Hotel fund sends staff abroad

Late renowned hotelier's family invests in superior training and timeless decor, Yang Cheng reports.

Many top professionals at hotels and tourism companies under the Beijing Tourism Group are busily applying for a 2017 scholarship to study at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, the world's most prestigious hospitality academy.

Their enthusiasm is inspired by the first round of 20 graduates from the new program sponsored by the Fok Ying Tung and Beijing Tourism Group Education Training Foundation.

Wang Zhong, director and general manager of the Grand Hotel Beijing, which late patriotic business titan Fok invested in before it became an arm of BTG, said the program was initiated in 2014 to fulfill a wish by the departed Fok to boost the exchanges of the staff with international counterparts and benefit their careers.

Since 2014, under the leadership of the members of Fok's family, Fok Ying Tung Investment Co Ltd and BTG cooperated to use 2 million yuan ($295,783) from the profits generated by the Grand Hotel Beijing to set up the scholarship.

"We hope to sustain Fok's strategic foresight and visionary determination by running the scholarship program for a long time, in a bid to educate more quality staff for the country's hotel and tourism sector," Wang said.

The program is not limited to staff at Wang's hotel. Only three members from the hotel joined the first training session this January, but the other 17 were open to other arms of BTG.

"In the future we will continue to provide more opportunities to our counterparts at BTG, which has more than 20 hotels granted the status of three stars and above in the Chinese capital," he said.

Wang said he appreciated the business tycoon Fok's vision 26 years ago to found the hotel and make sure it was the nearest hotel to the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square.

Over the past years, the hotel with 200 rooms and four restaurants seldom had any advertising or branding campaigns, but received numerous political dignitaries from around the world.

The traditionally decorated archway, artistic treasures worth billions of yuan and furniture more than 200 years old silently speak of the hotel's serenity and noble spirit.

Wang, however, indicated that the above unique advantages can't ensure the future of the delicate, classic and reputable hotel amid the cutthroat competition in China's hotel sector and the massive foray of renowned foreign brands, as well as the government's tightened policy on luxurious spending.

The peak annual sales of the hotel hit 150 million yuan in 2006-08. However, the luster wanes against the economic slowdown.

"We will adjust our strategy to buck the trend. However, our move will fundamentally stick to Fok's vision since its founding - to develop our independent business management styles, not chasing the sector's conventional moves or duplicating others' strategies," he said.

Despite Wang's determination to retain its timeless charm, the hotel will soon be redecorated to optimize its infrastructure.

"However, our priority is to best preserve our priceless treasures. For those treasures, we believe they have their 'soul' and that their current locations are their 'families'," he said.

"A complete face-lift would be wrong," he said.

Snow Mountain is a painting masterpiece by China's renowned painter Wu Guanzhong in 1989, which currently hangs in front of the hotel's entrance and is assessed to be worth several billions of yuan.

The hotel also has jade decorations, duplications of the Yuanmingyuan Garden, which was looted in the imperial garden during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) by British and French invaders.

The hotel also preserves the work of the nation's leading calligrapher, Qi Gong (1912-2005).

His masterpiece hangs in the hotel's most elegant VIP room, where State leaders often enter and gaze at the Forbidden City with the closest view, a rare opportunity in Beijing.

"It takes visitors a half day to appreciate all the masterpieces in our hotel," Wang said.

"For our hotel, qian qian jun zi, wen run ru yu, an ancient philosophy cherished by gentlemen, says, 'modest cultured men, as gentle as jade.' That is the guiding principle for our staff."

Contact the writer at yangcheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/05/2016 page10)