How Club Med Integrated Huizhou Architecture into Its First Anhui Resort: Tourism Case Study
When Club Med — the world’s premier all-inclusive holiday brand — selected Huangshan, Anhui Province, as the location for its first resort in East China, the company faced a unique challenge. The brand is known for its standardized “Club Med experience”: consistent service, Western-style comfort, and carefully calibrated entertainment. Yet the location demanded architectural and cultural authenticity. The result, Club Med Dongyu Island Huangshan, represents one of the most thoughtful integrations of international hospitality standards with Huizhou architectural heritage in modern China. This case study examines how the resort achieved this synthesis and what lessons it offers for heritage-sensitive tourism development.
Case Overview: Club Med Dongyu Island Huangshan opened in 2018 as a 612-room resort on Dongyu Island in Taiping Lake, 40 minutes from Huangshan (Yellow Mountains). The resort’s architecture draws directly from Huizhou village design language — horse-head walls, whitewashed facades, black-tiled roofs, and skywell-inspired atriums — while meeting international luxury hospitality standards. Occupancy rates averaged 78% in 2023, 8 percentage points above the Club Med China average, suggesting that the Huizhou-inspired design has genuine market appeal.
The Development Context
Why Huangshan? The Site Selection Logic
Club Med’s expansion strategy in China has focused on destinations with strong tourism draw, accessible infrastructure, and space for the brand’s characteristic large-format resorts (typically 400–700 rooms). Huangshan meets all three criteria. The Yellow Mountains receive over 30 million visitors annually, making it one of China’s top 15 tourist destinations. The 2015 opening of Huangshan North Station on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed rail line reduced travel time from Shanghai to 3 hours and from Beijing to 4.5 hours, dramatically expanding the accessible market. Taiping Lake, the largest artificial lake in Anhui, provides waterfront development opportunities rare in this mountainous province.
However, the site selection came with design constraints. Dongyu Island falls within the scenic buffer zone of the Mount Huangshan UNESCO World Heritage Site and the broader “Southern Anhui Ancient Villages” protected region. Any development required approval from the Anhui Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, with specific guidelines on building height (maximum 24 meters), roofline design, and exterior materials. These constraints, initially seen as regulatory hurdles, became the foundation of the resort’s architectural identity.
Architectural Integration: From Huizhou Villages to Resort Design
The Horse-Head Wall (Matouqiang) Motif
The most visible Huizhou architectural element in the resort is the repeated use of the matouqiang — the stepped, upward-curving fire walls that define the silhouette of Xidi and Hongcun. The resort’s main building, which houses the reception, restaurant, and entertainment facilities, features a six-tiered horse-head wall structure that rises 18 meters from the lakeshore. Unlike the functional fire walls of Ming dynasty villages, this modern interpretation uses reinforced concrete with a white lime-wash finish. The design team from Atelier Deshaus (Shanghai) studied 14 Huizhou ancestral halls and 23 residential compounds before developing the final facade design.
The effect is striking: from across Taiping Lake, the resort reads not as a generic international hotel but as an extension of the Huizhou architectural tradition. The stepped gables echo the mountain peaks behind them, creating a visual conversation between built environment and natural landscape that is fundamental to Huizhou design philosophy. Local officials praised the integration, noting that the resort “does not compete with the landscape but completes it.”
The Skywell (Tianjing) Atrium
Perhaps the most successful architectural translation is the resort’s central atrium, which reinterprets the Huizhou skywell (tianjing) — the small open courtyard at the center of traditional homes that provides light, ventilation, and water collection. In Club Med’s version, the skywell becomes a four-story glass-enclosed atrium (1,200 square meters) that serves as the resort’s social heart. A traditional Huizhou water channel crosses the marble floor, carrying water from a small fountain at the east end to a reflecting pool at the west, mirroring the village water systems of Hongcun.
The atrium’s design temperature regulation — cool in summer, warm in winter — mimics the passive environmental control of traditional skywells. In summer, the channel water and natural ventilation reduce the need for air conditioning in adjacent public areas by an estimated 18%, contributing to the resort’s Green Building Design Label certification. The atrium also functions as a rainwater collection system, channeling roof runoff to an underground cistern that supplies the resort’s irrigation needs for landscaping.
Cultural Programming: Beyond Architecture
The Huizhou Cultural Immersion Program
Club Med Huangshan goes beyond architectural referencing to offer genuine cultural programming. The resort’s “Huizhou Discovery” package, launched in 2019, includes:
- Daily village tours: Complimentary guided trips to Xidi and Hongcun led by bilingual guides from the Anhui University cultural heritage program
- Inkstone carving workshop: A hands-on session with Shexian inkstone artisans who set up a permanent studio in the resort’s craft center
- Huizhou tea ceremony: Daily Keemun tea tastings in a dedicated tea room designed as a replica of a Ming dynasty scholar’s study
- Architecture walking tour: A resort-based tour explaining the Huizhou design elements incorporated into the buildings, led by the property’s in-house cultural curator
- Local cuisine classes: Huizhou cooking demonstrations featuring signature dishes like stinky tofu (choudoufu), bamboo shoot braised pork, and Huangshan braised pigeon
The program has been remarkably successful. Post-stay surveys report that 72% of international guests and 58% of domestic guests “significantly increased their interest in visiting Huizhou villages” after participating. The resort reports a 34% guest uptake on the complimentary village tour, with an additional 12% opting for the paid extended tour that includes a calligraphy workshop and a farmhouse lunch.
