Qufu’s JW is probably the cheapest JW in the country, yet it’s also one of the least JW-like JWs I’ve ever seen. In a way, it actually feels better suited to Marriott Luxury Collection, a brand that has never really found much success in China. It’s a hotel with a very strong design point of view, and I liked it a lot.

My trip to Qufu is already a memory from more than a year ago. If you’re flying, it’s quite inconvenient, since the nearest airport in Jining is more than 80 kilometers from Qufu. A much better option is to take the train to Qufu East Railway Station.

I’ve seen plenty of hotels in spectacular scenic settings, but I had never seen one sitting right next to major historical and cultural landmarks. The Qufu JW was the first. It’s just across the street from the Confucius Temple and the Confucius Mansion. In the photo, the hotel is on the left, and the Confucius Temple is on the right. It really is a next-door neighbor to the residence of the Duke Yansheng.

The open entrance is very grand. In fact, the whole hotel is a Chinese-style architectural complex covering more than 80 mu, made up of multiple courtyard buildings with different functions.

From the entrance, you pass along the “Way of the Great Learning” to reach the lobby. Many of the hotel’s place names are tied to the Four Books.

The main lobby building is imposing, almost like an ancient palace, while the gray stone and floor-to-ceiling glass add a modern touch.

The banquet hall opposite the lobby is also a two-story building in a traditional Chinese style.

The most eye-catching feature in the lobby is this huge sculpture of Confucius teaching at the Apricot Altar. According to legend, Confucius once sat there singing and teaching, and four apricot trees were planted in front of the altar in the Confucius Temple. Today, the Apricot Altar is often used as a metonym for education itself, which really makes the old master seem every bit the “teacher for all ages.”

The towering apricot tree is made from perforated tin metal, and if you look closely, the trunk is assembled from seal-script characters taken from the Analects. Beneath the tree, a rounded pure-white sculpture gazes upward in a posture of reverence, while a shallow pool and a few goldfish surround the Apricot Altar.

The screen wall behind it and the circular moon gate are both classic elements of traditional Chinese architecture.

During my stay, I also happened to catch the Earth Hour lights-off event. The hotel team was actually pretty good at putting on a show.

Behind the sculpture, in the lobby lounge and seating area, there was also a very interesting set of miniature carvings that seemed to depict scenes and stories from the Analects. I’m basically helpless when it comes to miniature things.

Past the lobby, the outdoor public courtyard is especially beautiful, and to me it’s one of the strongest parts of the hotel’s design. It even has a wonderfully old-world name: the “Six Arts Courtyard,” inspired by the six arts in the Zhou dynasty noble education system: rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics.

The rectangular reflecting pool in the center and the circular moon gate are the finishing touches. It looks fantastic from every angle.

The circular moon gate looks a lot like an ancient Chinese jade ornament. People in the past were incredibly particular about the naming and uses of different types of jade objects. They were even categorized by the thickness ratio of the ring. This one, with a notch in it, would probably be called a jue.

Walking along the edge of the pool, the reflections in the water shift with every step, echoing the architecture in a play of solid and illusion.

The second section of the courtyard is an understated little pavilion called the Qin-and-Chess Pavilion.

At the very center of the chime-bell feature wall beside the pavilion is a portrait of the old master as the “teacher for all ages.”

There was also a weekend guest activity that day. The hotel had invited a teacher to explain the Analects to children and teach them various forms of etiquette. I stood there listening for a while, and the teacher was actually quite good. For example, she explained that taking care of your own body is also a form of filial piety toward your parents.

At the end, the children practiced writing the character “ren” (benevolence).

Walking through the hotel’s public areas, you can spot traditional design details everywhere. It was my first time seeing blue stone lions.

The brick wall of chime bells and the bamboo grove behind it almost seem to evoke the saying about a melody lingering in the air so beautifully that one forgets the taste of meat for three months.

Winter wintersweet.

The window set into a wall made of layered roof tiles is a very creative touch.

Following the winding path forward, you eventually reach the thoughtfully designed guest room compounds in the distance.

