Hong Kong at night

Shenzhen has loosened requirements for tourists applying to go on a trip to Hong Kong. Now many areplanning to spend their New Year holiday in the neighboring Special Administrative Region.

Previously, it was much more complicated for many who work in Shenzhen but do not have the Shenzhen resident permit. China Travel Service (Hong Kong) sees more than 100 customers daily who are seeking information about travel to Hong Kong.

The manager of CTS (Hong Kong) says the next tour to the SAR will set out on the first day of the new year. And 43 residents who have no local residence permit in Shenzhen have applied for it. They will spend New Year’s Day in Hong Kong.

For the time being, Shenzhen travel agencies have designed four different tour routes to Hong Kong. But more travel packages are expected to be introduced in the future.
Source: CTV.com

Llhas Internet cafe

Tibet’s tourism market — badly affected by riots in March — has cut travel and hotel costs in hopes of luring domestic and international sightseers.

Deputy chief of the tourism bureau, Wang Songping, said the bureau is promoting a winter tour package:’Most of the tourist attractions, airline companies, hotels and travel services joined the promotion and offer discounts.’

Tourist destinations in Nyingchi Prefecture, which borders India and Myanmar, have cut prices by half, while those in the regional capital Lhasa and in Xigaze Prefecture began to lower prices by 20 to 50% in late October.

Many hotels in Lhasa have taken 20 to 70% off their room rates, while air tickets from Beijing to Lhasa are now available at 70t or 80% of the original fare.

Tibet’s tourism market reopened to domestic travelers in late April and to overseas sightseers on June 25.

The problems damaged the tourism industry, which saw a 69% slump in the number of tourists and a 72% slump in revenue in the first half of this year.

Tibet has received about 2.2 million tourists so far this year, sharply down from a record 4 million last year.
Source: Still Travel

    Read the instructions first

Nicole C. Wong, a Boston Globe reporter covering the business of travel, recently returned from her first trip to China. She was most impressed by the safety precautions in her room:

A lady whose head and neck were completely covered by a crinkled Mylar gas mask just glared at me. Her piercing eyes popped off the quart-size canister stashed in my hotel room’s closet.

This is the just-opened Aloft Beijing, a hip brand launched over the summer by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, located on the outskirts of Beijing’s university and high-tech district.

                Aloft Beijing

Each airy guestroom featured a sunlit shower and a 42-inch LCD flatscreen television that streams music from your iPod, photos from your digital camera, and videos from your laptop.

The lobby pulsated with Skittle-color pillows and nightclubby neon stripes. I made a reservation at Aloft Beijing precisely because I knew what I’d find.

The canister, which Aloft only provides in Beijing to meet China’s standards, contained a ‘Fire Fighting Filter Type Self-Saving Breather.’

And it came with this handy step-by-step ‘method of application’:

1. Take out the fire fighting filter type self-saving breather.
2. Tear at the packaging bag of the fire fighting filter type self-saving breather.
3. Wear helmet and pull contractive belt fast.
5. Choose way and flee for your life decidedly.

Fabulous, I was all set to escape. Now if only I could recognize the Mandarin word shouted for ‘fire.’
Source: Passport

    The new Ningbo Sofitel

Sofitel Wanda Ningbo is the 21st Sofitel in China. Ningbo is China’s second largest seaport, 240 kilometers from Shanghai. The new hotel is in the Yinzhou district, 15 minutes from downtown Ningbo.

The Sofitel Wanda Ningbo is the first five-star hotel to open in Yinzhou.

This is very much a MICE and business hotel. Extensive conference facilities include a Grand Ballroom accommodating up to 600 people and four function rooms equipped with the latest technology and dedicated events team.

For relaxation, the hotel offers the ‘Touch Spa’ comprising private treatment rooms, a sauna and steam room, for indulgent massages, body treatments and facials adapted from natural beauty elixirs. A fitness centre and an indoor swimming pool is also exclusive to guests.
Source: Still Travel

A spa treatment from paradise

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide now has  Le Méridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort and Spa, its second resort in China.

Le Méridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa is the first five-star resort to open in Wanning City on China’s Hainan Island. It is in an idyllic setting on more than three miles of beach with majestic views of the South China Sea. There are 275 guest rooms, including 25 villas, all with private balconies overlooking either the sea or the mountains.

There are three restaurants and three lounges.

Breakers is the the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant. Ai Mei Chinese restaurant offers popular dishes from China, Hainan specialties and Cantonese cuisine.

The hotel’s 3,700 square-foot spa has six spa villas with individual dipping pools, steam rooms and spa cabanas, as well as luxury suites, massage rooms, a hair salon, Spa boutique and Spa bistro.

Despite all this luxurious coddling of the guests this is also a MICE hotel with a nearly 6,000 square foot ballroom and five meeting rooms, perfect for high-end conferences, meetings and events.

