Escape the Beijing Heat at Ice Mountain Range

If you find the Beijing heat suffocating, you can find relief at Bingshanliang, or Ice Mountain Range only 200 kilometers away. As its name suggests, the tourist resort has an average temperature of 18.8 Celsius during the summer.

Sprawling some 26 square kilometers, the peak of the mountain range is 2,211 meters above sea level. The landscape varies from open grasslands starred with blossoming wild flowers to bizarrely shaped rocks piled on one another.

In addition to the natural scenery, the resort also has tragic battle tales to tell. As a crucial geographical pass defending northern China, the mountains were an area for numerous battles. Today visitors can still see traces of these historical events such as exercise fields for soldiers and stone pillars where war horses were tied.

The Ice Mountain Range area includes the city of Chicheng, Hebei province which is home to other tourist sights including a section of the Great Wall and two hot springs resorts.

It's a two-hour drive from downtown Beijing to Chicheng. Buses depart daily from Beijing's Liuliqiao Bus Station. Ice Mountain Range is about 40 kilometers north of Chicheng.

Source: CRI

Sizable losses for China's airlines in first half of year

Airlines in China posted a significant annualized loss during the first half of 2013, taking a hit from a weak economy, the H7N9 outbreak and increased competition from foreign rivals and budget airlines, according to Shanghai's First Financial Daily.

Their combined operational losses exceeded 4 billion yuan (US$652 million) after exchange gains were deducted. Business for four listed airline companies may remain weak even during the middle of the year.

Figures compiled by the Civil Aviation Administration of China said total freight volume stood at 31.87 billion tonne-kilometers (ton-km) for the first six months of 2013, growing by 10.4% year-on-year. Passenger volume rose by 11% year-on-year to 170 million.

Data indicated that cargo volume was up 3% at 2.63 million ton-km compared with the same period last year. However, the prospects of the aviation industry maintaining profitability appear less likely.

During the same period, airlines' operational losses were 4.19 billion yuan (US$683.5 million). But they still profited during this time, owing to earnings of 4.33 billion yuan (US$706.4 million) because of exchange gains.

"The actual situation in the first half of this year was worse than our expectation at the beginning of the year," an industry analyst told the paper. Additionally, a lackluster macroeconomy has weakened air freight demand.

The competition between airlines had led to ticket price reductions, which also dragged down their profitability.

China Eastern Airlines general manager Ma Xulun stated that operations during the first quarter were weakened by the global economic downturn. Moreover, the outbreak of avian flu had also affected passengers' willingness to travel.

As for the back half of the year, the aviation industry has a positive outlook, forecasting stronger operations than during the first half of the year.

However, airlines might not benefit from exchange gains during the next couple of months and are likely to face exchange losses, because the withdrawal of US quantitative easing policies might slow down the appreciation of the renminbi.

In recent years, international and budget airlines in particular have accelerated their entry into China's domestic market. At present, 13 airlines now fly to China's second- and third-tier cities.

"Foreign airlines have begun to penetrate markets in the second and third-tier cities. Since the internationalization of domestic companies has just got started, their international sales and network connection still trail behind their foreign counterparts," an industry source told the paper.

Source: Want China Times 

Paris ramps up tourist security amid Chinese concerns

(Reuters) - France said on Friday it would work harder to safeguard tourists in Paris after a spate of muggings of Asian visitors made such headlines in China that the Chinese embassy demanded action.

Interior and Tourism Ministers Manuel Valls and Sylvia Pinel said on a tour of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower that 200 police had been put on patrol to protect tourists and steps were being taken to help foreigners prevent and report crime.

France is the world's most-visited country and solid tourism revenues are a bright spot in its depressed economy.

But reports of pickpockets and muggers targeting Chinese tourists have soared of late, tarnishing the French capital's image as a favored destination for love-struck couples and high-end shoppers.

"Paris is a safe city. What we want to say today is: tourists and friends from all over the world, come to Paris, welcome to Paris, bienvenido a Paris!" Valls told journalists.