The guest room layout is pretty interesting, divided into six shared courtyards. Each courtyard is planted with different flora, and each one is named after its signature plant: crape myrtle, begonia, bamboo, pine, tea, and parasol tree. Just from the names, you can roughly tell what grows there. It feels a bit like the four Hogwarts houses.

Plants from different seasons never bloom all at once, so maybe that’s not a bad way to attract repeat guests and boost return stays.

The cold-hardy crabapple trees are unfazed by Shandong’s biting chill in early March. The white crabapple blossoms were still mostly in bud, though some impatient flowers had already opened up to welcome spring. In Dream of the Red Chamber, white crabapple was still considered a rare plant, and the young ladies of the Grand View Garden even formed a Crabapple Poetry Society just to compose verses about it: “stealing three parts of the pear blossom’s whiteness, borrowing a wisp of the plum blossom’s soul.”

And the red crabapple blossoms were even more striking, spreading across the entire courtyard like the evening glow.

Meanwhile, the leafless trees in the crape myrtle garden were still quietly waiting for the height of summer, when the crape myrtles would finally bloom.

Bamboo and pine, after all, are evergreen and carry themselves with poise year-round. The bamboo leaves, lacking winter pruning, were a bit yellowed. With pine, bamboo, and plum all present, the “Three Friends of Winter” were complete.

The pine needles, on the other hand, seemed to thrive even more in winter, perfectly at home in the season.

The Qinchayuan garden instantly made us, as southerners, think of tea plants. Since it was just before Qingming Festival, we wondered for a moment: could you really pick pre-Qingming tea in Qufu? Once inside, though, we realized they were actually brilliant red camellias.

The hotel doesn’t have many rooms—fewer than 200 in total—so each one feels generously sized. On the first floor of the two-story buildings, every room comes with its own private little courtyard, while the second-floor rooms all have comfortable balconies.

The Executive Suite is around 100 square meters. The room design is fairly minimalist, with some walls and furnishings done in dark walnut wood, while the rest uses plenty of blank space and simple decorative touches.

The decorative details are especially well handled.

One especially nice touch is that you can slide open the doors directly from both the living room and the bedroom and step out into the courtyard.

Sitting there in the warm sun between winter and spring, drinking tea and chatting, is a pleasure in itself.

The courtyard is full of lush greenery.

Even back inside the room, you can still catch a glimpse of the courtyard while soaking in the bath.

The welcome amenity was fairly generous, including what looked like Shandong-style pancakes?

From the guest rooms, you can reach other parts of the hotel via the charming covered walkways.

The lion-head door knocker in front of the executive lounge feels suitably imposing, like the entrance to an old government office.

Qiwuyuan is essentially the executive lounge, plus a small number of guest rooms. In all my years of travel, this was the first time I’d seen a hotel executive lounge set up as a standalone courtyard—actually a three-courtyard compound, no less. The hotel clearly didn’t skimp on land, though unfortunately it had not officially opened because of the pandemic.

Next to the executive lounge is Xingyuan, which can more or less be considered the hotel’s private park. There’s nothing especially remarkable about it, but it’s a pleasant place for a casual stroll when you have some free time.

Beyond the executive lounge, the standalone fitness and recreation center is also relatively unusual. The pool is on the basement level of the wellness center, and the transparent dome lets sunlight reflect onto the water for some beautiful light and shadow effects. That said, many of the small details in the poolside relaxation area still weren’t quite up to par—for example, moldy chair cushions.

The hotel breakfast was pretty ordinary. It seems that food and beverage at northern hotels may still lag a bit behind their southern counterparts, but Qufu’s local sa soup and Shandong-style wheat-based dishes are still worth trying.

The biggest breakfast surprise, though, was a ring of LEGO models displayed beside the restaurant. In addition to the full Modular Buildings series, there were plenty of other large sets, all assembled by hotel staff. Apparently there are quite a few LEGO enthusiasts working at the hotel.

Qufu JW is one of the few hotels I’ve actually saved in the Marriott app. Its unrivaled design, richly textured atmosphere, superb location, and a team full of ideas make this a hotel well worth checking off the list.

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