Hot on the heels of her appearance at WITX-Women In Travel in Bangkok last month, and co-founder and CTO of Tujia Melissa Yang is all set to take flight like the wild geese she said she was at the conference, when asked what kind of bird she thought she was at the event.

That's because the company she co-founded, Tujia.com, to provide online vacation rental services to middle to high-end Chinese travelers, has received capital injection from strategic investors Ctrip.com International and HomeAway, and financial investors Lightspeed China Partners and CDH Investments.

The transaction will close following final regulatory approval of the Chinese government.

Justin Jun Luo, chief executive officer of Tujia.com, said, "The capital raised from this financing will fund business development within China and give Tujia.com the ability to invest more heavily in strategic business development."

The development gives HomeAway, the worldwide vacation rental site, a minority stake in Tujia.com. "HomeAway seeks to make every vacation property in the world available to every traveler and so we're excited to make this long term investment in Tujia.com as we believe they are best positioned to bring vacation rentals to China," said Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway.

"We're also looking forward to a relationship with Ctrip.com, which understands the opportunities of the Chinese vacation rental market and currently highlights Tujia.com's vacation rental properties on its homepage."

Ron Cao, managing director at Lightspeed China Partners, said, "Until now, China's domestic vacation rental market has been a white space with significant supply and demand imbalance.

"Chinese consumers are increasingly looking for more options when they travel, and Tujia provides a unique offering with an online-offline model, and a focus on service and quality. The company's world-class management team and first-mover advantage will position it well to become the dominant player in China's emerging vacation rental space."

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