China is expecting a hotel building boom while Beijing gears up for the 2008 Olympics. 
 
The capital already has 600 star-graded hotels and Olympic organizers want to add another 200 by 2008.

The InterContinental Group, which runs the Holiday Inn and has over 40 hotels in China, plans to double that number in the next few years.

With an eye on future demands, droves of hoteliers are clambering for a foothold in China not just in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou but in smaller, secondary destinations as well.

And cities from southern Xiamen to southwestern Chengdu are in the middle of a hotel construction boom, with hundreds of new buildings being erected.
 
(CRI.com April 21, 2004)