it. this is the greatest hospital in the bay area. we have a trauma center that is open to every san francisco resident. its still is today. it will be even better when this is done. the i see you, the intensive care unit, currently has 27 beds -- the icu, the intensive care unit, currently has 27 beds. we know we have to have a new hospital. overall, there are 284 beds in the hospital. that is an additional 32 from what we have had in the past. the city is still carrying out the wonderful relationship we have with california-san francisco come up with the medical group that is still in partnership with us, and they

see this as a tertiary academic center as well as the trauma response center. it is the most important project we have to date, and it is important week rebuild the hospital, because everyone can see any kind of emergency situation come up whether it is a car accident or other man-made cause after this, they can get the best care in the world here. i was up yesterday, by the way. i paid a visit to ryan white, the nine-year old boy who was hit by a truck driver. he is recovering. the family asked that i come by here and say a word and give a little personal attention, and i felt really good about the staff here at sf general. we need their services to be

housed in the most modern facility we can possibly build. we need to build the new hospital, compliant, modern, safe, that takes this into the future for the next 100 years. i am here today to review all the develop on on, and my thanks go to the team for every aspect of the project. we will carry out exactly what i have in my former capacity and now as mayor, to make sure these projects are done on time, that we honor all the commitments that we do, especially with the largest general obligation bond project we have in our history. 84% of the voters. we want to make sure that practice is done. that is what i have been about for all these years. i want to make sure things get done in the city, get done

right. so, this wonderful example of what we do to lead the city, and when you look at it, we are investing correctly. we're doing the right things here. this will be so important for our future citizens to have a general hospital, to have all are residents be very faithful in knowing they will be taking care of -- taken care of. so, i want to again thank the team for the collaboration. it is one that has to be continued all the way to opening day, and you can already see the way they are doing this in cooperation, this team will get through the next three, up four

years to see this thing through. i am proud to be here, announcing we are 14% of the way, but we are doing it right, and this hospital is well on its way to being rebuilt and it is a shining example of the smart investments our voters and city government have promised and are carrying out. thank you for being here. to the whole team, to the project managers, to the dpw, the hospital staff, the consultants, because they are again part of this great team. you will see how complex this is. it is well worth all the time. i appreciate the support and the status, and i will be back here in another year hopefully to see the steel frames going up for the base i slater's.

115 of them in 13. for months. they are not being built in foreign countries. they are being constructed and designed and made right across the bay. so, they will be shipped here. they're already under way. one of the most important things, because it will allow the hospital, there will be a ground inland in 30 inches in any direction. it will allow that to not disturb the hospital building. that is why they are called base by solicitors. that is the most modern and oscillators that exist. -- modern isolators that exist. we talk about the new energy standards for buildings, that is again late into the way we plan

the facility and the way it is being executed. i am very proud of where we are today. we will keep executing these projects to make sure we are fully compliant and they contribute to the economy of the city. that is the most important thing. 3000 jobs, everybody doing the right thing on this project, and i am very proud of it. thank you very much. >> welcome to the largest hotel in this beautiful city. it is wonderful to have all of you with us in this magnificently decorated room.

in particular, i would like to recognize the honorable meier and when -- the honorable mayor edwin lee. we are equally on it to recognize the chinese deputy counsel. welcome, gentlemen. [applause] also with us today, we have officials from california tourism, community partners, and partners who are all part of bringing the chinese to this wonderful city. today, we are launching a new hotel service tailored to the needs of chinese travelers visiting all corners of our hilton world. from today in 51 hotels in 13

countries in cities as far apart as london, sydney, mexico city, toronto, san francisco, and new york, we will be offering unique services focusing on three touch points of the chinese traveling hotel experience -- there are rival, the guest room, and breakfast at hilton. the for your hotels in the program i am pleased to say are right here in the bay area. we are so grateful to hilton san francisco union square for hosting this event, and i would like to recognize the key members from those who tells -- those hotels are also in the room with us today.

let's take a closer look at the program. ♪ be >> hilton has been an industry leader ever since our leader opened his first hotel more than i did two years ago. he believed in the power of travel and tourism to bring people together. today, we continue his legacy of filling the earth with the brightness and warmth and hospitality. this important program welcoming chinese travelers from around the world is led by our flagship brand, hilton hotels and resorts, and it is available to

all hotels across our brand. for generations, hilton hotel and resorts has welcomed guests from around the world. with tourism from china growing exponentially, we are introducing a new program that provides consistent amenity and service standards at participating properties to meet the needs of our most important chinese travelers abroad. hilton is growing at record rates across asia pacific and china in particular. equally important, we see dynamic growth both in a number of chinese travellers from mainland china, and guests with chinese origins who live in other parts of the world. our new program is based on our global expertise and more than two decades of working in china. we put our expertise from working in key parts of the world ar. our key goal is to provide welcome for our chinese guests

as they explore the world. at the heart of program is our promise to insure every guest feels cared for, valued, and respected. >> our program includes team members fluent in chinese. in the guest room, we provide chinese tea available on request and dedicated television channels broadcasting chinese programming. >> our expert at hilton menu is expand its -- expanded to include chinese items. breakfast is 80 meal for our guests. >> there's a great deal of affinity and trust in china and around the world, and we have a tremendous responsibility to

