Interesting possibilities here. The news is the first China-made bullet train designed to run at 300 kilometers per hour has completed a test run and will be in service between Beijing and Tianjin in early August. Which you do not need to be reminded is the start of the Olympics.

Shao Liping, director of the railway authority in Nanning, capital of the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said, ‘A train prototype rolled off the production line in December and has completed a test run.’

The new train is expected to be running along a 117-km intercity railway beginning August 1, a week before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.

It will reduce the travel time between Beijing and Tianjin to around 30 minutes from the current 70 to 80 minutes.

Using some lateral thinking:

The prices of a decent hotel room at the Games are enough to try men’s souls. Probably no one will attend EVERY day of the Olympics. So stay in a hotel near the railway station in Tianjin and commute in every day.

This is not a far-fetched idea.

The writer goes to the Frankfurt Book Fair every year. Gunter Grass wrote: ‘When God made Frankfurt he shat concrete.’ Gunter Grass is too kind.

So one stays in Mainz, an university town where moveable metal type printing was invented by Johnannes Gutenberg (neat museum) and commutes in daily. Much, much less expensive and as Mainz is an university town one meets a better class of person.
Source: China Daily

Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts will have a new hotel in Tianjin, China’s third largest city.

Scheduled to open in 2010 the 342-room hotel will definitely be a MICE hotel catering to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. To deal with this it will meeting room facilities comprising two ballrooms and 15 function rooms covering a total meeting space of 2,378 square meters.

Plus all the usual jollities such as an executive lounge, a specialty restaurant, an all day dining lobby lounge, a fully equipped gym, and a swimming pool with river view. The 24-storey Pan Pacific Tianjin will form part of a mixed-development with residential apartments, offices and shops acquired by a joint venture company Tianjin UOL Xiwang Real Estate Development.

The hotel will be in the northwest of downtown in the Hong Qiao District along Zhang Zhi Zong Lu with a panoramic view of the Hai He River.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

JAL Hotels has announced that the company has signed a hotel management agreement on with Shanghai Yuchang Real Estate Development to open a five-star Hotel Nikko Shanghai in March, 2009.

The new hotel will be located at the corner of Shanghai Puxi area’s main road, Yan An West Road and Zhen Ning Road.

The hotel will be a part of Manpo International Plaza, a newly developed commercial real estate complex. It will be a five-star hotel with 388 guest rooms in a 23-story building above ground and two stories in the basement, which will occupy a total of 47,724 square meters.

In addition to Hotel Nikko Shanghai, two luxury condominium buildings and a luxury office building will be built in the Manpo International Plaza. It is only a 25-minute-drive from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport.

Japan Airlines opened a round-trip, twice-daily air route including code sharing with China Eastern Airlines between Shanghai Hongqiao and Haneda Tokyo Airport in September 2007. Thus this is a great fit for JAL Hotels.

The company already has the Nikko Hotel, Dalian, shown in our illustration. Further, this year, the company opened the 373-room Hotel Nikko Tianjin in Tianjin. Future openings include the 500-room Hotel Nikko Wuxi in 2009.

Opening in 2011, the St. Regis Hotel Tianjin will have 284 rooms, more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space, six restaurants, a spa and pool. So it is a MICE hotel being eminently suitable for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions but there is a fair amount of leisure thrown in there as well. St. Regis is a high end Starwood brand.

Tianjin is one of China’s fastest growing coastal cities. It will be St. Regis’ third hotel in China with the first two being in Beijing and Shanghai. There are plans to add a property in Tibet.

All of this is part of the upward parabola of Starwood. The company announced in June that it expected to sign about 200 new deals and open more than 80 new hotels this year, almost double the properties it opened in 2006. Much of its focus has been on the upscale and luxury markets, with much of the growth planned outside North America.

The company has also been expanding its W luxury brand overseas. Our illustration is of the St. Regis in Shanghai but it gives you and idea of the style and elegance.
Source: CPN

Days Inn Business Place brand is at it sounds. A hotel designed for the business traveler.Harry Tan, president and CEO of Days Inn China, said, ‘The Days Inn Business Place is designed with the business traveler in mind and is ready come in to the Chinese market.’

So each room has an oversized spacious work area and chair, high intensity lighting, desk lamp, easy to reach data port and electrical outlets, a full size ironing board and iron, a coffee maker, an in room snack pack and beverage for every night of their stay. Free local calls, free broadband internet connection and Wi-Fi broadband internet connection in public areas and chargers for mobile phone available at the Front Desk. (The illustration is of the Days Inn Business Place in Denver, Colorado which the writer stayed at last year. The one’s in China will probably be a bit more flash. Less in the American Traditional style.)

The Business Center has fax machines (bit dated now but they are still being used. And, useless bit of trivia, they date from 1853. And, not, that is not a mistake.)

Days Inn China entered the Chinese market in 2004 and this adds to its range of brands. Days Inn China has already signed three Days Inn Business Places: Days Inn Business Place Diderenhe Yinchuan, Days Inn Business Place Yinfeng Beijing and Days Inn Business Place Shenyang.

