The construction process of Guangzhou White Swan Hotel

The first five-star hotel in mainland China, the first joint venture five-star hotel in mainland China, and the first five-star hotel in mainland China designed, constructed and operated by Chinese people - the White Swan is talked about by everyone. The history of Taoism begins with reform and opening up.

At the invitation of Liao Chengzhi, who was in charge of overseas Chinese affairs under the State Council at that time, Huo Yingdong and others went to Beijing to discuss and formulate a plan: to build 8 Sino-foreign joint venture hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing. As the forefront of reform and opening up, Guangzhou needs to build a five-star hotel that reaches international standards. This task falls on Huo Yingdong, a patriotic businessman whose ancestral home is Panyu. After many visits to Guangzhou, Huo Yingdong finally selected Shamian Island, Guangzhou’s “urban oasis”.

Luo Zhaoxiang, who started working at the Shamian Subdistrict Office in 1974, will retire in a few months. He still vividly recalls the preparations for the establishment of White Swan.

“When Mr. Fok Ying-tung built the White Swan, he promised not to damage the environment of Shamian Island and not to occupy the land of Shamian Island.” Fok Ying-tung, who has experience in reclamation in Hong Kong, began to build cofferdams on the river outside Shamian Island. Land was created and the hotel was planned to be built on the river. Luo Zhaoxiang said that this was a "pioneering work" in China at that time. Precisely because the building "longs" on the river, its foundations are eroded by the river water year after year, which makes the White Swan closure renovation that started in 2012 more difficult. The construction team dug into the hotel's underground and discovered that the old piles could no longer be used. It took more than 2,000 piles to prop up the White Swan again.

Similar to the pragmatic character of Cantonese people, the design of White Swan is both frugal and luxurious. One of the main tasks of building the White Swan at that time was to serve the growing number of foreign merchants at the Canton Fair. “The demand for guest rooms was huge. (Back then) the White Swan, China Hotel, and Garden Hotel were all built with a target of 1,000 rooms. ” recalled Zhang Tian, ??deputy general manager of White Swan Hotel Group. However, when the height was set, the White Swan was located on a waterway. In order not to damage the sandy landscape, the hotel building height was limited to less than 100 meters, and the tower height was controlled to about 99 meters.

It was a challenge for the design team to cram 28 floors and 1,000 rooms into a building less than 100 meters high. In the end, White Swan designers chose to control the floor height. Later, the floor height of the White Swan was set at 2.75 meters. With the ceiling, the room height was only about 2.6 meters, and the room area was 26-28 square meters. "The White Swan design is economical, precisely because it makes full use of the space to provide guest rooms and is practical. "

When White Swan was first built, China was still in the era of planned economy. Many building materials were not available in China. Huo Yingdong asked people to buy them from abroad. "Almost all equipment, building materials, and furniture are imported." , Zhang Tian said, even a piece of wood was shipped from the Philippines. "All the decoration materials are 'hard', and the cement and steel bars make a clanging sound when knocked," Luo Zhaoxiang said. Back then, staff from the Shamian Subdistrict Office participated in the safety inspection of the White Swan during its construction.

According to Zhang Tian, ??the architectural design of the White Swan was undertaken by the Chinese, but for the interior design, Fok Yingdong insisted on hiring foreign designers from the famous HBA hotel design company in the United States, so the interior design of the White Swan was The most high-end in the mainland at that time. This time, White Swan once again cooperated with HBA and invited Japanese-American designers to complete the closure renovation.

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

Public information shows that when preparing to build White Swan, Fok Yingdong invested HK$50 million, Peng Guozhen invested HK$12.5 million, and the Guangdong Provincial Tourism Bureau invested 4 million yuan. In 1981, the White Swan Hotel also borrowed US$36.31 million from the Guangzhou Branch of the Bank of China. Converted according to the current exchange rate, the investment in the construction of the White Swan Hotel was nearly 180 million yuan. Huo Yingdong once said that he is not worried about the hotel not making money, but with the title of the first five-star hotel, national and local leaders have placed high hopes on it. White Swan's operation is only allowed to succeed and not fail. White Swan began to make profits in the year it was completed, with a net profit of 12.82 million yuan in the final settlement of that year.

The White Swan is a seed sown by the country in the experimental field of reform and opening up. Later facts have proved that the success of the White Swan Hotel has driven a large number of foreign investment into Guangzhou. The subsequent opening of five-star hotels such as China Hotel and Garden Hotel gave Guangzhou three of the eight five-star hotels in the country at that time.

“The White Swan at that time was like a ‘water bridge’, a symbol of reform and opening up to attract investment,” Yang Bo, a veteran White Swan employee, told reporters. Uncle Yang, who is over seventy years old, joined the White Swan Power Department in 1982 and was a "veteran official" who was planning to build the hotel. What impressed him most was "Huo Sheng came to distribute red packets during the holidays". Since the establishment of the hotel, Huo Sheng has come to White Swan in person every Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival to express holiday blessings to every employee. White Swan has also maintained the tradition of preferential treatment to employees.