The appeal, of course, is easy to see: China’s economy has been growing by double-digits annually, and its 1.3 billion or so citizens are becoming more affluent. Yet few Chinese brands compete in the luxury categories. “The consumer market is a blank canvas in China, to a certain degree,” said Benjamin Christensen, the research manager of Jones Lang LaSalle Beijing. It was only in 2001 that the first modern shopping mall opened in Beijing. But the concept has caught on with consumers and retailers alike. The advent of a global event like the Olympics, expected to draw some two million foreign and domestic visitors, has been a strong springboard.

Still, some people wonder what will happen when the athletes and the spectators go home, and Beijing is left to absorb an enormous increase in hotel rooms, shops and office space, some in unproven neighbourhoods. Many Olympic host cities, like Montreal in 1976 and Sydney, Australia, in 2000, experienced economic slumps after the Games as they struggled to recoup their costly investments.

In recent months, some new retail centers have had trouble lining up tenants, according to leasing agents. Similarly, hotel occupancy rates in Beijing are likely to drop, at least temporarily, after the Games, said Andreas Flaig, an executive vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in China. But hotels may partially offset that with higher prices, he said, noting that average room rates for luxury hotels in Beijing nearly doubled from 1999 to 2007, to roughly $200. These hotels “are built for the long term, not for a 16-day event in August,” Flaig said.

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