China has become the second largest hotel market in the world - after the US - for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.

The company currently operates 62 hotels in the country and has a further 86 in the pipeline. From now through 2011, one in every three new Starwood hotels will open in China, including new brand flagships for eight of its nine brands. Starwood's presence in the country started in 1985 with the debut of The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, the first international branded hotel in the People's Republic of China.

The company is now represented by 31 Sheraton Hotels and Resorts sites, with a further 34 planned; 11 Four Points by Sheraton, 14 planned; eight Westin properties, 13 planned; seven Le Meridien hotels, three planned; two St. Regis luxury hotels, seven planned; one Luxury Collection property, the Astor Hotel in Tianjin, set to be joined by four others under the brand; one W Hotel, in Hong Kong, with two scheduled to open next year and three planned; and one Aloft budget property, in Beijing, with seven more planned. Element by Westin, Starwood's environmentally friendly hotel concept, is the one brand which has yet to make an appearance in China. At the moment the company operates seven Element hotels - with two more scheduled - all of them in the continental US.