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I think many people, like me, grew up listening to Jay Chou’s songs. Even if you are not a die-hard fan, you probably can hum a few of them. This year marks Jay’s 20th debut anniversary, and he had a tour that also came to Xiamen. LD really likes Jay Chou, and earlier in the year we managed to snag floor section B1 tickets. Since it was already late after the concert, I also booked a hotel very close to the venue — The Westin Xiamen. Unfortunately, Jay Chou probably isn’t a Marriott member, so he and his team did not stay at The Westin Xiamen. Most of the photos in this post were compressed, so the image quality is much lower. Please forgive the low resolution.

Hotel Overview

Official Description

  • The Westin Xiamen is located on Xianyue Road, near the Culture and Arts Center. It offers sweeping views of the city’s central business district and convenient transportation to many landmarks in the old city, as well as the airport, shopping centers, and the convention center.
  • The Westin Xiamen is part of the world-renowned Starwood Hotels & Resorts Marriott International group (the official website is being pretty lazy here), with a luxurious and distinctive design and thoughtful service. The hotel offers a variety of comfortable rooms and suites, with comprehensive and advanced in-room facilities. The subtle White Tea fragrance is refreshing, and the famed Heavenly Bed and Heavenly Bath help you completely shake off fatigue.
  • The hotel features the Chinese Elements Chinese restaurant, Qbar Latin Grill, Seasonal Tastes buffet restaurant, the lobby bar, Sweets pastry shop, and other distinctive dining and grab-and-go options for you to choose from. There is also Heavenly Spa and WestinWORKOUT, providing everything you need to rejuvenate your body and mind.
  • Hotel address: No. 398 Xianyue Road, Siming District, Xiamen

Author’s Notes

  • Hotel address: No. 398 Xianyue Road, Siming District, Xiamen, Fujian Province
  • Hotel star rating:
  • Opening year: 2012
  • Tripadvisor rating: 4.5/5
  • Location: average. It is a little far from the main attractions, but acceptable. It is far from Xiamen Airport, but relatively close to Xiamen Railway Station on the island.
  • This is the largest hotel closest to Xiamen Sports Center, which often hosts good concerts or sporting events.

Redemption

Since I had booked Jay Chou concert tickets in advance, I also booked the hotel right after getting the tickets. At that time, Marriott had not yet started peak/off-peak award pricing, and The Westin Xiamen, as a Cat 3 hotel, could be booked for 17,500 points. After peak/off-peak pricing was introduced, this hotel settled at 22,500 points year-round. Later, the Golden Rooster Awards were suddenly moved to Xiamen, and with two Jay Chou concerts as well, cash rates for the hotel skyrocketed, and by the end even suites were basically sold out.

My membership status: Platinum Premier (Titanium member). Personally, I felt that throughout the stay, aside from me knowing I was a Titanium member, it seemed like no one at the hotel knew I was a member at all. This was quite a bit worse than my experiences with IHG and Hilton. By rights, Titanium is supposed to be fairly hard to earn. When I stay at IHG, Spire member treatment is still very solid; even when staying at Hilton as a Diamond member, I get full treatment.

Stay Experience

Although I’ve always been known for being pretty laid-back, because I was a Marriott Titanium member, my expectations were still higher than for my IHG Spire and Hilton Diamond stays. I was hoping for at least reasonably good treatment. I once stayed at Xiamen Jimei Marriott as a Titanium member, and that experience was quite good.

Room Upgrade

The hotel upgraded me to a junior suite on the day of check-in. (The day before check-in, during a chat, I said I would be writing a stay report and asked whether there were any spare suites, but I was rejected immediately. I almost thought my Titanium status was fake; I checked and there were still quite a few suites left the next day.) Fortunately, they still gave me a small upgrade on the day of check-in. After all, upgrades depend on room availability, and getting one is already great. The upgraded room was an Executive Suite, which under normal cash rates would probably be about 2-3 times the price of the entry-level room.

Welcome Gift

To be honest, this is the only hotel I’ve stayed at that didn’t tell me what status I was. The front desk simply asked for my ID and credit card, and everything was done in a few quick steps. I was offered a choice between 1,000 points or breakfast for two at the restaurant, and I chose the points. Maybe the hotel was just too busy. If you are a Platinum or Titanium member, I personally still recommend checking in directly at the lounge; the potential treatment will be much better. Throughout the entire stay, I was the only one who knew I was Titanium. Although the room welcome gift did not come with a special card, it was overall quite good.

Room Details

Closet

The room was full of mirrors, starting right from the entrance. The closet was very large, which felt great.

Living Area

The living area had separate motorized curtains, a desk, and two sofas.

It also came with tea service, and the tea bags were Dahongpao.

The desk had a bottle of mid-range water, priced at RMB 52.

Mini Bar and Tea Bags

It was quite well stocked and had everything it should. The coffee capsules were pretty good.

Bedroom

The bed was pretty good.

The bedroom also had another small sofa and motorized curtains (double curtains), but the curtain edges did not block out the sunlight, so it was easy to wake up bright and early the next morning. That needs improvement.

The bedroom had four sliding panels that could be pulled shut, separating it from the bathroom and the living room.

After closing the bathroom door

Then the living room door

After closing the doors

The bedroom and living area each had separate air conditioning, but it didn’t seem like the heating was on. Maybe it wasn’t cold enough when I stayed.

Bathroom

Vanity

Toiletries

Bathtub and toilet; the overall layout was fairly good

Shower room

Shower amenities

Executive Lounge

The Executive Lounge is on the hotel’s 40th floor. Dining is mainly on the 40th floor, and the hotel’s 41st floor is also a lounge and relaxation area, with entertainment facilities and simple drinks.

