China Economy Forum

[cirr]

Taiwan's Shining Group plans to build thirty hotels in China

CNA

October 25, 2013, 12:27 am TWN

TAIPEI -- The tourism and real estate development group which owns the Lalu luxury hotel (涵碧樓) at Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan said Thursday it is aiming to establish 30 hotels and shopping centers in China over the next decade, starting with a complex that is under construction in Qingdao.

The Lalu hotel and shopping mall in the northern Chinese coastal city will open in May 2014, said Shining Group (鄉林集團) Chairman Lai Cheng-i (賴正鎰) at a igning ceremony in Taipei to give space to 28 boutiques at the complex.

The stores will be operated by world renowned brands from Taiwan, Europe and South Korea, he said.

The US$300 million investment, which marks the Shining Group's first expansion into the retail outlet business, is expected to generate an annual turnover of NT$2 billion (US$68.11 million), according to Lai.

The Taichung-based group also plans to build similar complexes in Nanjing, Chengdu, Kuilin, Shenyang, Shanghai and some second- and third-tier cities in China over the next 10 years, he said.

To this end, Lai said, he has signed agreements to purchase land in other cities in Shandong, including Weihai and Jinan, in addition to Qingdao.

One of the ways the group is hoping to turn a profit is by selling 70 villas at the Lalu Qingdao to investors, who will then lease them to the hotel for use by holiday-makers, Lai said.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/asia-taiwan/2013/10/25/392097/Taiwans-Shining.htm

 

[shuttler]

^^^ looking good, 7-star hotels,

No kidding and more links:

http://info.meadin.com/IndustryReport/92672_1.shtml

http://news.winshang.com/news-189968.html

Credit: Chinesehotels

Credit: NobleChinese.com

The LaLu, Sun Moon Lake Taiwan

青岛7星级酒店涵碧楼 The Lalu Qingdao
Credit: qingdaonews

 

[StarCraft_ZT]

LOL ...since you ask for (normally I don´t comment on China economy thread). Well, nearly half of China´s GDP is made up by capital and other investments, I wonder how sustainable is your growth?

You are increasing further production capacities of everything, from coal to steal, more than China can consume, even more than the world can swallow. Correct me if I am wrong.

Wrong.

That's past tense, I mean post the year 1997 and 2008 when world financial crisis arose.

China has already cut the excessive production capacity.

 

[cirr]

Shenzhen-Xiamen railway on testing run from Oct 4th

Shenzhen-Xiamen railway will open on December 26th 2013. The new railway will connect Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Chaozhou, Shantou,Jieyang, Shanwei, Huizhou and Shenzhen. The travel time between Sheszhen and Xiamen will be shortened to 3 hours. The full ticket will cost between RMB 160 ~ 190.

 

[cirr]

Chongqing-Lichuan railway on testing run from Oct 11

Chongqing-Lichuan railway is the last unfinished part of Shanghai-Chengdu HSR. It's an HSR/low speed mixed railway. The testing run will end at the beginning of November and the rail open by the end of 2013.

Shanghai-Chengdu HSR is part of the Chinese HSR backbone network，consisting of 4-laterals and 4 verticals. It will dramatically reduce the travel time of Chengdu/Chongqing to Shanghai/Wuhan/Nanjing.

 

[cirr]

Per mid/long term railway planning (Amended 2008) total railway length will reach 120,000 km by the end of 2015, including 40,000 km HSR.





We are only about 1/4 done with HSR。Long way to go。

 

[cirr]

September 12 2013

Yingkou-Panjin HSR opens

Yingkou-Panjin HSR, located in Liaoning Province, connects Harbin-Dalian HSR and future Beijing-Shenyang HSR, 90km, design speed of 350kmph.

Construction: May 31 2009 ~ September 12 2013

With its opening the travel time from Beijing to Dalian is shortened from 7 hours 39 minites to 6 hours 4 minutes.





