Some folks have long work commutes. Alex Xu's is extreme. "My base of operations has always been in Southern California, so it is a natural extension for me to expand in the US," said Xu, GreenTree's CEO and Chairman.

　　The CEO and chairman of GreenTree Inns Hotel Management Corp jets back and forth between Shanghai and Los Angeles so frequently that he knows the flight attendants' names.

　　But Xu's close knowledge of China and the United States has given the hard-working Chinese-American a distinct perspective on the hospitality industry - and a management philosophy that is guiding his budget-hotel chain's expansion into the US.

　　"The ways of being a leader and managing people are essentially the same," Xu said in an interview.

　　"The East and West, valuewise, are pretty much the same. So whatever you do that is kindly to other people, will one day be returned."

　　Xu, along with a number of American investors, has spent a decade building GreenTree into a concern with 1,450 hotels (including more than 400 under development) and 35,000 employees in 400 locations in China, mainly targeting business travelers. In 10 years, he hopes to have 1,000 small and medium-sized hotels in the US.

　　That US push will bring some of his work closer to his Los Angeles-area office in Rancho Cucamonga and home in San Marino.

　　"My base of operations has always been in Southern California, so it is a natural extension for me to expand in the US," said Xu, 48, who was born in Shandong province and moved to California in 1987 to study at the University of Southern California.

　　He plans to build GreenTree's US branch primarily through acquisitions, as well as joint ventures and franchising agreements. A 192-room GreenTree Inn under construction in Salt Lake City, Utah, is expected to open for business late this year or early in 2014, Xu said.

　　GreenTree's US operations will also include a 150-room hotel in Burlingame, California, on San Francisco bay, southeast of the city's airport.