Harry Tan says, ‘Days Inn China will continue to develop more Days Inn Business Place in Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other cities as well.’ It is a remarkably good idea. The sort of place that any perpetually perambulating business person could work from.
Source: CCFA.org.cn

The saying used to be that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Looked at worldwide the same could be said of Starwood. In China Starwood Hotels and Resorts is working on the basis it will become the second largest travel and tourism destination in the world after the United States. So its policy is to sign more hotels at an increasing rate. After opening six new hotels during 2006, Starwood is expected to open 33 new hotels in the region within the next three years.

Some current developments:

Aloft Beijing, Haidian will be part of the recently signed Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian. Facilities will include 200 guestrooms, 3,900 square feet meeting space (think MICE), a fitness centre, indoor pool and three restaurants.
W Guangzhou Hotel & Residences in the economic centre of Pearl River Delta, is due to open in 2010. 320 rooms and suites, 167 serviced apartments, 16,000 sq ft meeting space.
Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongpu opening in 2009. 310 guestrooms, over 5,800 sq ft meeting space, three restaurants, outdoor pool, health club and spa.
Sheraton Huadu Resort, Guangzhou is expected to open in 2009. It will have 97 villas with mountain and water views plus all the amenities of an upscale hotel.
The Westin Shimei Bay Resort, Hainan Island will opening in 2010. 40 villas, 124 rooms, 4,300 sq ft meeting space, three restaurants, health club, spa, outdoor swimming pool and tennis court.
A Le Meridien resort is set to open on Hainan Island in 2008.
The Westin Xian should open 2010. 296 rooms, 11,300 sq ft meeting space, five restaurants, health club, spa and indoor heated pool.
The St. Regis Resort, Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous region is opening in 2010. 169 rooms, 9,000 sq ft meeting space, three restaurants, health club, spa, indoor heated pool and business centre.
Sheraton Nanchang Hotel will open in 2011 as part of a mixed use complex including offices and shopping. 350 rooms, three restaurants, lounge, spa, health club, indoor pool and over 20,000 sq ft meeting space.
Westin Tianjin Hotel and Residences set to open in 2010. 300 rooms, 150 residences, four restaurants, health club, spa, indoor heated pool and 17,000 sq ft meeting space.

And that is probably a far from complete list. It is an astounding and extended increase in development for one country.
Source: eTravelBlackboard

Carlson Hotels has started developing the Radisson Hotel Tianjin Zongkai, which is in the Nankai District of China’s third largest city, Tianjin.

Nankai district is famous for its cultural education. Some 16 higher institutions, including the renowned Nankai University and Tianjin University,  lie in the district. Students in Nankai are about half the student population of Tianjin. And about 82% of the academicians live there. 21% of district’s population has college or higher education.

The hotel will have an all-day dining restaurant, a specialty Chinese restaurant, a lobby lounge bar, a beauty salon, and a health club which includes an in-door swimming pool.

The Radisson Hotel Tianjin Zongkai is owned and developed by Zhong Kai Investment
and the exterior and interior will be designed by Frank C. Y. Feng Architects &
Associates (HK) Ltd.

The Radisson Hotel Tianjin Zhongkai brings the number of Carlson hotels currently
under development in China to three. There are nine hotels already operating in China under the Carlson hotel brands of Regent, Radisson and Park Plaza.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

Hotel Nikko Tianjin, a new five-star-level hotel is the latest addition to the Nikko Hotels International group. Nikko Hotels International chain is operated by JAL Hotels and works hand-in-hand with the Japanese airline.

Hotel Nikko Tianjin is on Tianjin’s main boulevard, Nanjing Avenue and is 22 stories high. It has Tianjin’s largest banquet room plus five meeting rooms which makes it very much a MICE hotel. It also has six restaurants, a business center, indoor pool and a spa and fitness center. Altogether there are 373 guest rooms.

Nikko Hotels International now operates five hotels in China.
Source: Hospitality Net

Nikko Hotels International plans to open the 373-room Hotel Nikko Tianjin next month. This hotel will be excellently placed for transportation being directly connected to new stations of subway lines No.1 and No.3 to be opened next year. The hotel is only 30 minutes by car from Tianjin International Airport.

The hotel will be built as part of an existing commercial complex ‘The Exchange’ on Tianjin’s main boulevard, Nanjing Road. Like all Nikko luxury hotels it will have all the facilities such as restaurants, a bar, a banquet hall, an indoor pool, a business center, and, more and more important these days, a spa and fitness room.
Source: JAL Hotels

Tianjin, only about two hours’ drive from Beijing, will have a Raffles Tianjin Hotel next year. It will be in the Tianjin Centre’s West Tower, taking up the 32nd to 45th floors, including the rooftop where you’ll find the restaurant and bar with views across the city. The Raffles will be Tianjin’s first penthouse hotel.

A Radisson is also planned for Tianjin which is China’s third largest urban area and has a large international airport.
Source: Hotel Chatter