There are also recreation facilities including three pools, a fitness center and access to four nearby golf courses.
Source: Hotels http://www.hotelsmag.com/articleXML/LN900514278.html?nid=3457&rid=429711235

The spiralling tower of
Shanghai on the right

Shanghai’s latest development, the ‘Shanghai Tower’, is set to reach new heights upon its completion in 2014.

Already it is claimed it will be the tallest building in China. The 128-storey development will tower 632-metres over the city’s Pudong district and house a luxury hotel, with an unnamed hotel operator, comprising 53,000 sq meters.

The tower will be situated in a 10,000-meter open green space, and offer 360-degree views of the city.

Shanghai Tower hopes to be awarded LEED certified for its many green features including a double wall to conserve energy and use natural sunlight, wind turbines near the top of the building to generate electricity, and a special device to collect rainwater for HVAC use.

Developed by the Shanghai Tower Construction and Development, the tower is expected to be completed by 2014.

Shanghai Tower will be located next to two other super-tall buildings, the 421-meter Jin Mao and the 492-meter World Financial Center.
Source: Still Travel

       St. Regis, Shanghai

The St. Regis Shanghai has been named by Travel and Leisure in its 2009 January issue as one of the ‘500 World’s Best Hotels’ and Shanghai’s number one  hotel.

With only seven hotels in Shanghai included on the list, The St. Regis Shanghai received the highest rating, scoring an overall 88.70.

The brief introduction to the hotel in the magazine details some of The St. Regis’ award winning services and describes the hotel as an ‘elegant red-granite building in Pudong, with ultra-personal services (thanks to the white-gloved butlers) and some of the most spacious standard rooms in town.’

The brand plans to expand globally.

The St. Regis brand was founded over a century ago by John Jacob Astor with the landmark St. Regis Hotel. John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob or Johann Jacob Astor) (July 17, 1763–March 29, 1848) was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America, from which he made his fortune in fur trading, real estate, and opium.
Source: Quamnet

Harbin Ice Festival

The world’s biggest ice Santa has been built for the 2008 Harbin Ice Festival in Heilongjiang Province in China.

The 160m Father Christmas, created by Chinese sculptor Tang Guangjun, is a centerpiece of this year’s Harbin Ice Festival.

Over 800,000 tourists from around China and overseas will visit the festival, which runs from mid-December to early February.

China now has a number of ice festivals to rival the internationally acclaimed Sapporo Snow Festival in nearby Japan.

There are ice and snow festivals in Shenyang in Liaoning Province and Harbin in Heilongjiang Province at this time of the year. In Harbin the amazing ice sculptures are illuminated at night and firework displays are part of the attraction.
Source: Beijing Visitor Blog

      Chinese New Year travel

China’s outbound tourism has been growing robustly with the New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival approaching.

Zhang Qingzhu is marketing manager with Beijing-based China Comfort International Travel Service. She says tours to Southeast Asian countries, Hong Kong and Macao are popular among tourists.

‘More than 100 people come here everyday to get information about tours to Hong Kong and Macao. Right now, the climate there is warmer and more comfortable than Beijing. So many mainland tourists will go there for shopping.’

Hong Kong’s year-end sales season usually kicks off at Christmas. At a time of the global financial crisis, this year’s sales events started earlier with steeper discounts of 10 to 40%.

In Guangzhou, package tours to European countries, Japan, South Korea, and other southeast Asian countries are much cheaper than before due to the gloomy global economic situation.

Zeng Yi, Market Manager with Guangdong Nanhu International Travel Agency, said, ‘Our turnover for this year’s Spring Festival increased by 80% compared with the same period last year.’
Source: CRIEnglish.com

     The new Shanghai HoJo

Howard Johnson Business Club Hotel Shanghai has opened. This is the 21st Howard Johnson hotel in China.

The hotel is located in the business centre and shopping area of Shanghai; within 15 minutes walk from the People’s Square and the shopping, business and entertainment areas of Nanjing and Huaihai Roads.

There are 334 guest rooms and suites. Important is that they all have broadband Internet connection. This is a MICE hotel in that there are 125 square meters meeting space including 3 multi-function rooms. And there is a fitness centre, an in-door swimming pool and tennis court.

Howard Johnson is one of the great evocative names in hospitality. Known as HoJo’s by almost everyone, there is a network of more than 500 hotels in 22 countries and territories.

It was acquired by Wyndham Worldwide, one of the largest hospitality companies in the world.  In China the company arrived in July 1999 and there are now two Howard Johnson hotels in Beijing, nine in Shanghai plus Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Guiyang, Chongqing and Xi’an. About 40 hotels will be opened in Tianjin, Xinjiang, Changsha, Hefei and Shenyang in the next three years.