Background
Duan Qiang was born in June 1956, Duan was no more than ten years old at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
段 强
Duan Qiang was born in June 1956, Duan was no more than ten years old at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
He graduated with a physics degree from Beijing Normal University in 1982 but soon became interested in government.
He became secretary of the Communist Youth League, township party secretary and director of the Beijing Municipal Economic and Trade Commission in his home of Miyun County, Beijing. In 1993 Duan was appointed vice-mayor of Beijing. He left politics in 1998 to found the Beijing Tourism Group LLC (BTG) and pursue a PhD in economics at Tsinghua University. But in China a businessman can never really leave politics. Duan found himself working very closely with the Chinese government while still retaining control of his company.
BTG was formed after a merger between Beijing Quanjude Group and Beijing New Yansha Group to form a giant 15 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) state-owned tourism enterprise. Duan took an innovative approach to the tourism industry. First, instead of seeing tourism as mere attractions with hotels and dining services, he regarded it as a temporary lifestyle based around entertainment. Duan believed that BTG should focus not only on the usual attractions, but on all aspects of the temporary lifestyle, food, housing, transportation, shopping and so on. Second, Duan believed in a capital-based market strategy. The tourism market would mold his company more than the Communist Party of China. He preferred to hold physical assets rather than loaded bank accounts. These assets could still be bought and sold like other companies buy and sell stocks. But Duan’s company, given its consumers’ temporary lifestyles, could quickly utilize physical assets without the need to have them for very long. This makes his physical assets far more liquid than is usually the case.
Duan’s strategies have brought results. Today BTG is a gigantic enterprise, and one of the largest tourism groups in China. Events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics and China’s ascension to the World Trade Organization exhibit China’s gradually globalizing economy, politics, and even culture, providing an environment where BTG can attract both national and international tourists. With more than 100 hotels across the country, scenic areas, car rental companies, restaurants, travel service, shopping areas, exhibition and conference centers and even tourism training, Duan has built BTG into a galaxy of tourism services.