The collapse of a section of the Siji Kaiyuan Hotel in coastal Jiangsu province happened on Monday afternoon, the Suzhou Municipal Government said in a statement. According to state-run media, the Ministry of Emergency Management sent a team to help with the rescue work.
As of Tuesday, nine people were still missing and 14 had been rescued.
The cause of the collapse was under investigation, state-run Xinhua news agency said. Chinese media published photographs of rescue workers combing through rubble in the search for survivors.
The Siji Kaiyuan is a budget hotel that opened in 2018. The section that collapsed was three stories tall while an online booking site said the hotel had 54 rooms.