Color pepper prices pointer to boom in hotel occupancy

Red peppers are meant to spice up food, green peppers to add flavor and aroma. Color peppers are, for Zhang Yin, a marker of the state of business in high-class hotels.

As an analyst with the Beijing-based Hu Jie Investment Advisory Service, Zhang habitually surveys the local vegetable market, besides the reports churned out by the industry, every day.

To him, the price fluctuation of color peppers, an ingredient in the salad served in four- and five-star hotels, is a more convenient, and reliable index of the luxury hotels business. "My way of research," Zhang told China Daily, "is to look for cross reference on the micro-economic level to the macro-economic trend."