China welcoming new hotels as tourism booms

CHINA is experiencing a hotel boom, with countless new accommodation options as the country opens up and business travel rises.

Artist impression of new hotel W Shanghai in China PictureL Starwood Hotels and Resorts

CHINA is experiencing a hotel boom, with countless new accommodation options as the country opens up and business travel rises.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is opening 20 hotels in China this year, including properties in the Hainan Islands — known as China’s version of Hawaii — and in ski resorts including Changbaishan.

Marriott International will open one hotel a month on average in China for the next five years, while the Ritz-Carlton has nine hotels scheduled to open before 2018.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts opened its third Shanghai hotel in June, Raffles is opening its second China property in Hainan in September, Club Med is opening a resort in the world-heritage listed Guilin the same month and Sofitel Shanghai is opening in December.

Anantara launched Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort & Spa in Yunnan Province in February and has five more properties set to open or under development.

Pan Pacific Tianjin will open in the harbour city in North China in May and Mandarin Oriental Beijing is set to open next year

Helen Wong’s Tours founder Helen Wong says the introduction of so many international-standard hotels will see more tourists venture beyond Shanghai and Beijing.

She attributes the hotel boom to the growth in domestic tourism and rise in business travel, but it is also good news for leisure travellers.

“The facilities at these new hotels are a lot better — for example, you have swimming pools, gyms and breakfast is a lot better,” she says.

“In Chinese culture we don’t drink a lot of milk so if you’re looking at staying at a standard Chinese-run hotel you will have congee, noodles, rice and pork buns for breakfasts. Westerners aren’t accustomed to this and with the development of these hotels they can have a decent breakfast.”

While the staff at the new hotels may not speak perfect English, Wong says many should at least know the basics.

Wong says China is bigger than Australia and more densely populated, and you shouldn’t try to see it all on your first trip.

She says most international tourists will visit Beijing to see the Great Wall of China, the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai and go to Xian to see the terracotta warriors on their first visit. They may also go to scenic Guilin.

On their second trip they may do a Yangtze River cruise and on their third venture to Tibet, the Shandong province, which includes Lake Qingdao and Confucius’ birthplace Qufu, and Yunnan province in the southwest, which is home to 26 of China’s 54 minority groups.

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