A total of 800 hotels in the Chinese capital are to be upgraded to meet environmental standards for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, hopefully generating 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in market demand for energy-saving products, Beijing Daily reported Tuesday.

An official guideline on environmental requirements for hotels for the games stipulates that they must be upgraded for energy efficiency if they are to be eligible for providing services for the games, the newspaper said.

Failure to comply with the requirements means that the 573 star-graded and 227 ungraded hotels will be denied contracts to provide services for delegations representing the International Olympic Committee.

About 80 percent of the star-graded hotels are just a decade old, requiring upgrading in one or two years, and 110 have plans to be upgraded in the next two years.

Ninety-one percent of the hotels are to purchase energy-saving products in their upgrading plans, which means market demand would exceed 10 billion yuan.
 
(People's Daily November 5, 2003)