Petty crimes against Chinese nationals jumped 22 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, a Paris police official told Reuters. He said Asian tourists were targeted because they were known to carry a lot of cash on them.

Staff at the Louvre went on strike in April over a surge in pickpockets, shutting the world's most-visited museum for a day.

Security guards say Chinese tourists visiting France for the first time seem to get more easily distracted than more seasoned European tourists when gazing at works like the Mona Lisa.

Police recently issued a "Guide to staying safe in Paris" - translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish - advising tourists to carry a minimum of cash, favor small banknotes and watch out for gangs of teenagers, commonly from eastern Europe, who pick pockets while conducting phoney petitions.

At the Louvre, tourists can now file legal complaints directly on site in 16 languages without going to the police.

Some 1.4 million Chinese visited France last year, up 23 pct from 2011. Millionaires in China rate it their top destination.

But a group of 75 French luxury brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Hermes warned in May that Chinese buyers, the world's top spenders, risk favoring London or Milan as they view Paris as dangerous.

In March, a group of 23 Chinese were robbed within hours of landing in Paris. In June, six Chinese wine-making students were assaulted in Bordeaux in an attack Valls called "xenophobic".

The Chinese embassy has pressed French authorities in recent months to address the issue, which was also raised when Socialist President Francois Hollande last traveled to China in April to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Jean-Francois Zhou, head of Ansel travel agency which runs tours to and from China, said he advised clients not to take the metro or leave their hotel at night. His tour guides pepper their talk with warnings like "pickpockets to your right".

"It's a killjoy," he said. "These visitors have big dreams about Paris but things like this smash their illusions."

Source: Reuters By Natalie Huet

6 Gobi adventures: Best ways to get sand in your shoes in Dunhuang

With nothing but 1.3 million-square-kilometer desert for company, Dunhuang (敦煌) really feels as though it's in the middle of nowhere.

But it's the desolation that makes the desert town so attractive.

The air is crisp; there's not the slightest hint of light pollution at night; it’s one of the few places in the world where anyone can rent a camel and camp out in sand dunes.

With a population of 180,000, Dunhuang (the name means "big and grand") is located in the Gansu province of western China.

As a town, it was a frontier defensive bulwark in the Han Dynasty and a major stop on the ancient Silk Road.

The city's history dates to approximately 2000 BC.

Today, the wildest activities in and around the old trading hub revolve around accessing the desert that travelers once feared.

1. Horseback riding to Yangguan Pass

A textbook staple for Chinese students, the Yangguan Pass was immortalized in Chinese history by Wang Wei (王维), a Tang Dynasty poet.

The pass once protected Dunhuang from invaders coming from the west; and though it has been reduced to a heap of rock with traces of design and architectural details, the view near the pass remains breathtaking: bleak but beautiful desert stretches as far as the eye can see.

Admission is RMB 50 (US$8), which includes a guided tour of the Yangguan Museum.

Visitors have the option of going up to the Yangguan Pass on a tram or by horseback. The horse, of course, feels far more epic.

Yangguang Pass (阳关道), 70 kilometers southwest of Dunhuang. There's no public transportation between Dunhuang city and Yangguan Pass. A return trip by taxi costs around RMB 300 (US$47) for up to four people.  

2. Hiking amid eerie rock formations at Yadan National Park

Yadan National Park is spead over 400 square kilometers and littered with various rock formations that are analogous to abstract art -- they're actually the product of lake erosion millions of years ago.

Now arid desert, the entire area was once underwater.

Visitors can jump on a tour bus to various sites with rocks that resemble the Egyptian sphinx, Great Pyramids and ancient Roman relics.

Awesome photo ops are everywhere. Nothing says desert nomad more than a midair jumping photo in the middle of nowhere.

Yadan National Park (敦煌雅丹国家地质公园), 180 kilometers northwest of Dunhuang. There's no public transportation between Dunhuang city and Yadan National Park. A return trip by taxi costs around RMB 500 ($63) for up to four people.

