Taiwan tycoon to build copy-cat Dubai sail-shaped hotel

May 10, 2007, 15:11 GMT

Taipei - A Taiwan business tycoon said Thursday he will build Taiwan's most-luxurious hotel, modelled on the sail-shaped Burj-al-Arab (Arab Tower) in Dubai.

Tang Wen-wan, president of the Tuck More Biotechnology Co, said he successfully applied to build the hotel by the Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County, central Taiwan.

One end of the 10-storey hotel would be a sail, like Burj-al-Arab. The sail structure would give guests a birds-eye view of the lake from within.

'In the evening the Sun Moon Lake is covered with fog. When people see our hotel from afar, it looks like the sail of a boat on the lake,' he said on cable TV channel TVBS.

Tang said construction would cost 4 billion Taiwan dollars (121 million US dollars). A charge of at least 1,000 US dollars per person per night, like Burj-al-Arab, would make it Tawian's most expensive.

Tang said he had formed an international consortium, Sun Moon Hotel, to build and manage the hotel. Japan's Okura hotel chain, which runs 27 hotels around the world including 17 inside Japan, would be in charge of management.

Construction was scheduled to begin in October, and the hotel was scheduled to open in late 2009.

The Sun Moon Lake and the nearby Ali Mountain are Taiwan's two most famous scenic resorts.

Although there are already 156 hotels and motels around Sun Moon Lake, the Nantou County Government invited bids in 2006 to build another luxury hotel to attract tourists.

The Tuck More Biotechnology Co is a business group with 22 subsidiaries engaged in construction, property development as well as import and export.