BANGKOK - The big news these days in this, Asia’s naughty city, is that Thailand's capital is about to spend billions of dollars on something that will lure more Chinese tourists - shopping malls. That's right, shopping malls!

The biggest of the new malls, Iconsiam, will be built along the city's Chao Phraya River, one of the busiest waterways in Asia and where many of the city's high-end hotels are located. Chinese visitors, who now make up the largest segment of Bangkok's all-important tourist industry, usually shy away from those great riverside hotels, which include the No. 1-rated hotel in the world, the historic Mandarin Oriental, because the area lacks any meaningful shopping outlets.

Iconsiam will be a mega shopping and residential centre and is scheduled to open in 2017 - it will be located right across the river from the Mandarin Oriental and right next door to two other 5-star properties, The Peninsula Bangkok and the Millennium Hilton. A new Four Seasons Hotel and Residences will also be opening along the river very soon.

According to my Bangkok sources, the Mandarin Oriental Group is playing a major role in the new shopping mall and one of the project's two high-rise towers will be a condo residence which the Hong Kong-based hotel chain will manage.

The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok will celebrate its 140th year of operation in 2016 and many special events are planned for a property that opened in 1876 under the name "The Oriental"  and where many of the world's literary giants, including Somerset Maugham and Graham Green, were regular guests.

The hotel's famed Author's Wing - the original hotel - is now being completely renovated for the big anniversary and new suites are being added to the hotel’s Garden Wing.

The hotel’s landmark Bamboo Bar, where the likes of Audrey Hepburn were regular visitors, underwent a complete makeover and the biggest thing added to the famed water hole was bamboo. That’s right, the old bar, despite it’s name, did not have one bamboo item in it. That’s been resolved and the new bamboo chairs and tables and rare bottles of scotch served there make it the in place to be seen in Bangkok.

If you’d like more information on there historic Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, go to http://mandarinoriental.com/bangkok