Amzing scenery of Jinggang Mountain in Jiangxi province

Located in the Luoxiao Mountains, Jinggang Mountain is the "cradle of the Chinese revolution", and has become a hot attraction for natural travel as well as patriotic education.

Covering an area of 213.5 square kilometers, Jinggang Mountain accounts for 32.4 percent of Jinggangshan City. It has dozens of residences and sites of the revolution, of which 10 are under the protection of the State Council. It also boasts more than 60 attractions, including hot springs, caves, waterfalls, mountains and precious animals and plants. (Source: china.org.cn)

China Faces Glut of High-end Hotels

Summary：Policies aimed at reining in housing prices have pushed many local governments to develop commercial property projects and it's become standard to include a 5-star hotel managed by an internationally-recognized brand as part of these new developments.

Every four days a new international-brand hotel is built in China, according to a report by the China Tourist Hotel Association.

One of the factors driving this growth in the number of 5-star hotels is the central government's efforts to rein in soaring housing prices in many Chinese cities. Strict policies that put limits on the kind of housing projects that can be developed are pushing many local governments to consider developing commercial property projects instead. It has become standard practice to include a 5-star hotel managed by an internationally-recognized brand as part of these new commercial developments.

For local governments, a luxury hotel enhances the reputation of the city and also creates tax revenue and jobs. The construction of a high-end hotel as part of a commercial property project is often a pre-condition that planners impose on developers in exchange for awarding them a lease on the land.

In China, it normally takes 8 to 12 years for a five-star hotel to start making a profit. However, it's not a business calculation that’s motivating real estate developers to decide to invest in a luxury hotel project.

"Most hotels are losing money, but profits can be made off other areas aside from the hotels,” a Shanghai based developer told the EO. “If you build a skyscraper, mall or luxury hotel in a third or fourth-tier city, in return the local government will offer discounts on the price of land or tax concessions. You can also use the profits from selling the related commercial properties to invest in the hotel project and thus also avoid having to pay tax."

Hotel Chains Also Keen to Expand

At the same time, international hotel management companies are turning their focus to China. For example, Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International, Inc. both plan to increase the number of hotels in China to 100 by 2015. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) has also vowed to double the number of hotels it operates in China over the coming 3 to 5 years. Even Hyatt Hotels Corporation, usually known for its prudent strategy, has forty hotel projects under construction in China.

Almost three quarters of all the hotels opened in China last year were five-star hotels. By the start of 2013 there were already 721 five-star hotels operating in the country.

Risks of Oversupply

However, falling occupancy rates and prices are exposing the risk of oversupply.

The average occupancy rate in Hong Kong and Singapore is around 80 percent while in most Chinese cities the figure is somewhere between 50 to 60 percent.

Hotels are normally said to be profitable if the occupancy rate is above 70 percent. Statistics from the China 
Tourist Hotel Association reveal that the average occupancy rate of internationally-branded hotels in China is close to 53 percent.

Despite the risks, many hotel management companies are still pushing ahead with plans to expand. These management companies believe that demand will soon catch up with supply.

However, analysts say that a shortage of trained staff and a drop in profitability are reducing the operating efficiency of these hotel brands. Some argue that the pursuit of short-term profit will harm the long-term interests of both the hotel brands and investors.

Government Austerity Drive

The industry is also said to be vulnerable to recent efforts to rein in spending by government officials on extravagant items and services such as expensive meals, Baijiu and luxury hotels.

Zhao Huanyan (赵焕焱), an expert from the Huamei Hotel Consulting Company, said, "The situation is even worse in those smaller cities where most of the consumption at these hotels comes from the government."

Source: The Economic Observer by Chen Zhe

Beautiful scenery of Three Gorges

Beautiful scenery of Three Gorges  (Source: Sina)

Palace Museum spruces up

Beijing's Palace Museum launched an eight-year campaign this week to remove all potential safety hazards, part of preparations for the imperial palace's 600th anniversary celebrations in 2020.

The museum, commonly known as the Forbidden City, houses 1.8 million cultural relics.

According to director Shan Jixiang, the 170,000-sq-m complex is vulnerable to fire, theft and earthquake as well as natural wear and tear.

"Our project will guarantee the safety of the architecture, the relics and the 15 million visitors who come here from all around the world every year," he said.

In the short term, Shan said, work will focus on eliminating threats from theft, extreme weather and stampedes by 2015, the 90-year anniversary of the Forbidden City's conversion into a public museum.

