Qingdao

Qingdao ([tɕʰjə́ŋtàʊ]; Chinese: 青岛; also spelt Tsingtao) is a city in eastern Shandong Province on the east coast of China as well as the largest city in Shandong province. Administered at the sub-provincial level, Qingdao has jurisdiction over seven districts and five county-level cities. According to the 2010 census, the built-up (or metro) area made up of 6 urban districts and Jimo City had 5,764,384 inhabitants, while the total population of the sub-provincial city is up to 8.71 million. Lying across the Shandong Peninsula and looking out to the Yellow Sea, it borders Yantai to the northeast, Weifang to the west and Rizhao to the southwest. Qīng (青) in Chinese means "green" or "lush", while dǎo (岛) means "island".

Qingdao is a major seaport, naval base, and industrial centre. The world's longest sea bridge, the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, links the main urban area of Qingdao with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas. It is also the site of the Tsingtao Brewery, the second largest brewery in China.

Tracy McGrady

Tracy Lamar McGrady, Jr. (born May 24, 1979) is an American retired professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a seven-time NBA All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, and a two-time NBA scoring champion (2003–2004). McGrady played as a swingman.

McGrady entered the NBA straight from high school after being selected in the 1997 NBA draft with the ninth overall pick in the first round by the Toronto Raptors. He played in the NBA for the Raptors, Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, and San Antonio Spurs. He also played for the Qingdao Eagles of the Chinese Basketball Association. In 2013, he announced his retirement from the NBA.

McGrady was ranked #75 on SLAM Magazine's "Top 75 Players of All-Time" in 2003. McGrady's style of play has been compared to that of George Gervin.Kobe Bryant has cited Tracy McGrady the toughest player he ever played against.

Early life and education

McGrady was born in Bartow, Florida. He played high school basketball and baseball at Auburndale High School in Auburndale, Florida for three years. He then transferred to Mount Zion Christian Academy, in Durham, North Carolina. McGrady created a national buzz after his performance in the Adidas ABCD Camp, where the best high school players in the U.S. are invited annually. He was named High School Player of the Year by USA Today. McGrady has stated that if he had not gone straight to the NBA from high school, he would have attended Kentucky.

China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a sovereign state in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces; five autonomous regions; four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing); two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau); and claims sovereignty over Taiwan.

Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second-largest country by land area, and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement. China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.

Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn is a multinational brand of hotels, which are part of the LSE-listed InterContinental Hotels Group. Originally a U.S. motel chain, today it is one of the world's largest hotel chains, with 435,299 bedrooms in 3,463 hotels globally hosting over 100 million guest nights each year. The hotel chain is based in three cities: Atlanta, London and Rio de Janeiro.

History

1950s–1970s

Kemmons Wilson, a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, was inspired to build his own motel after being disappointed by poor quality and inconsistent roadside accommodation during a family road trip to Washington, D.C. The name Holiday Inn was given to the original hotel by his architect Eddie Bluestein as a joke, in reference to the 1942 Christmas-themed, musical film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The first Holiday Inn opened at 4925 Summer Avenue in Memphis, the main highway to Nashville, in August 1952 as Holiday Inn Hotel Courts. In the early 1990s, it was demolished, but there is a plaque commemorating the site.

Le Méridien

Le Méridien is an upscale, design-focused international hotel brand with a European perspective, formerly headquartered in France and in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and has a portfolio of 100 hotels in over 40 countries worldwide.

History

The Le Méridien brand was established in 1972 by Air France "to provide on a home away from home for its customers." The first Le Méridien property was a 1,000-room hotel in Paris — Le Méridien Etoile. Within two years of operation, the group had 10 hotels in Europe and Africa. Within the first six years, the number of hotels had risen to 21 hotels in Europe, Africa, the French West Indies, Canada, South America, the Middle East and Mauritius. By 1991, the total number of Le Méridien properties had risen to 58.

In late 1994, Le Méridien was acquired by UK hotel company Forte Group, which in turn was acquired by Granada plc in 1996. Through a merger in the summer of 2000 between Granada Group and global contract caterer Compass Group — and the subsequent de-merger of the two companies in February 2001 — the ownership of the Forte Hotels division and its three brands (Le Méridien, Heritage Hotels and Posthouse Forte) passed solely to Compass.