The Beijing Best Western Hotel is set to open soon, and the Park Hyatt, a luxury brand from the Hyatt Group, will follow suit. Ritz Carlton has already chosen a downtown site for its first hotel in Beijing.

Whether it be in eastern coastal cities like Shanghai and Ningbo, or southwestern cities such as Chongqing and Chengdu, business people have a wide-ranging choice of international hotels.

"Following 20 years of development, China's hotel business is nearly at the same level of those overseas. That's why we chose to come here now. We believe that through franchise management, the brand hotels will become increasingly popular across China," said William W.M. Dong, chief representative of Best Western International China, in Beijing recently.

Best Western now owns more than 4,000 hotels worldwide. Over the past few months, it has signed contracts with five Chinese hotels, including one in Beijing.

Shangri-La opened its first hotel or the first international hotel in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang Province.

Shangri-La currently has 16 hotels in China and plans to build a top-quality resort hotel in Sanya, another prestigious seaside city in southern China's Hainan Province.

"China is one of the fastest-growing economies and is set to be a world player within the hospitality industry. The growth of trade and economy has brought a huge influx of customers. We are now concerned that many of our hotels are constantly booked," said Giovanni Angelini, Shangri-La's chief executive officer and managing director.

Qian Jin, vice-president of Starwood, shared the same view. "China's hotel business has entered a golden period. Our sales goal here is expected to grow 25 percent over that of last year," he said.

Starwood, known for its Westin, St. Regis and Sheraton brands, is quite optimistic about development in China.

Qian said, "Foreigners have agreed that these hotels are well-equipped and can offer very good service. We should now innovate based on the Chinese culture and foreign management experience."

(eastday.com December 3, 2002)