Economic and Community Impact
Local Employment and Supply Chain
The resort’s integration with the local economy extends well beyond design. Club Med Huangshan employs 420 staff, of whom 78% are Anhui Province residents and 45% come from Yixian County (where Xidi and Hongcun are located). The resort has invested RMB 800,000 in Mandarin-language and hospitality training programs at Huangshan University, creating a pipeline of locally trained talent.
The supply chain impact is equally significant:
- Fresh produce sourcing: 62% of the resort’s vegetables and 40% of its pork come from farms within 50 kilometers
- Heritage crafts procurement: The resort purchases approximately RMB 1.5 million annually in local crafts for guest rooms and gift shops — inkstones, bamboo products, Xuan paper, and Huizhou woodcarvings
- Cultural performer contracts: Local Huizhou opera troupes and folk musicians are contracted for weekly performances, earning RMB 5,000–8,000 per performance
Economic Impact Data (2023)
Total annual revenue: RMB 420 million (US$58 million)
Local procurement spend: RMB 48 million (US$6.6 million)
Direct employment: 420 staff (78% Anhui residents)
Indirect tourism spillover: Estimated 15–20% increase in Xidi/Hongcun visits from resort guests
Tax contribution to Yixian County: RMB 18.5 million (US$2.6 million)
Challenges and Criticisms
Not all feedback has been positive. Architectural critics have raised several concerns:
- Scale dissonance: Despite the Huizhou detailing, a 612-room resort is inherently massive. Some visitors report that the scale overwhelms the traditional design elements, which read as “costume” rather than genuine architecture
- Cultural commodification: Local heritage advocates have expressed concern that the resort’s cultural programming, while well-intentioned, simplifies and packages Huizhou culture for tourist consumption, potentially reducing interest in the “real” villages
- Water usage: The resort’s water consumption (estimated 350 liters per guest per night) contrasts with traditional Huizhou villages’ water-conservation ethic. The resort has responded with a greywater recycling system installed in 2021 that reduced freshwater draw by 25%
- Authenticity debate: Some architecture critics argue that the resort fetishizes Huizhou visual elements (horse-head walls, white wash) while ignoring the spatial logic and social structures that gave them meaning in traditional villages
Lessons for Heritage-Sensitive Resort Development
The Club Med Dongyu Island Huangshan case offers several transferable lessons for international hospitality brands developing in heritage-rich regions of China:
1. Regulation as Design Driver
Rather than resisting the UNESCO buffer zone restrictions, Club Med’s design team used them as creative constraints. The height limit forced a horizontal rather than vertical expansion, which actually suited the Huizhou village aesthetic better than a high-rise tower would have. The roofline regulations produced the signature stepped-gable silhouette that now defines the resort’s brand identity in marketing materials.
2. Depth of Cultural Integration Matters
Resorts that limit their cultural engagement to surface-level decoration (Chinese characters in the lobby, a few landscape paintings) miss the opportunity for genuine differentiation. Club Med’s investment in a full-time cultural curator, a dedicated craft studio, and meaningful local partnerships created programs that guests actually value and remember. The resort’s Net Promoter Score of +48 (vs. the Club Med China average of +38) correlates strongly with guest participation in cultural programs.
3. Local Economic Integration Reduces Risk
By building a local supply chain and investing in workforce training, Club Med created a constituency of local stakeholders who support the resort’s operations. When COVID-19 temporarily closed the resort in 2020, the Yixian County government proactively accelerated the resort’s property tax deferment application, citing its “strategic importance to county cultural tourism development.” This local support would not have materialized without the deep economic integration achieved in the resort’s first two years of operation.
4. Authenticity is a Spectrum, Not a Binary
The resort is not an authentic Huizhou village — it is not trying to be. But it offers what traditional villages cannot: accessibility. Foreign tourists who would never consider navigating Chinese rural transportation, language barriers, and unfamiliar accommodation standards can experience Huizhou architectural aesthetics in a controlled, comfortable environment. For many, this resort visit becomes the gateway to visiting real Huizhou villages on their next trip. The data supports this: 28% of international guests who take the resort’s cultural programming return to Anhui for a dedicated heritage trip within two years.
Conclusion: The Template for Heritage-Informed Hospitality
Key Takeaways for Tourism Developers
Club Med Dongyu Island Huangshan demonstrates that international hospitality standards and local heritage authenticity can coexist — but only with deliberate, well-funded integration efforts. The resort succeeded where similar projects have failed by committing to cultural depth at every level, from architectural design to staff training to supply chain development.
For other regions considering heritage-sensitive tourism development, the key metric is not whether a resort “looks Huizhou” but whether it functions as a gateway to genuine heritage experiences. By this measure, Club Med’s first Anhui resort is a clear success. It has introduced hundreds of thousands of international visitors to Huizhou culture, generated measurable economic benefits for surrounding communities, and demonstrated that heritage-inspired architecture can be commercially viable at scale.
The next challenge — already under discussion at Club Med’s regional headquarters — is whether this model can be replicated in other Chinese heritage regions such as Fujian’s tulou, Yunnan’s ancient towns, or the Grand Canal corridor. If the Huangshan case is any guide, the answer depends less on architectural style and more on the depth of commitment to meaningful cultural integration. Surface-level design is easy; the hard work of building genuine cultural connections, training local talent, and creating economic value for heritage communities is what separates a successful heritage-inspired resort from a merely decorated one.