3. Touring Mogao Grottoes

The Mogao Grottoes are a series of Buddhist caves with amazing detailing.

There are 492 caves that contain some 2,100 colored statues and 45,000 square meters of murals. If joined together, they would cover a length of 30 kilometers, or the equivalent of 1,000 basketball courts.

Staff and tour guides are adamant about enforcing the area's photography ban. Bags have to be checked in before their owners can embark on the hour-long tour.

The grottoes are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and each cave has its own unique character.

The area was a pilgrimage site and venue for ancient scribes. The fact that it's intact today (after the destruction of so many other historic sites in China) is testament to its cultural value.

Admission is RMB 180 ($28) during high season (May 1-October 31) and RMB 100 ($15) the rest of the year.

Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟), 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang. Take the green shuttle bus in front of Silk Road Hotel (丝路宾馆) in Dunhuang. The journey takes around 30 minutes and costs RMB 8.

4. Bargaining at Dunhuang Night Market

Dunhuang was a major stop on the Silk Road. Today, it remains a trading town.

The best way to feel like part of the legacy is to try bargaining at the Shazhou Night Market (敦煌夜市).

Dunhuang is a small town, so the night market is the only place to stock up on trinkets and souvenirs.

Local merchants sell their personal items (mostly jewelry) and artisans hand-carve camel engravings and paint desert landscapes.

Piles of dried fruit and nuts (juicy apricots, mammoth pistachios) are also available.

Bargain hard. Merchants will purposely hike up prices for foreigners. Even a little Chinese helps the bargaining process.

The market is in the center of the town and accessible by bus or taxi.

Shazhou Night Market (敦煌夜市), Shazhou Lu, Dunhuang 敦煌沙洲夜市. The night market runs from around 6 p.m. till midnight every day.

5. Camel riding and paragliding at Echoing Sand Mountain and Crescent Lake 

It may be overpopulated with tourists and reminiscent of a giant sandbox, but this is where visitors can experience all of Dunhuang rolled into one convenient spot.

Echoing Sand Mountain is a series of sand dunes that surround Crescent Lake, which is named for its distinctive shape. Echoes can be heard as the wind blows over the dunes.

Visitors ride camels up sand dunes, which rise to 250 meters. With gardens blooming on the banks of the water, Crescent Lake offers a lovely visual counterpoint to all that sand.

The attraction is also suitable for those with a daredevil edge. Paragliding is available; you can traverse the hills via dune buggy; or grab a sled and slide down the giant mounds of sand.

Admission is RMB 120 ($18) during peak season (May 1-October 31) and RMB 60 ($9) in low season.

Echoing Sand Mountain and Crescent Lake (鸣沙山和月牙泉), six kilometers south of Dunhuang.

Bus No. 3 goes to the attraction from Dunhuang. The journey takes around 10 minutes and costs RMB 1 (US 15 cents).

6. Overnight camel trekking

A night in the sand dunes with camels and a completely unpolluted night sky is the quintessential Dunhuang experience.

Located on the outskirts of the Echoing Sand Mountain, Charley Johng’s Dune Guesthouse arranges overnight camel tours for RMB 400 ($62).

The trek begins at 5 p.m. and ends at 8 a.m. the following morning.

The all-inclusive trip includes a tour guide, dinner (ramen), breakfast (bread), accommodations (tent) and, the best part, transportation (camels).

Guides don’t speak much English, but they’ve had their share of foreign customers, so they know the basics.

Be sure to put on a few layers before crawling out of the tent to go to the bathroom at 3 a.m. The temperature difference between night and day is up to 30 C.

There are no toilets. You dig your own holes.

Charley Johng’s Dune Guesthouse, Mingsha Shan, Sha Sheng Zhi Wu Yuan, Crescent Lake 鸣沙山沙生植物园, 月牙泉. Call +86 13893763029 or +86 937 885 7298 for details. A half-day notice is required.

