Hotel pioneers check out just in time.

(From The Standard)

Byline: Pamela Pun

The three groups of Hong Kong tycoons who pioneered the establishment of five-star hotel joint ventures in Guangzhou in the early 1980s are either losing their 20-year contracts or are about to, and maybe just in time. The three are the White Swan, the Garden and the China Hotels. Two of the three _ the Garden and the China Hotels _ are also about to give the Guangzhou municipal government the dubious chance to see if a state-owned enterprise can operate a high-end, consumer-sensitive business like a hotel chain successfully. The White Swan was opened in 1982 by Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok; the China Hotel by Gordon Wu, Li Ka-shing, Cheng Yu-tung, Walter Kwok, Tony Fung and Lee Shau-kee in 1984; and the Garden Hotel in 1985 by Hong Kong's Lee family, which controls Hysan Development. Although the Garden and the China contracts are lapsing, …