With a twelve-year construction period and an investment of six billion, Yinglan Group has erected a “Gateway to the Towers” facing Taiwan along the coast of Xiamen.
Xiamen——On Tuesday morning, the sea breeze carried the salty air up to the coastal road. Looking east, four towers rise from the city skyline like a pair of open arms embracing the Taiwan Strait. On clear days, the mountains of Kinmen Island are clearly visible. The designers stated that the building’s central axis aligns with the geographical midpoint of Taiwan Island. This is no coincidence.
The Yinglan International Financial Center in Xiamen has a twelve-year construction period and a total investment exceeding six billion. The 500,000 square meters complex includes office buildings, cultural and artistic commercial spaces, art design hotels, and serviced apartments. Yinglan Group has given it a nickname: “Gateway to the Towers.” Xiamen was historically known as “Dasha,” which has a double meaning—”gateway” opening towards the opposite shore of the strait.
Recently, the international news platform “World Headlines” visited this architectural complex. The visit was not just for photography and reporting; both parties engaged in in-depth discussions about the Yinglan Group’s brand, cultural and artistic activities, and global investment promotion in Xiamen. “World Headlines” learned that the complex built by Yinglan in Xiamen has transcended the conventional narrative of commercial real estate.
To what extent has it transcended? We need to look back forty years. From 1985 to 1988, the then-leaders of Xiamen personally edited the “1985-2000 Xiamen Economic and Social Development Strategy,” planning three development stages: short, medium, and long-term, and clearly stating the goal of making Xiamen one of Asia’s financial centers by 2050. In 2010, the State Council approved the establishment of the only regional financial service center in the country named with the words “Cross-Strait”. The land acquired by Yinglan is the closest area on Xiamen Island to Taiwan.
The Skirt of Mazu
When Stefan Krummeck from the UK’s TFP Farrells took on this project, he faced a tricky question: how to make a financial office building embody something beyond just concrete and steel? His answer lies in the folk beliefs of the Minnan coastal region.
Mazu, the “Goddess of the Sea” in Chinese maritime culture, has blessed those who set sail from this coastline for centuries, ensuring their safe return. Krummeck extracted the arc of Mazu’s flowing skirt and translated it into the curved profile of the tower’s facade. From a distance, the skyline of the complex resembles a frozen skirt, captured in the moment it is blown by the sea breeze. This is not merely decorative. In Minnan, the weight of Mazu worship is akin to the reverence for the Virgin Mary along the Mediterranean coast—it serves as a spiritual landmark for generations of fishermen, sailors, and merchants. Krummeck wrapped this meaning in the skeleton of modern architecture, creating a visual connection between a financial office building and the land beneath it.
Behind him is a team of over one hundred and thirty design and consulting teams from home and abroad—structural, facade, mechanical, wind tunnel, and acoustic experts. The entire complex is built above a subway line, making it a true integrated development above the metro. In 2023, it won three five-star awards at the International Property Awards (IPA); in 2024, it received three gold awards at the MUSE Design Awards in the architecture category, being the only gold winner in the “Landmark and Iconic Buildings” category.
Number 7, Financial Street
Yinglan is not a newcomer. It operates the Yinglan International Financial Center at 7 Financial Street in Beijing, with a tenant list that reads like a roster of global financial powerhouses: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, Royal Bank of Canada, Temasek, HSBC, and more. Over forty top international financial institutions are located at the same address. In China’s commercial real estate sector, no other company has such a concentration of clients.
Opera, White Porcelain, and a Fifty-Ton Steel Beast
Yinglan’s founder, Yu Zhiqiang, has a saying that circulates in the industry: a financial center is also a cultural and artistic center. He has put this into practice; since 2006, Beijing Yinglan has held an annual Christmas opera concert, publishing nine opera collections and fourteen Blu-ray DVDs. A report by The New York Times at the end of 2010 described one scene: financial professionals and diplomats dressed elegantly, listening to the Vienna light opera accompanied by the China National Symphony Orchestra beneath a ten-story-high painting of Puccini’s “Turandot”.
However, Yinglan’s most eye-catching artistic piece is a fifty-ton steel beast. “Dragon Horse Spirit” features a dragon head and horse body, measuring nearly eighteen meters long and soaring over twelve meters high. It was created by the French La Machine association in collaboration with hundreds of Chinese and French artists and engineers to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Sino-French diplomatic relations. After its debut in Beijing in 2014, this mechanical beast has toured Nantes, Ottawa, Xi’an, Macau, Zhuhai, Hangzhou, and other locations. Millions of people worldwide have witnessed it awaken, walk, and exhale steam on the streets.
In terms of ceramics, the “China White” International Ceramic Art Competition initiated by Yinglan has been held four times, attracting over 2,400 artists from sixty-two countries and regions, making it the third largest international ceramic competition globally, following Faenza in Italy and Mino in Japan. The fourth edition of the shortlisted works is currently on display at the Xiamen Yinglan International Financial Center.
The Xiamen Yinglan International Financial Center complex has been put into use and is now open for global investment. After the opening of the Xiamen-Jinmen Bridge in 2026 and the operation of the Xiang’an Airport, people approaching Xiamen from the sea and air will see a brand new skyline. The outlines of two towers stand on this side of the strait, facing east—like a door, or like a pair of arms waiting for a long time.