Getting there: Dunhuang Airport (敦煌机场) is located 13 kilometers east of the city. China
Southern operates a daily return flight between Xi'an Xianyang Airport and Dunhuang Airport. Air China flies between Beijing and Dunhuang once a day.

Dunhuang station is served by trains only from cities in northwest China. However, Liuyuan station (柳园站), approximately 130 kilometers from Dunhuang, links to Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chongqing and Chengdu. Shuttle buses and taxis connect Liuyuan station and Dunhuang.
Dunhuang Tourism Service Center, 32, Mingshan Lu, Dunhuang 敦煌鸣山路32号, +86 937 8851 518

Source: CNN Go By Clarissa Wei

China Turns to German to Make Mao Hotel World Class

Source: Bloomberg News

Four decades after Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai established a new era in U.S.-China relations with the Shanghai Communique, the hotel that hosted their meeting is tapping German management to turn a communist-era icon into a luxury brand that can compete globally.

Bernold Schroeder, who helped build Banyan Tree into one of Asia’s top upscale resort chains, was headhunted by state-owned Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. (2006) to create a hotel brand in the ilk of Germany’s Kempinski and Hong Kong- based Shangri-La. Its Shanghai properties include Jin Jiang Hotel, which became a favorite of Nixon’s, and the iconic Peace Hotel, a haven over the decades for celebrities visiting the city, including Charlie Chaplin and playwright Noel Coward.

“The risk is a 50-50 chance of success,” 45-year-old Schroeder, chief executive officer of the unit that manages the group’s luxury properties, said in an interview. “That’s why I need a lot of passion. People believe we are still the best and powerful because Hillary Clinton visited our hotel. That’s very dangerous.”
Schroeder, who has been in the role for a year, has some challenges to overcome: his employer is effectively the Communist Party and business decisions need to be handled with sensitivity, while commitment to service is more lax in China than in other parts of the world. At the same time, China has the second-lowest occupancy rates in Asia, and global chains, including Hilton Worldwide Inc., are expanding in the world’s third-largest tourism destination.

Shedding Image

“The company wanted to get rid of a lot of state-owned- enterprise image,” said Schroeder in the interview at the Jin Jiang Hotel, which once hosted late Chinese leader Mao Zedong and is located in the city’s former French Concession district. “In the hospitality industry you don’t depend on hardware -- it’s about people, it’s about perfect service. The number-one thing that has to change is the people and that’s the most difficult. That’s why I always said we need eight to 10 years.”
Jin Jiang has more than 123,000 rooms across 40 cities in China, making it the country’s biggest hotel company, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. and broker CBRE Group Inc.

The company reopened the 83-year-old Peace Hotel on Shanghai’s Bund promenade, overlooking the Huangpu River, in 2010 after a three-year renovation. The hotel, whose famous Jazz Bar hosted former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, was renamed Fairmont Peace Hotel when the management contract went to Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc., which runs the Savoy in London.

Cathay Hotel

The hotel was first opened as the Cathay Hotel, owned by a Jewish businessman who made his fortune trading opium and weapons, according to its website. Coward wrote the play “Private Lives” while convalescing from influenza there in 1929.

Nixon signed the document that paved the way for normalizing relations between the two nations in the Jin Jiang Hotel’s Grand Hall in 1972. The U.S. delegation stayed there and Nixon developed a fondness for the establishment.

Jin Jiang plans to open its first hotel outside China by 2014 in one of the world’s capital cities, targeting a mixture of Chinese and international travelers, Schroeder said, declining to disclose the location. The company has a 50 percent stake in the U.S. hotel chain Interstate Hotels & Resorts Inc.

Schroeder spent 14 years with Singapore-based Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd., where he was senior vice president and managing director of hotel operations, before he joined Jin Jiang. As he did at Banyan Tree, he sticks a pin on a map of the world in his office every time the company opens a new hotel.

Comfort Zone

He concedes one of his biggest challenges as CEO of Jin Jiang International Hotel Management Co., the unit that manages the group’s luxury properties, is how to develop a global hotel brand that is quintessentially Chinese.