It is this kind of fill-ins that will give China's HSR an increasing role in the comprehensive and rapid development of the country。

 

[cirr]

Beijing-Fuzhou（and all the way to Taipei in the future）HSR update:

August 12th

North Mount Wuyi tunnel is dug through

North Mount Wuyi tunnel, 14.646km long, is the critical project of Beijing-Fuzhou HSR. It's located at Mount Wuyi stradlling Jiangxi and Fujian Provinces.

Beijing-Fuzhou HSR is scheduled to open in March 2015.

 

[cirr]

Lanzhou-Urumqi 2nd line construction pics

The 1776km line will open in 2014.

 

[Destro]

Beijing to Dalian reduced from 7 hours 39 minutes to 6 hours 4 minutes?

Why such a small reduction in time?

 

[shuttler]

Chinese fast food firms challenging McDonald's

Updated: 2013-10-29 11:28
( Agencies)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013-10/29/content_17065973_3.htm

Bearing rice burgers and lotus roots, an army of Chinese fast food firms is cooking up a challenge to McDonald's Corp and Yum Brands Inc, tempting cost-conscious diners with healthy, homegrown fare and causing a drag on growth for the US chains in the country's $174 billion fast food market.

McDonald's said last week it was thinking of slowing expansion in China as diners are tempted by local rivals. KFC-parent Yum warned this month economic weakness in China would drag on a recovery in sales dented by a food safety scare at the end of last year.

credit: ideaon.cn

credit: gzbx.net.cn

Credit: smartshanghai.com


Meanwhile, local firms such as chicken chain Dicos, Country Style Cooking, and Kung Fu Catering have been nibbling away at the dominance of their US rivals.

"I'm a bit sick of Western fast food. There's too much oil, and you hear things like chickens having six legs," said student Tang Mei, 25, as she dined at Taiwan people-owned fast food outlet Dicos. "Health concerns have really made people worried."

McDonald's and Yum are still the largest fast food chains in China but, despite heavy investment, McDonald's has seen its market share by value stagnate at 2.3 percent since 2007, according to data from market research firm Euromonitor.

Yum, which held 6.5 percent last year, is up slightly over the same period, but has seen same-store sales hit after a food scare last year and a local outbreak of avian flu. Yum has 5,600 KFC and Pizza Hut China stores while McDonald's has 1,800 local outlets.

Brands like Ting Hsin International-owned Dicos, the third largest fast food brand in China, have taken note. The firm, which plans to triple its store count to around 3,700 by 2020, says it aims to "break the traditional Western fast food mould".

While conceived in the image of KFC - its name is a play on "Texas" in Chinese - Dicos now also pushes its Chinese roots. Its website displays an ornate blue ceramic bowl steaming with traditional herbal tea, while rice cake burgers and soybean milk flank the chain's more traditional nuggets and crispy wings.

"After all, since ancient times rice has been the key staple of the Chinese people," explained Zhuang Weitang, a spokesman for Ting Hsin International, adding the brand was planning to up its drive towards healthier, Chinese-style cooking.

"It's the mix (of traditional chicken) with new, health-focused Chinese specialties that has helped us create a niche in the fiercely-competitive Chinese fast-food market."

Eating the colonel's lunch

In a slowing economy, many consumers are trading down to cheaper alternatives or simply dining at home, said analysts, which has contributed to the growth rate in the wider fast food market halving over the last 5 years to 8 percent this year.

Lunch at Dicos costs less than 17 yuan ($2.80) compared with a similar offering from KFC, which costs 25 yuan ($4.11), according to Mintel.

"Local establishments generally also do a better job catering to local tastes," said Karla Wang, associate research director at market research firm TNS China. "These familiar 'comfort foods' often go a long way in soothing frazzled consumers during times of uncertainty."

Diners have even started to question international chains' quality, traditionally a strong point after scandals ranging from the use of recycled "gutter oil" for cooking to industrial chemical-laced milk made consumers wary of local products.

