The Construction Course of Guangzhou White Swan Hotel

The first five-star hotel in China, the first joint venture five-star hotel in Chinese mainland, and the first five-star hotel designed, built and operated by China people in Chinese mainland-White Swan's famous Weishui history began with the reform and opening up.

At that time, at the invitation of Liao Chengzhi, who is in charge of overseas Chinese affairs in the State Council, Henry Fok and others went to Beijing to discuss and worked out a plan: to build eight Sino-foreign joint venture hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing. As the frontier of reform and opening up, Guangzhou needs to build a five-star hotel with international standards. This task falls on Henry Fok, a patriotic businessman whose ancestral home is Panyu. After many visits to Guangzhou, Henry Fok finally chose Shamian Island, an "urban oasis" in Guangzhou.

Luo Yu 1974 started working in Shamian Sub-district Office and will retire in a few months. Recalling the preparations for the white swan in those years, he can still remember it vividly.

"When Mr. Fok Yingdong built the White Swan, he promised not to destroy the environment and not to occupy the land of Shamian Island." Henry Fok, who has experience in reclamation in Hong Kong, began to build land on the river cofferdam outside Shamian Island, and planned to build the hotel on the river. Luo said that this was a "pioneering work" in China at that time. It is precisely because the building is "long" on the river that the foundation is eroded by the impact of the river every year, which makes it more difficult for the White Swan, which started on 20 12, to stop business and rebuild. The construction team dug out the underground of the hotel and found that the old piles could not be used any more. More than 2000 piles were used to support the white swan.

Similar to the pragmatic character of Cantonese people, the design of white swan is both economical and luxurious. One of the main tasks of building the White Swan was to serve more and more foreign merchants at the Canton Fair. "There is a great demand for guest rooms. White Swan, China World Hotel and Garden Hotel are all built according to the goal of 1 0,000 guest rooms." Zhang Tian, deputy general manager of White Swan Hotel Group, recalled. However, when the height was set, the white swan was in the waterway. In order not to destroy the sand landscape, the building height of the hotel should be limited to less than 100 meters, and the tower height should be controlled to about 99 meters.

It is a challenge for the design team to cram 28 floors and 65,438+0,000 rooms into a building less than 65,438+000 meters high. Finally, the designer of White Swan chose the control layer. Later, the height of the white swan was set at 2.75 meters, and with the ceiling, the height of the room was only about 2.6 meters, and the room area was 26-28 square meters. "It is said that the design of the white swan is economical, because it makes full use of space to provide rooms and is very practical."

When the White Swan was just built, China was still in the era of planned economy, and many building materials were not available in China. Henry fok asked someone to buy it from abroad. "Almost all the equipment, building materials and furniture are imported," Zhang Tian said. Even a piece of wood was shipped from the Philippines. "The decoration materials are hard, and the cement bars are banging," Luo said. At that time, the staff of Shamian Sub-district Office participated in the safety inspection during the construction of White Swan.

According to Zhang Tian, the architectural design of the White Swan was undertaken by China people, but for interior design, Fok Ying-tung insisted on inviting foreign designers from the famous American HBA hotel design company to do it, so the interior design of the White Swan was the highest in the mainland at that time. This time, the White Swan closed down for renovation, and once again cooperated with HBA to invite Japanese-American designers to complete it.

Zhang Tian said that it is precisely because of the high specification, advanced level and luxury of White Swan that it caused a sensation in China after the hotel was put into operation, and hotel colleagues from all over the country came to inspect it.

According to public information, when the White Swan was completed, Henry Fok invested 50 million Hong Kong dollars, Peng Guozhen invested 6.5438+0.25 million Hong Kong dollars, and Guangdong Provincial Tourism Bureau invested 4 million RMB. 198 1, White Swan Hotel also borrowed $363 10/0,000 from China Bank Guangzhou Branch. According to the exchange rate at that time, the construction investment of White Swan Hotel was nearly 65.438+0.8 billion yuan. Henry Fok once said that he was not worried that the hotel would not make money, but with the title of the first five-star hotel, leaders from national to local places had high hopes, and the operation of White Swan could only succeed but not fail. White Swan began to make profits in the year when it was built, and gained a net profit of12.82 million yuan at the end of that year.

The white swan is the seed sown by the country in the experimental field of reform and opening up. Later, it was proved that the success of White Swan Hotel led to a large number of foreign capital entering Guangzhou. Five-star hotels such as China Grand Hotel and Garden Hotel, which opened later, made Guangzhou occupy three seats among the eight five-star hotels in China at that time.

"At that time, White Swan was like a' water diversion bridge', a symbol of attracting investment through reform and opening up," Bai Yang, an old employee of White Swan, told reporters. Bai Yang 1982, who is over 70 years old, joined the White Swan Power Department. He is the "old minister" who plans to build a hotel. What impressed him most was that Huo Sheng paid dividends on holidays. Since the opening of the hotel, Huo Sheng has personally come to White Swan every Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival to express holiday wishes to every employee, and White Swan has always maintained the tradition of being kind to employees.