The Beijing Municipal Tourism Administration has published the first list of 143 star-grade hotels that have been awarded "Green Hotel" titles.

This list includes 81 hotels earning the Gold Leaf Green Hotel Award and 62 hotels earning the Silver Leaf Green Hotel Award. However, eight 5-star hotels in China's capital city have failed to win this honor.

The eight hotels are: The Peninsula Beijing; St. Regis Hotel, Beijing; Days Hotel & Suites Beijing; Hotel New Otani Chang Fu Gong; Grand Hyatt Beijing; Jing Guang New World Hotel; Loong Plaza Hotel & Resort; and Tianlun Dynasty Hotel. The main reason that these hotels failed to receive the award was because part of their respective facilities did not meet the Green Hotel standards.

Some representatives from those 5-star hotels have told local media that their hotels were constructed by following international hotel standards, so if they re-model to follow the Green Hotel standard in Beijing, it might bring some negative consequences or unnecessary costs. For example, the Green Hotel standards require hotels to place "No Smoking" signs in designated areas. However, smoking is already not allowed in some top deluxe brand hotels, so the hotels say there is no need for them to place such signs.

The assessment of hotels in Beijing started last October. The assessment association says that for those hotels that failed to earn the title, they will have another opportunity before the Olympics in 2008.