UPDATE 1-Singapore's Banyan Tree raises 1st China hotel fund

* At least $500 mln China Development Fund

* To finance 5-6 China projects, including a Tibet hotel

* Raised money from investors including from China (Adds details, quotes and background)

By George Chen and Kevin Lim

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE, April 16 (Reuters) - Luxury resorts and hotels developer Banyan Tree (BANY.SI) has completed a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment fund to finance its planned projects in China, sources said on Thursday.

Singapore-based Banyan Tree, which has hotels from Thailand's Phuket to China's Lijiang, originally targeted raising $700 million for the China fund, said the sources familiar with the situation.

"We have plans to launch a fund to support our projects in China but have not officially launched it yet," a Banyan Tree spokeswoman said in response to Reuters inquiry.

She declined to comment further.

One industry source said Banyan Tree raised at least $500 million for its China Development Fund, which will have an office in Shanghai, to support five or six hotel projects across China, including a new hotel in Tibet.

Banyan Tree now has three hotels in China -- two in the southern province of Yunnan, including the one in Lijiang, and one on the tropical resort island of Hainan, often dubbed China's Phuket.

The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Banyan Tree has said it plans to launch a new hotel in the eastern city of Hangzhou this year while two other planned projects in Macau, famous for its casinos, and Beijing may be delayed, according to its stock filings.

Banyan Tree has also begun to hire senior executives in Shanghai to run its first China fund, the sources said.

The global financial crisis has hurt global tourism and growth in travel to China is expected to slow, industry analysts have said.

Global funds such as Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and the Carlyle Group [CYL.UL] have poured billions of dollars into China's real estate market in the past few years, in particular top-end residential projects.

Early last year, Banyan Tree raised a $400 million real estate fund, Banyan Tree Indochina Hospitality Fund, to focus on investments in Vietnam. (Editing by Nick Macfie)