Since 2014, the Huazhu Hotel Group and the Accor Hotels Group have formed a long-term strategic alliance to jointly develop the hotel business in China. After the alliance, more than 85 million loyal members worldwide can get access to more than 7,000 hotels worldwide – including Ji Hotel, which serves the mid-range market.

The Ji Hotel Xiamen Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street is conveniently located near the Xiamen Railway Station, Xiamen University, and just a mere 25-minute drive from Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport. Opened in 2015, the 5-storey hotel has 150 guest rooms perfect for business travelers and leisure travelers. The China City Shopping Mall is only 20 metres (0.01 miles) away, where guests can shop to their hearts’ content.

The beautiful, verdant Ji Hotel green wall from Elmich measuring 6 metres (19 feet) in height is a significant aesthetic feature for the hotel to welcome its visitors including travelers visiting Zhongshan Road, a major tourist spot with many shops and restaurants. In addition, the green wall will improve the air quality in the area and assist to keep the hotel building cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

VersiWall® GM (VGM) modules each contain a geotextile bag filled with a primarily inorganic soil-less lightweight planting media. Pre-planting of the modules 6 to 8 weeks prior to installation in a controlled nursery environment enabled selected green wall plants to be firmly established and orientated vertically.

Pilaster mounting rails were bolted directly to the wall to facilitate firm and secure anchorage of the VGM modules to the wall. The Elmich VGM mounting system is equipped with anti-lift arms plus the proprietary anchoring pilaster system, and is certified by independent international test authority to withstand wind uplift from various directions up to 110km/h.

On September 14, 2016, the green wall was subjected to a wind gust speed of around 170 km/h when Super Typhoon ‘Meranti’ made landfall in Xiamen City, Fujian bringing heavy downpours and causing major disruptions to the electricity and water supplies affecting more than 3.2 million homes located in the region. Unfortunately, Meranti left 28 dead and 15 missing across Fujian province and neighbouring Zhejiang, and caused 20 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in damage, with half of this in Xiamen.

Thankfully, the Ji Hotel Xiamen Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street green façade remained intact despite the battering of Super Typhoon Meranti and in this instance, it was a real test of nature to prove the wind uplift resistance of the green wall.