He said the first and most important work that needs to be done is the construction of the museum's north branch.

The Palace Museum owns a 476,000-sq-m site in northwestern Haidian district, 40 km from the city center.

The site, which used to be a brick kiln until 1997, will house a cultural heritage repair center in three to five years, part of which will be open to the public. There will also be an exhibition space, a greenhouse and a digital center.

There are also major plans for the main Palace Museum site. Its 22,000-sq-m underground storerooms will be enlarged by 6,000 sq m, and will feature modifications that automatically adjust the temperature and humidity.

In three years, all the academic institutes currently situated in the museum's Red Wall area will move to its southwest corner.

A new security system will be completed by the end of this year, and a new fire control system will be installed by the end of 2014.

Armed police will replace the museum's security guards, and smoking will be forbidden for all staff members.

The museum will also open and utilize more space for exhibitions. A 28,000-sq-m space in its southern area, including the Meridian Gate and the Goose Wing Buildings, will be put to use this year as exhibition space.

The same area will host a major exhibition in 2015 to celebrate the museum's 90th anniversary. Other areas will also be used for different purposes — for instance, the Imperial Kitchen will become a hall to exhibit ancient furniture, and the uncompleted Western-style Palace of Prolonging Happiness will display Western antiques.

A digital museum outside the Palace Museum's northern gate is being designed.

There will also be training workshops in traditional handicrafts such as the mounting of paintings and calligraphy.

Meanwhile, Shan said, routine repairs and maintenance will continue to be carried out. For example, the three-year restoration of the Xianruo Hall will be completed this year.

The safety project will be completed by 2020, when the Forbidden City is 600 years old, at the same time as the ongoing major repair project that was started since 2002.

"The project is a significant cultural construction, which will improve the Palace Museum's abilities in cultural heritage preservation, demonstration and public service, realizing its sustainable development," Vice-Premier Liu Yandong said when visiting the museum on Tuesday.

Source: By Zhang Zizuan (China Daily)

Forbidden city to open earlier during May-day holiday

BEIJING - The Palace Museum, more popularly known as Forbidden City, will open one hour earlier during the May-day holiday from April 29 to May 1, according to a statement issued by the museum on Friday.

According to the new schedule, the Forbidden City will start receiving tourists from 7:30 am and close at 5:00 pm during the nation's three-day holiday marking the International Workers' Day, a measure to accommodate the anticipated dramatic rise in visitor numbers.

The museum will also install nine more ticket booths during the holiday, taking the total number to 25. Certain booths are specifically for package tour groups, a measure designed to help avoid long queues.

Additionally, the museum will also exercise temporary flow control measures according to real-time monitoring of tourist flows, but those who book tickets online (gugong.228.com.cn) will be let in first, according to the statement.

The museum also announced that emergency plans were in place, to deal with fires, robbery, stampedes or other potential public security incidents.

The statement said that the Forbidden City received a total of 235,900 visitors during last year's May-Day holiday (April 30 to May 2), with an average of 80,000 visitors per day, doubling the average number of visitors in non-holiday period.

China's three-day May-day holiday, which falls around May 1st each year, usually results in a massive flow of population, as many take the opportunity to travel or go back to their hometowns.

Source: Xinhua

Fayuan Buddhist Temple in Beijing

Situated south of Jiaozi Alley outside Xuanwumen, Fayuan Temple is the oldest ancient Buddhist temple in Beijing. It also houses the China Buddhist Association, the China Buddhism Institution and the China Buddhism Library and Relic Center, thus serving as an important venue for nurturing young monks and Buddhist research. (Source:China.org.cn)

Beauty of Fujian Tulou

Photos taken on April 16, 2012 shows Tianluokeng Tulou cluster in Nanjing County, Fujian Province. Fujian Tulou is a type of Chinese rural dwellings of the Hakka and Minnan people in the mountainous areas in Fujian Province. From the 12th century to 19th century, armed bandits plagued southern China and the people of Fujian first built strongholds on top of mountains as a defense. These early strongholds later evolved into Fujian Tulou. The layout of Fujian Tulou followed the Chinese dwelling tradition of "closed outside, open inside" concept: an enclosure wall with living quarters around the peripheral and a common courtyard at the center. A Tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building, most commonly rectangular or circular in configuration, with very thick load-bearing rammed earth walls between three and five stories high and housing up to 100 families. A total of 46 Fujian Tulou sites have been inscribed in 2008 by UNESCO as World Heritage Site. (Xinhua/Wang Song)