China

We tend to forget that Hong Kong is not the only territory to enjoy Special Administrative Region status. Less than an hour away by boat or road, the former colony of Macau, a Portuguese territory for five centuries, enjoys the same semi-autonomous status as the former British colony of Hong Kong. Macau...

China Southern's departure from the Skyteam alliance could appear to be a non-event, with codeshare agreements retained and recognition of frequent flyer programmes maintained. This is because the Chinese airline, which wanted to regain complete commercial freedom, has not in fact severed all links with its former alliance partners. Quite the contrary, in fact. It is continuing...

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Singapore Hotel Association (SHA) recently unveiled a series of initiatives aimed at increasing productivity and efficiency at hotel properties. Productivity has already climbed by an average of 4.5 % each year since 2015. But tourism industry leaders intend to do even better. "To transform the industry...

By the end of 2020, Hyatt Hotels Corporation will offer 25% additional rooms in Asia. This expansion will affect all the group's brands, with the grand luxury segment best represented by five Park Hyatt hotels, but also by five hotels under the more contemporary Andaz brand in the 4/5 star segment. The next largest number of...

The feeling of insecurity in certain cities, the fear of terrorism, but also the idea that a citizen's private life ultimately counts as a negligible quantity in the face of potential dangers: these are all factors that are leading to an increase in the number of video surveillance cameras around the world. Of course, there is surveillance and...

Designed to relieve congestion at the existing Beijing Capital airport, the new Daxing international airport is due to open its doors at the end of September and welcome its first flights in October. Carrying the IATA code PKX, the new airport will above all be the hub for the China Eastern and China Southern airlines. China Eastern has announced the transfer of its...

China Southern left SkyTeam at the beginning of the year, and since then there have been rumours that the airline is likely to join the rival oneworld alliance. These were dismissed out of hand by the Chinese carrier's management. The news was confirmed at the recent IATA General Assembly in Seoul. China Southern Airlines...

The Belt and Road Initiative was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The BRI provides for the construction of huge infrastructures - mainly land and sea - linking China to the rest of the world, with the aim of improving trade between China and the rest of the world and at the same time consolidating China's influence. In addition to the...

At a time when the major telephony players and telecoms operators are planning to roll out the 5G standard, Huawei, one of the most ambitious in this field, is launching the first fully 5G-equipped hotel in partnership with Shenzhen Telecom and the InterContinental Shenzhen. The hotel has begun deploying this technology, which enables ultra-fast downloads and...

Airbnb continues to weave its web in the hotel world. After acquiring the HotelTonight booking site, the leader in private flat rental is to invest between 100 and 200 million dollars in the Indian hotel group Oyo. In doing so, Airbnb joins other investors who have injected a billion euros into the development of...

Star Alliance business travellers should have access to a new lounge in terminal 1 at Guangzhou airport from 2019. This is one of the main conclusions to be drawn from the agreement officialized at the end of December between the managers of the airline alliance and those of the Chinese airport. In the long term, this strengthened cooperation should also...

The announced arrivals of Hainan Airlines on the Paris-Chongqing and Paris-Shenzhen routes and Xiamen Airlines on the Paris-Fuzhou route confirm the key role played by the French capital for traffic to China. There are many reasons why Chinese airlines are interested in Paris. The first of these - which has nothing to do...

With a length of 55 km, the "HZMB" bridge - for "Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge" - which now physically links Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macao by land, is a hymn to the global economic power that China has become, testifying to its ability to innovate. The bridge cost a whopping 15.4 billion euros to build...

"Imagine an urbanised Paris from Melun to Rouen: here is Beijing!" says Jean-Philippe Dufour, sustainable development and transport adviser at the Economic Mission of the French Embassy in Beijing. A polycentric city with a population of almost 23 million, Beijing is also polymorphous, architecturally eclectic, with buildings by Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and Paul Andreu rubbing shoulders with...

We deliver to the four corners of China How did the idea of setting up French bakeries and patisseries in Beijing come about? Benjamin Devos - It was in 2003, I had just finished hotel management school in Lausanne and was doing a work placement in a Beijing hotel. I realised that quality bakeries were sorely lacking....

An app to measure air quality How did you come up with the idea of launching an environmental start-up in Beijing? Yann Boquillod - I first came here twenty years ago to work for Nokia. Then I got married. That's when the question arose...

Situated 120 km south-east of Beijing, Tianjin was for a long time just a port, somewhat off the coast of the Yellow Sea. Nowadays, it takes just 35 minutes by train to reach this ancient, peaceful town split by the Hai He river, which was the site of Gustave Eiffel's workshops during the...

On a Friday evening, the cars speed along Sanlitun Road. Ultra-fashionable young people are being dropped off in front of the new restaurants opening one after the other in the most sought-after district of the moment. This is the epicentre of modern Beijing, where the InterContinental Sanlitun opened at the end of 2016, in an extravagant tower looking...

The notorious annual average concentration of PM2.5, the fine particles known to damage the lungs and cause cancer, has finally fallen. While it still stood at 100 microgrammes per m3 of air in 2009, it has been reduced to 57 microgrammes in 2017, a huge step forward, but not yet...

"In Beijing, I've always preferred to live in the hutong district, where life is truly relaxed. That's where I opened my gallery, near the Lamas temple. Unfortunately, this area, with its traditional houses, is in the process of being transformed, and may well disappear. But it's the Beijing I love. Amongst...