Shangri-La Hotel, Changchun in a yearlong mood of giving

By Liu Mingtai and Fu Chao | China Daily | Updated: 2015-12-16 08:07

Through charity events, hotel has raised funds for students in province

Nineteen years after its establishment, Shangri-La Hotel, Changchun, the first five-star hotel in the city, is still exploring new ways to serve its guests and society.

The hotel, in the commercial center of the provincial capital of Changchun, has been supporting primary schools in Yitong county, located in the impoverished autonomous region of Manchu, over the past year.

Dominoes of Love

A Christmas tree lighting event held by the hotel on Dec 4 kicked off a large charity project called "Dominoes of Love" that aims to help students from five primary schools in Yitong county and excellent students from Jilin University.

The Christmas tree, made of approximately 7,000 recycled plastic bottles that the hotel staff gathered from each guestroom, took the hotel employees several months to make. The hotel said the 5.5-meter-high tree delivers a message that environmental protection can bring together trivial things in life and a little bit of creativity.

Ornaments on the tree contain wishes from primary students, some of whom shared their wishes with hotel guests during the event.

In addition to performances from primary school and university students, the event also featured the sale of a large Christmas cake and Christmas bread made by the hotel's pastry chef. Christmas bread will be on sale until Dec 26. On Dec 5, the hotel also held a charity bazaar selling Christmas-themed products.

All the money raised from the project will be used to fund English-language classes for the primary school students, while excellent students of Jilin University will receive a year's subscription to China Daily.

Charity walk

To raise money for the Xinjia Village Primary School in Yitong county and help the school improve campus facilities, the hotel organized a "charity cabbage walk" in March.

"Cabbage walk", or kohlfahrt in German, is a traditional wintertime custom in northern Germany in which participants arrange a walk, as well as a feast and games, through the countryside.

The hotel brought the tradition to Changchun in 2005 and turned it into a charity event.

On March 14, more than 300 people from different walks of life walked across Lianhua Mountain, a famous tourist spot in the city, and sampled local snacks and northeastern cuisine in the village. The walk ended in the hotel with a dinner party and charity auction. At the dinner party, the hotel served German-style cabbage and sausage.

Items sold during the auction included paper-cutting works made by the primary school students. There was also a fashion show in which the hotel staff dressed in clothes made of recycled items gathered from guestrooms, including toothbrushes and aluminum cans.

The charity walk event raised more than 24,000 yuan ($3,713).

Fun run

The hotel held a summer charity run in July in the city's picturesque Moon Lake National Forest Park. The event raised funds for the Xinjia Village Primary School in Yitong county.

More than 500 local residents joined the event. The event featured a 5-kilometer Color Bubble Mini Marathon in the forest and a Summer Carnival Party.

The so-called bubble marathon required participants to start through a pool of bubble foam 30 meters long and run through the forest after passing a range of games.

According to the hotel, the event, which is part of China's Changchun Summer Relaxation Festival, promotes "public involvement, entertainment and love", instead of competition.

The event raised about 20,000 yuan to improve campus facilities for the Xinjia Village Primary School.

Clean water project

In addition to raising money for schools in Yitong county, Shangri-La Hotel, Changchun, has donated equipment to solve a local primary school's water problems. Because of the school's location in a hilly area, it is difficult to fetch or buy water. Adding to their difficulty is the high levels of pollution in the campus water well, which contains mud, sand and bacteria.

On Oct 16, the water-purifying equipment that was provided by the hotel and the international nonprofit organization WATERisLIFE went into use in Shagu Village Primary School.

Vincent Tian, general manager of the hotel, said that with corporate social responsibility projects from Shangri-La Hotel, Changchun, "more children can have better education in a healthy environment".

Achievements and future

An active and important part of the local charity scene, the hotel has also built a reputation among guests with its constant improvements in services.

This year, the hotel was named the Best Business Hotel in Changchun by Business Traveler China. This is the 11th consecutive year that the hotel has received the award.

The hotel is a 50-minute drive to Changchun Longjia International Airport and only a 15-minute drive to Changchun Railway Station.

The 25-story property features 457 guestrooms and 98 serviced apartments. In the past quarter of this year, it has begun upgrading its guestroom facilities, with the first batch of newly renovated guestrooms to be put into use by January 2016. Tian said that by the third quarter of 2016, the upgrade of all guestrooms will be completed.

Though positioned as a business hotel, the Shangri-La Hotel, Changchun, is also making changes to its dining services to better cater to local customers by offering menus with reasonable prices.

Contact the writers through fuchao@chinadaily.com.cn