Kempinski Hotel Xi’an is set to open this May. It calls itself a ‘business hotel’ so it will have extensive MICE facilities including a 1,600 square meter ballroom. It is aiming to cater for the 450 plus trade fairs that are held in Xi’an every year and it is the offical venue for the bi-annual Euro-Asia Economic Forum.

It will have 355 guestrooms and for those who can’t resist a tune, a 3,000 square meter Kareoke entertainment area. The hotel is located right where the Chan and Ba Rivers cross each other in the Chanba Ecological District, northeast of Xi’an city.

The hotel just had a site inspection by four officials shown in the photo. From the left: hotel GM Yoland Perras, Wang Jun who is CEO of Chanba District Development, Bai Huqun from the Illness Controls Bureau, government official Wang Chengwen and Lily Cao, GM of Xi’an Neo China Chanba Euro Asia Hotel Development Co.
Source: Kempinski Hotel Xi’an

More and more five-star hotels are being constructed in Beijing in a bid to open up before the Summer Olympics. The latest to announce its launch (scheduled for May 1st this year) is
The Westin Beijing, Chaoyang.

Part of a mixed-use complex along the Liangma River in the capital’s eastern embassy district of Chaoyang (the same district as where the Olympic Green will be), the hotel will have 565 rooms and suites, Heavenly Spa (The Westin’s own brand spa) and 1,100 square meters of function space including two ballrooms and 10 meeting rooms.

Pictured on the right is new General Manager, Daniel Aylmer, who has over 15 years’ experience in the hospitality industry, including three previous positions at Starwood hotels in China.
Source: PR The Westin Beijing, Chaoyang

Courtyard by Marriott Beijing Northeast is due to open at the end of March. It will be located between Lido Commercial District and Wangjiang High Tech Park, and lies close to The Olympic Green in Chaoyang district.

A press release from the hotel described it as the first Courtyard brand in the Asia Pacific region to have a ‘fresh new outlook and identity that is trendy and energizing to cater to modern business travelers’.

Courtyard comes under the Marriott International brand, its hotels are moderately-priced and cater mostly to business travelers. They have another hotel in the capital, without the northeast bit - Courtyard by Marriott Beijing.
Source: PR Courtyard by Marriott Beijing Northeast

In May last year, the first tenants moved into the office tower of Park Place, a multi-use retail, office and hotel development in Shanghai’s downtown Jing’an district. Mid-2008 (exact date to be announced) is expected to see the opening of its PuLi Hotel and Spa, which has been described as the city’s first luxury ‘urban resort’. (It’s managed by Hong Kong-based Urban Resort Concepts, whose managing director, John G. Laing, is pictured first on the left).

The idea of the hotel, it says, is to give a ‘contemporary’ take on luxury which includes 22 floors of 209 rooms and 20 suites, a 24-hour butler service, flat-screen LCD TVs/DVD players/MP3 docking ports in every room, an Anantara spa, a 32-meter Long Bar, a ‘Library’ and a ‘Wine Cellar’.

Other people pictured are, left to right, Patrick Chen, director of Park Place; Christine Hodder, the hotel’s general manager; and Markus Engel, director and co-founder of Urban Resort Concepts.
Source: PR The PuLi Hotel and Spa

Jinling Hotels & Resorts is scheduled to open another property, in the city of Kunshan in 2009. The five-star Jinling Grand Hotel Kunshan will have 300 guestrooms, a 1,000-square meter-ballroom and several entertainment facilities.

Kunshan in Jiangsu province has become an important business and industrial center in the Yangtze River Delta and is located between Shanghai and Suzhou.

Jin’s Inn — the cheaper lesser-starred chain of Jinling Hotels & Resorts — also opened another site at the end of November. Jin’s Inn Gulou Nanjing is the ninth property in the budget hotel chain.
Source: PR Jinling