deliver on our promise and provide hospitality for the millions of travelers who stay with us each year. we have a number of hotels currently enrolled in health and huanying -- in hilton huanying and expect the number to grow. you can find more information about the program on hilton.com. >> as the video mentioned, china is part of a much graders -- greater story for our company than just the launch of this program. today, we had 18 hilton world wide open in china, and that will rise over the next five years, and more than half of the hotels will be branded as hilton here last month, health and

honored our global customer loyalty program, announced the it -- that it would be the official hotel sponsor of the chinese olympic committee and all its competing teams. just today, we received the results of the annual survey in china of business travelers, which shows that hilton is the number one brand of choice for business travelers with in china today. so we have a great platform and foundation. it is most fitting as well that we should be in this city today to launch this program. san francisco has been a top destination for chinese travelers for many years. it is imbued in the chinese culture and home to one of the largest chinese population is in the americas. therefore, is vital task today is the participation of the city and the honorable meier, -- mayoe, edwin lee.

he sees the opportunity for travel and tourism and places part to welcome chinese guests to san francisco along with the rest of the world. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome mayor lee. [applause] >> -- mayor lee: thank you. good morning. i am year to congratulate the hilton for such a wonderful job in creating this program because it complements what we have actually seen in our city, our great city of san francisco. as you know, we have been courting the chinese tourists and chinese business people for quite some many years and working very closely with our heads of travel, we have just finished what of the greatest international powwows -- one of the greatest international

powwows that we have ever hosted in our city. we thank the hotel leaders in our city. we had such a wonderful successful international powwow. i want to welcome the deputy counsel general who joins us here today. he knows very much that people are coming to the council general to try to think of ways in which whole groups of people can come here and experience the bay area of san francisco and make the connections, but i am here mainly because i wanted to see what the breakfast is all about. [laughter] if you have never traveled to the far east, particularly to china, breakfast is, as the hilton has described, one of those important meals. people get up at six or six -- 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning, even though they may have a full day of importance -- of appointments going on. i have done that in my troubles.

because of the great menus they have in the world-class hotels throughout china and hilton wants to make sure that same experience is brought here for our chinese visitors, what happens is that oftentimes, my wife will join me at 7:00 in the morning, have that great breakfast, and go right back to the hotel and sleep when i do all the work. that is how important the breakfasts are. the cultural connections, the welcoming, at the front desk, the cultural competency of the language -- i was at the first day of school opening yesterday, and i told the students, when people tell you you ought to learn one or two languages, you ought to learn two languages. chinese and spanish are probably the most important language is that our bay area schools can possibly continue teaching. it allows all of our students to

join the tremendous work force we have because tourism is still our number business in the bay area. to have the connection with this fantastic business. i know sf travel knows that. we continue to upgrade our mosconi center and work with not only the traditional hotels, but they are updating. i want to go to every hotel that updates themselves because you will see they are catering to the visitors coming here. we still have a great tourism industry in san francisco. we have wonderful hotel venues for all of them to visit, and then, the great international hotel -- international airport we have. you will see how our international visitors marvel at the efficiencies of getting through customs. it is great.

i have seen a lot of other countries. i have been there when they have gotten there baggage, and you see that line, and you come to san francisco's international airport, and there is no lines. people are zipping through, and even some of the customs agents will say, "huanying," because they know the language. we are an international city. we want to maintain the world class feeling we always have. i really want to thank hilton for this additional work that it is doing to maintain that world- class status. so you welcome the chinese visitors for business or tourism, and you give them a good breakfast because at the end of the day, they might want to know about stake or pasta,

but the breakfast would be their traditional thing, and they will feel comfortable doing that and come back. that is the main thing. we would visitors not only to experience the first visit. we want them to keep coming back. there's a lot of business to be done that is consistent with what our city is doing with our china-sf program. we're recording chinese businesses. we have over five of the major solar companies in china locating their offices in mission bay already. we have more to come. we're working on their banking business so they can come here and establish banks so that trade can go on, and it will be more comfortable for them. so thank you to hilton. congratulations on hilton huanying, and huanying for everyone else here. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you for those kind words.

i do pay attention to the quality of your airports as well. we come in and out of a lot of international airports, and you have it very well organized here. thank you, mayor lee. also, on our website, hilton.com, we have sections of our web site dedicated to this program where you can find hotels, explore the benefits of the program. for our media colleagues, we have an extension to our global media website, which is now built in chinese as well as english, for chinese media following the story, and we have a couple of events organized in beijing and shanghai in september. thank you again to the chinese deputy consul for joining us today. i thought the best way to understand hilton huanying was to understand it. we have created three dynamic interactive stations at the back of this room, which we will reveal to you in a moment, where

you can go and see and best of all taste hotel our rival, the guest environment, and the breakfast at hilton experience, so you will chinese practices ladies and gentlemen, i would choose to be the first to experience hilton huanying.

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>> now, ladies and gentlemen, make your way to the back of the room for some treats and other displays we have laid out for you. thank you so much for coming today. ♪