But a number of scares over the last year, including reports that some chicken purchased by KFC and McDonald's had been fed excess antibiotics, seems to have altered consumer views. Only one-in-four Chinese thought Western fast food has healthier and better quality than Chinese alternatives, said a recent report from research firm Mintel.

McDonald's and Yum have taken note.

"We address food quality and food safety in all aspects of our communication; most recently, we launched a Moms' Trust campaign... and we will be doing more in this area," said Jessica Lee, a Shanghai-based spokeswoman for McDonald's.

Yum officials were not immediately available for comment.

The company has trimmed its local supply chain and plans to launch a new China quality assurance campaign in November that will feature KFC employees, suppliers and poultry farmers.

"We still have work to do, but we know we are doing the right things to regain consumer trust and we remain confident that our best days for KFC in China are yet to come," Chief Executive David Novak said in an analysts call on Oct 9.

Home style

As trust of domestic brands grows, diners are being increasingly drawn to local dishes, perceived as healthier due to a wider variety of ingredients, while there is mounting interest in traditional Chinese food and dining culture.

Last year a documentary called "A Bite of China" aired on local television drawing more than 100 million viewers, making it the most successful documentary in China since the 1990s.

Chinese heritage has become a key selling point.

Kung Fu Catering, which sports an emblem of martial artist Bruce Lee, underscores its local credentials by playing up the natural ingredients for its Chinese-style food against backgrounds of Chinese mountains, wispy clouds and bamboo.


GII Wonton

Credit: 4301.91jm.com

Credit: cntuke.com
Vegie Wontons

Credit：sy.hr1000.com

Credit: 57tuan.com


Others such as Country Style Cooking, CNHLS and Gll Wonton, owned by Shanghai Shihao Catering, all offer fast food with a Chinese flavor. Though some way behind Yum and McDonald's in terms of size, all are taking market share from the huge independent sector of single shops and stalls.

Local brands also perform strongly in regions away from the saturated east coast market, catering to local tastes in areas seen as the China's next drivers for growth.

"Country Style Cooking is really strong in western China, while Kung Fu Catering is from Shenzhen and does well with more rice-based Chinese set meals, which fit the trend towards less oily and healthier food," said James Roy, Shanghai-based senior analyst at China Market Research Group.

China's influential netizens also suggest the US firms are struggling to remain the flavor of the month. Chatter about the two brands on China's Twitter-like Weibo fell to an almost two-year low in September, according to analysis by Reuters.

As one microblogger wrote: "I won't choose anything but Chinese fast food. We've got crab meat dumplings to Hunan-style cooking, fragrant Xinjiang breads and lamb kebabs... What do brands like Pizza Hut and McDonald's possibly have to offer?"

 

[shuttler]

Other popular Fast Food Chains:

Yon Ho （Soy Milk and Food (Mainland Boss)）:

Credit: gogoparty.cc

Credit: xz.nuomi.com

Yonghe King （Soy Milk and Food (Taiwanese Boss)）:

Credit: cy8.com.cn

Credit: yonghe.com.cn

 

[AirRodgers]

I bet within 10 to 15 years China great civil engineer skill will allow them to frack more shale gas then the US.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/28/us-china-shale-sinopec-idUSBRE99R0G720131028

They are among the most prolific of the total of around 150 wells Chinese companies have sunk over the past three years in pilot explorations. That has led the operator to target an annual production capacity to be built at the field of 5 billioncubicmeters (bcm) by the end of 2015, the source said.
That would dwarf company estimates reported by local media in July of around 2 bcm for the whole of Sinopec's shale output by 2015, and would be 100 times greater than China's estimated output last year of just over 50 million cubic meters from all test drilling at shale formations.

 

[Speeder 2]

[

[/FONT]

What's the top left one? Is that Spanish chorro?

 

[bolo]

What's the top left one? Is that Spanish chorro?

No it's deep fried dough fritter,mainly eaten with congee.