Magnotel Hotel Xiamen University Shimao Twin Tower

Jumping off the taxi in the front gate and look around: generally good environment with some quietness on the streets amongst one of the noisiest and traffic-jammed part of the city, and the pedestrian flow is low; looking at the lines of trees sprouted out from the side of the pedestrian walks, it quite been bestowed a "green", "clean", and "simple" kind of sentiment. But hold my beer. Dragging my luggage up the dusty yellow marble stairs (no slopes) with hiatus and nicks, I had to push through manually an electric door with fingerprints, paints all over its aging mustard-like glass in order to pound my feet (a euphemistic way of saying sliding for the sand on the ground) on the somnolent lobby floor. The check-in process was smooth, despite a little fuss at the greasy fob and a piece of wrinkled antique card paper that did its best in holding it before the possibility of being out-of-use and recycled in eternity, and, I gave this a huzzah on behalf of Greta Thunberg. As per the other review above (or maybe below), I can confirm the elevator was functional but quite daunting with faint glimmers of white sprinkling down from the incandescent light, with dirt from construction projects in the building all over the place and floor covered by a piece of wood to ensure traction, and whilst going up in a slow velocity I felt it trembling like when a plane going through turbulence. Stepping out of the elevator, there is the staircase to the left still under construction subjecting to the baking July sun, which, I will take later in circumventing the traumatising experience in the elevator; and to the right, was the corridor of open room doors (hence good ventilation, duh) and that kind of cold, bleak and remote feeling comparable to that of Frankenstein streams up my vertebrae and crystalised like how Elsa built the castle in Frozen. Only walking through rooms of open doors did I realise that I was, probably, the only guest at this hotel--a mere insinuation of how poor the condition was that it could be emptied bottom-up, all but me, in the busiest vacation time of the year that no one would tolerate staying there, and the construction guy by the staircase who tried to punch nails on the hotel wall with a hammer in the 35°C Southern China-weather. I opened up my door and, at first sight I had no much objection despite the vague smell of unfresh air and the over-simplicity of the room; form follows functions, right? Nein. I took a closer glance, only to realize that the bed was infested with extremely small black dots (maybe bugs?)... All over the sheets... The air conditioner was out of order and could only blow air (which was warm) from the outside, and not to mention the moldy smell it emitted; the table and the seats were full of dust that I doubted if anyone had even settled in this room; the internet was also dysfunctional, embroidered itself as the salient flower amidst the already 5G-streaming China. It was only a matter of 30 minutes that I deliberately checked out of the hotel (if you even want to call it hotel lol) and looked forward to Hualuxe on the other side of the city, where I took a in-depth to end my struggle with the stickiness and odor from accidentally lying on this "hotel's" "bed". Overall, once you unveiled that facade of this hotel, you will find yourself in a interminable agony under the roof of a decrepitness. Not to mention I booked the "Business Room".

A quiet underdeveloped albeit peaceful and safe Chinese speaking only neighborhood area. Eateries offering duck noodle dishes and fishball soups. 2 Fruit stores with reasonable prices. Easy to hail a taxi just outside this hotel. Cool aircon, and clean rooms. Knowledge of spoken and script Putonghua indispensable. Honest and friendly experience here.

Clean, quiet, secure. Perfect for a low budget visit to the area - I needed walking distance access to Xiamen University. No English spoken but translation apps solve that. Front desk was very helpful at check in, getting the correct wifi password (took a couple attempts), and getting me a taxi to the airport. No meals in situ but plenty of great little restaurants nearby.