The much-anticipated premiere of W Xiamen took place earlier this month, bringing to life the property’s design narrative, Illuminate the Sound Wave, in a truly spectacular fashion.
A glittering two-day affair fused cosmopolitan dining, eclectic music and visionary performances. Trend-setters, media, music and fashion personalities gathered for a sensory indulgence at the bold new property in Xiamen’s trendy downtown East Business District.
To mark the arrival of the first W hotel in China’s Fujian Province, festivities kicked off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by government officers of Siming District, representatives from Xiamen Powerlong Industrial and senior executives from Marriott International.
At the grand, Chinese-style dinner that followed, all stops were pulled out to showcase the property’s bold culinary vision. Served in the majestic setting of the Great Room, the dinner was the perfect introduction to W Xiamen’s versatile culinary repertoire.
Switching gears to party mode, W Xiamen then threw open the doors of destination bar HEAT. The city’s fashion crowd could enjoy a one-of-a-kind runway show over the water by a visionary local fashion brand Chusan.
A showcase of a different kind took place in MINYEN garden where the brand’s DETOX.RETOX.REPEAT. philosophy was on full display with a spirited morning boxing session. Later, at W Does Brunch hosted at NINE, mixology and gourmet food blended to create the perfect finale.
W Xiamen is set in Xiamen’s trendy downtown East Business District, where sunset reveals an edgy, creative street culture and an upscale dining scene. This makes it the ideal locale for a design-led hotel that provides guests with the ultimate insider access to all the design, fashion, fuel and music that the destination has to offer.
“Xiamen is a dynamic and highly charged city with a youthful energy and drive that is an ideal fit for the W Hotels brand,” said Tom Jarrold, Global Brand Leader, W Hotels Worldwide. “Our playful and intriguing nature comes to life through immersive art and design, Happenings like live music performances and our Whatever/Whenever service, which we know will be embraced by local creatives and international travelers alike.”
Look + Listen
The hotel’s design by Hirsch Bedner Associates pays tribute to Xiamen’s tropical surroundings, the natural beauty of its harbor and its transformation from an industrial port city to a modern music mecca.
Here, the mixing of people over millennia has inspired an idiosyncratic culture that embraces wildly varied musical forms and young, rebellious attitudes which W Xiamen captures through show-stopping digital installations and specially commissioned art pieces.
At W the Store, the iconic look of Gaojia opera singers is reimagined as contemporary art, with hypnotic faces rendered in oil paint on curved metal walls.
Before stepping into the Living Room (W’s signature take on the lobby), guests find themselves in an electric forest made of neon glass pillars, their hushed stillness contrasted with sudden bursts of flute notes played every time guests approach the lobby centerpiece — an interactive art piece inspired by the musical instruments displayed at a local organ museum.
Among the highlights of W Xiamen’s 293 guest rooms and suites are feature walls that use digitally rendered artworks to bring the city’s tropical nature indoors by means of RGB (red-green-blue) illustrations that work as a color puzzle, with pieces falling into place once the ambient light shifts from one color to the next. There are also consoles and coffee tables inspired by Bo Bing, a popular local dice game.
The Extreme WOW Suite is a 262-square-meter contemporary art-filled venue that sets the scene for private parties. An expansive entertainment area is anchored by a plush L-shaped sofa, and the suite’s party trick activates with the flick of a switch, amping up the drama with underwater ripples across the room.
Touch + Taste
W Xiamen’s four distinctive dining concepts are set to captivate travelers and locals with innovative fare and eclectic beverage offerings. At HEAT, the destination bar by WET (the pool), music curator Marc Lussier spins as guests sip on Champagne in a hot tub.
On the menu are modern street food-inspired bar bites and cocktails that pay homage to the island’s ancient Amoy heritage. Nestled within the lobby-level Living Room is SOUNDSCAPE, a socially-responsible community hub to recharge with organic brews and healthy beverages to the soundtrack of W-curated music.
Thrill-seekers can dive into a fusion of Cantonese and Minnan flavors at MIN YEN, which hosts private Cognac tastings paired with mystery menus.
For all-day dining, all roads lead to NINE, an upscale food hall by day with nine interactive stations that tempt with fresh baked goods and handmade noodles. At night, NINE serves premium steaks and seafood. In the afternoons, a sophisticated HI TEA @ NINE highlights Fujian’s tea culture with a selection of rare infusions, along with customized craft beers.
GATHER
The hotel’s 1,000 square-meter Great Room, with avant-garde art and cutting-edge technology, features a 110-square-meter LED screen, the largest in the city, to create events like no other. Color-changing starburst ceiling bulbs add extra sparkle to every celebration.
W Xiamen also offers highly customizable Studios for smaller events with décor featuring floral resin tables and abstract oil paintings, a reminder that art and commerce often go hand in hand.
DETOX.RETOX.REPEAT.
At FIT, W Xiamen’s 24/7 fitness center, a dramatic speaker wall keeps both casual gym-goers and fitness obsessives in the groove.
WET® — a rainbow-hued aqualand — features a mosaic wall reflecting gently filtered sunlight, sending a prism of lilacs and canary yellows dancing on the surface of the pool.
AWAY® SPA sits on the highest floor and offers a tranquil antidote to Xiamen’s hustle and bustle with calming spaces inspired by a colony of egrets. In addition to couple’s massages, pedicures, the hotel’s signature spa treatment, Egret Does Massage soothes the body and mind with a pampering foot ritual, followed by the gentle application of essential oils using feathers in a light motion resembling an egret's flight.
“With W’s arrival in Xiamen, luxury-minded jetsetters with a passion for music and design will find all the things that make Xiamen such a compelling destination,” said Henry Lee, President, Greater China, Marriott International. “To make it possible for the local and international tastemakers to experience this forward-looking city through W lens, we distilled the most exciting sounds, flavors and ideas and interpreted them through iconic design, visionary dining and carefully-curated music.”
For more information or to make a reservation, please visit wxiamen.com
About W Hotels Worldwide
Born from the bold attitude and 24/7 culture of New York City, W Hotels, part of Marriott International, Inc., has disrupted and redefined the hospitality scene for over two decades. Trailblazing its way around the globe, with nearly 60 hotels, W is defying expectations and breaking the norms of traditional luxury wherever the iconic W sign lands.
With a mission to fuel guests’ lust for life, W ignites an obsessive desire to soak it in, live it up and hit repeat. The brand’s provocative design, iconic Whatever/Whenever service and buzzing Living Rooms create an experience that is often copied but never matched.
Innovative, inspiring and infectious, the brand’s super-charged energy celebrates guests’ endless appetite to discover what’s new/next in each destination, to see more, feel more, go longer, stay later.
For more information on W Hotels, visit whotels.com/theangle or follow them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
W Hotels Worldwide is proud to participate in Marriott Bonvoy®, the global travel program from Marriott International that offers members an extraordinary portfolio of global brands, exclusive experiences on Marriott Bonvoy Moments and unparalleled benefits, including free nights and Elite status recognition.
To enroll for free or for more information about the program, visit MarriottBonvoy.marriott.com.
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