The lounge on the 40th floor is located below the Westin logo at the top of the hotel

The seating area is a bit compact, but it has more character. You can also have food ordered here and delivered to eat here.

Because it is on a high floor, the 40th floor has two binoculars for guests to enjoy the view (in the photo below, one on each side), while the 41st floor has three.

  • Lounge hours: 6:30 a.m.——11:30 p.m. (the hours are pretty impressive)
  • Breakfast: 06:30 to 10:30
  • Afternoon tea: 14:30 to 16:30
  • Dinner snacks: 17:30 to 19:30
  • Evening cocktails (happy hour): 17:30 to 20:30

Dinner

The lounge layout is pretty good. The 40th-floor area is relatively small; if there really isn’t enough seating, you can take your food up to the 41st floor to eat.

The dinner staples were fried rice and fried rice noodles, and the side dishes were quite plentiful. A seafood stir-fry was available (don’t expect too much variety).

The lounge had a variety of bottled fresh fruit juices, and they tasted very good.

Happy hour offers a variety of alcoholic drinks.

Breakfast

At check-in, you can choose 1,000 welcome points or breakfast in the main restaurant. If you choose the points, breakfast can be enjoyed in the lounge. I didn’t have many points, so I chose the points benefit.

Breakfast staples were also fried rice, fried rice noodles, plain congee, and salted congee. You can also request fried eggs and noodles. This breakfast is enough; next time I’ll try the main restaurant downstairs.

Afternoon tea

Just think of afternoon tea as a concept. It’s not a problem at all if you just want to fill up a bit. There are fruit, drinks, bread, and dried nuts.

41st-floor Executive Lounge

I have to say, the lounge-style space on the 41st floor is even more distinctive. You can take the elevator directly to the 41st floor, or go up a small set of steps from the 40th floor. The 41st floor is very spacious and is suitable for reading or taking a nap.

This floor also has three more binoculars.

The 41st floor only offers simple drinks. If needed, you can also bring food up directly from the 40th floor (I’m guessing).

There are game devices, plus a few Go boards.

Other Facilities

Gym

The gym is open 24 hours and is well equipped, with a wide range of fitness machines and a yoga room.

Pool

Since it is an indoor pool, it is quite small. Hours: 06:00 to 22:00. I swam a few laps, and it was pretty good.

Stay Review

  • Member benefits: 3.0
  • Executive Lounge: 5.0
  • Facilities: 4.0
  • Room review: 4.0
  • Overall score: 4.0

Concert

I remember listening to Jay Chou’s songs while doing homework when I was little. My father always forbade me from listening to music while doing homework. But after listening to Jay’s fast songs, I thought they were pretty good. After all, I couldn’t make out much, so they wouldn’t affect my homework and were perfect for blocking out the noise around me. In high school, the school intercom would always play Jay Chou’s songs during breaks. What I remember most is that whenever there was a new song, Jay Chou would dominate the airwaves. Many classmates were huge fans of Jay and bought every album as soon as it came out. As an adult, whenever I sing karaoke, Jay’s songs are often the ones that dominate the mic.

I think that listening to Jay Chou’s songs is an important part of many people’s youth. Thank you, Jay, for accompanying us through childhood, our naïve middle school years, the high school days spent burning the midnight oil, and our carefree college years.

Concert venue

The concert is at Xiamen Sports Center, with one show on Saturday and one on Sunday. The hotel is very close to the sports center. After crossing Wuyi Square, it’s less than a 10-minute walk.

Ticket purchase

Tickets were something you had to fight for, and it mostly came down to luck. The tickets LD snagged, though they were only floor B1, still cost 1,300 RMB per person. And in the end, you still couldn’t really see Jay in person. If you wanted to see even a little bit, tickets in the VIP area were the ones you had to buy.

The tickets looked something like this:

What it was like on site

The glow sticks were pretty nice; they changed color along with the concert’s rhythm. Before entering, I even bought bunny ears from the college girls from next door in Zhangzhou who were setting up a stall, but in the end they were all confiscated by the security guards, because they would affect the effect of the official glow sticks. And the drinks and water were confiscated too..

When the whole venue lit up together, combined with the rhythm changes, it was actually pretty good.

The concert was pretty good overall, except that the “pick me for a song request” part was quite a bit different from the internet hype; it was basically a set of songs preselected by a computer, with no randomness at all. One highlight of the night was when Jay saw an Xiamen grandma and wanted to sing a Minnan song for her. He sang Shuang Ren Zhen Tou, and the grandma even hummed along a bit. There’s a video online, so if you’re interested, you can go look it up yourself. He sang about 30 songs in total, and some of them were quite short. Overall, he sang all the songs I wanted to hear. Jay also sang several new songs from the past few years, as well as songs he wrote for other singers. Personally, I still think the old songs have more flavor. After all, Jay’s old songs grew up with you, and classics never get old.

Even though our seats were in the floor area, we still couldn’t really make out Jay himself. For example, the left side is the big screen, and on the right there’s only a tiny area where you can see the piano and the man himself:

Overall, it wasn’t really a regret. It was all about the feeling (and being there). At the concert the next day, someone proposed on site. I didn’t really have the heart to film much, so I just recorded a few short clips and uploaded them to our YouTube, as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyS8hUY1vuU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG15l9HW3gM

Once again, thanks to Jay! Thanks for reading this post, and I wish everyone gets everything they hope for, grabs every card bonus they should, sees new all-time highs every day, gets out of 5/24 soon, and thanks!