“When Chinese go international, they want to be in a certain comfort zone,” he said. “I want them to stay in a Jin Jiang hotel when they go to New York or Paris, which is already a very stressful journey.”

Schroeder, who attended executive programs at Cornell University, Singapore Management University and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, also worked for Hyatt Hotels Corp. in New York and the Holiday Inn in Hong Kong.

Shanghai Tower

Jin Jiang, through a venture with Shanghai Tower Development Co., is developing the world’s highest hotel, which is set to open in 2015.

The 258-room Shanghai Tower J-Hotel will occupy the 84th to the 110th floors of the 121-story building, the group said in 2010. The 632-meter Shanghai Tower in the Pudong business hub is set to be the world’s second-tallest building when construction is completed in 2014. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building, and the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong is currently the world’s highest hotel.

Schroeder’s vision for the J-Hotel brand is modeled on Munich-based Kempinski AG’s five-star Hotel Adlon Kempinski, which overlooks Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate and is frequented by dignitaries and pop stars, including the late Michael Jackson, who dangled his baby over the balcony there in 2002.

“It’s the showcase of Jin Jiang,” Schroeder said. “Our J should be like the Adlon because nobody knows that Adlon is actually a Kempinski hotel. Everybody knows Adlon, Brandenburg Gate. When we go international, we have to create something like Shangri-La in Paris, the hotel which has a strong Asian feel combined with a sense of class.”

Shangri-La Asia

The number of China’s outbound travelers will reach 100 million by 2020, according to estimates from the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Hotel occupancy rate in the world’s most populous nation stood at 61.9 percent in June, rising 0.7 percent from the same period a year earlier and the second lowest among 15 Asian markets after India, according to STR Global, a consulting and research group. This compares with 70.3 percent in the U.S. and 85.9 percent in Singapore in June.

Revenue per available room, or revpar, rose 5.7 percent to $93.26 in Asia in the first half, compared to an increase of 7.2 percent to $65.81 in the Americas, according to STR.

China Expansion

China overtook Spain in 2010 to become the world’s third- most-visited travel destination, trailing behind France and the U.S., based on United Nations World Tourism Organization data.

International operators such as Hilton and Marriott International Inc. have been expanding in China. Marriott plans to double the number of hotels in China by 2014 to meet growing demand, Asia-Pacific Chief Operations Officer Craig Smith said in an April interview in Shanghai.

“You have a lot of great hotels in China, especially from foreign competitors, but they don’t have heart and soul in many of them,” said Schroeder. “If we cannot change people to a proper service culture, to put heart and soul into it like in the old days -- we called it inn-keeper, somebody who loved to serve -- then we cannot turn around the product.”

Wanfenglin: national geological park in Xingyi, Guizhou

A visitor takes photos of Wanfenglin in Xingyi, Guizhou province, July 31, 2012. Wanfenglin, which literally means Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks, is a national geological park and also a tourism attraction in Xingyi city.

(Source: Xinhua)

Guangzhou launches 72-hour visa-free stays

South China's mega-city Guangzhou started offering international transit passengers 72-hour stays on Thursday.

Guangzhou is the third Chinese city to introduce the visa-free policy, following capital Beijing and commercial hub Shanghai.

An 85-year-old man from New Zealand, who gave his surname as Hepburn, and his wife were the first to enjoy the new policy as they arrived at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 5:50 a.m..

"We got to know about the visa-free policy from the Internet half a month ago," said Hepburn. "We wanted to take the chance for a visit."

Xiao Shuanggui, a local travel agency manager who received the Hepburns, said his agency had received orders from 30 international tourists in the past month.

The visa-free policy should bring 20 percent more customers to his travel agency, said Xiao.

The visa-free scheme covers travelers from 45 countries, including France, Germany, the United States and Japan.

Under the plan, transit travelers are allowed to freely visit Guangdong Province, where Guangzhou City is located.

The visa-free scheme is expected to bring five billion yuan (809 million U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue for the province, according to insiders' calculations.

Source: Xinhua via china.org.cn