to not just pursue quantity but also to give a very good look at the quality of what we’re providing.’
Source: Yahoo News Asia

Four Points by Sheraton has announced the launch of its first Four Points by Sheraton hotel in North China.

Technically it is the Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments. Following the successes of other Four Points hotels which opened in Greater China including in cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changshu, Lhasa and Taipei.

Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments will be in the same style.

The Four Points in Beijing is located in the heart of Beijing’s technology district — Haidian District —  a 5-10 minutes drive away from major government and business organizations, research centers, Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, and major universities.

The Asia Pacific’s largest Shopping Mall — Golden Resources — is within walking distance with more than 1,000 shops, restaurants and movie theater.

Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments has 355 guestrooms and 177 serviced apartments.

The hotel is equipped with 1,054 square meters of meeting and banquet space for groups up to 850 people, including a 720-seat pillar-less natural light Grand Ballroom and 7 other function rooms all equipped with state-of-the-art technology making it very much a MICE hotel.

The hotel also has an indoor heated swimming pool, fitness center and a full-service spa.
Source: eTravel Blackboard

Beijing’s summer tourism season has been slow, and hotels and travel agencies say many potential visitors are being put off by tightened visa rules and scarce tickets to Olympic events.

Anthony Ha, general manager of the newly opened Marriott Courtyard Beijing Northeast (seen in the illustration) said, ‘We are not full at the moment, and we have rooms to fill. There’s not much time left, and we have a way to go.’

The city’s hotel industry, which has more than doubled its five- and four-star hotels offerings to 160 since Beijing was awarded the Olympics seven years ago.

A report last month from the Beijing Tourism Bureau that showed five-star hotels were 77% booked, and four stars were at 44%.

The average price of a five-star hotel in Beijing ranged from $560 to $1,150 per nightalthough some rates were reported as high as $2,000 per night during the Olympics. The four-star average was $325.

According to the bureau the number of foreign visitors to Beijing in May dropped by 12.5% from a year ago.

The shortfall in visitors coincides with new visa regulations that make it tougher for tourists and business executives to enter China.

Si Cunxia, sales manager of Travel China travel agency said, ‘A lot of the hotels overestimated their occupancy rate for July and August.’
Source: Associated Press

The Beijing Olympic Games are sparking fierce competition among hotel groups.

The US-based Hilton Hotels, which has five properties in China, hopes to have two more open by the end of July.
Marriott International has opened three hotels in the capital under the JW Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz-Carlton brands and increased its Beijing portfolio to seven. It is preparing to open two more, a Renaissance and a Marriott, in July.
InterContinental Hotels Group says eight more of its hotels will open this year in Beijing. The group already has nine hotels in Beijing.

Besides the new openings, many existing upscale hotels in Beijing, including New World Jing Guang Hotel, China World Hotel Beijing and Shangri-La Hotel Beijing, have redecorating and or expansion work scheduled for completion before the Games begin on August 8.

Lin Yuan, director of sales and marketing with Novotel Beijing Sanyuan said, ‘The Olympics is absolutely a golden opportunity, nobody would like to miss promoting themselves.’

There will be about 50,200 athletes, international workers, journalists, sponsors and their business clients who will be accommodated by 112 local hotels.

However, no hotel group is banking on just the Olympics. Sustainable economic growth is their goal.

The Beijing Tourism Bureau believes the number of overseas guests will grow at around 30 to 60% annually, rising to a peak in 2010, and the average occupancy rate will increase to more than 72% in 2009. A lot of hoteliers are praying that the Bureau’s projections come to fruition.
Source: China Daily

Having just imbibed a coffee and scoffed a chocolate slice in the Accor hotel it is possible to attest that the food is quite the article. This is in Bangkok as France-based hotelier Accor multiplies its Pullman brand throughout the Asia-Pacific, Thailand’s Pullman Bangkok King Power is the model for the region.

As the writer paid for the coffee and tabnab what is written here is without fear or favor or bribe from hotel PR.

Accor has big Asia-Pacific expansion plans for its newest high-end hotel brand, and Pullman Bangkok King Power, the French hotel giant’s first Pullman hotel in Asia, opened its doors in October 2007. The favorable response from clients so far has ensured it will be the benchmark for an array of Asia-based Pullman hotels on the horizon, Accor says. This despite the fact that, in the opinion of the writer, it is a little out of the main stream but very close to the AUA where I do my Thai lessons. With little success.

By the end of 2008, the Pullman network will consist of 56 hotels and more than 13,000 rooms in 23 countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South America. Five new Pullman hotels will be launched in China by 2010.

Accor Asia-Pacific Chairman and COO Michael Issenberg, said, ‘In the Asia-Pacific region, the Pullman brand will expand rapidly in the next 12 months, particularly in China. Further extensive development is planned throughout the region over the coming years.’

Pullman Bangkok King Power’s experience in Asia will be a development model. The daft name come from the fact that King Power is a major company which plainly is the owner while Accor does the management. Judging by King Power’s performance at the new airport where all sorts of jiggery-pokery have been alleged this is no bad thing.

If the Pullman’s in China are up to this standard (and they will be) then they will be a great success.

The Pullman name derives from the opulent Pullman railway carriages that changed the face of overnight railway travel in America — and later in the UK and Europe from the 1860s. Pullman, specifically designed for business travelers, is the upscale portfolio brand of Accor.
Source: MB Publishing