Xiamen is booming, with a slew of new luxury hotels on the horizon and a Fujian edition of the Michelin Guide on the way.
I’m perched 29 storeys above Xiamen, a bustling port city in Fujian, China. Above the bed in my hotel room hangs an artwork made of egret feathers arranged in a circle. Egrets are the city’s official birds. These beautiful migratory avians have come to symbolise the Fujian diaspora, who are scattered all over the world in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The first wave of international hotel brands, such as Crowne Plaza, Sheraton and Sofitel, swooped in in 2005 and edged the city closer to premium status. Twenty years on, Xiamen feels like it’s on the brink of achieving its goal. Marriott brands The Ritz-Carlton and the St. Regis will open soon, alongside Accor’s Fairmont.
packages, have doubled this year compared to 2019, said Jeremiah Wong, the company’s assistant director of marketing communications. “ A commuter ferry docks at the Gulangyu wharf. These ferries regularly ply the route between Xiamen and Piano Island; the more leisurely and luxurious option is to charter a yacht.
The Western transplants built grand mansions and graceful plazas, giving the island a vibe similar to Macau’s Historic Centre or Shanghai’s French Concession. Today many of them belong to overseas Chinese tycoons, such as Indonesian sugar barons or timber merchants from Myanmar. Some have been transformed into retail or F&B destinations.
Du added that when he was in culinary school more than a decade ago, local chefs had to master Cantonese cuisine. In hotels, the head chef of the Chinese restaurant was always Cantonese; Fujianese chefs were relegated to the sidelines, cooking fried bee hoon, fried mee sua, fried rice and so on – food to fill bellies rather than showcased as art.
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