Xiamen, the Island City of Fujian

Xiamen sits on the Fujian coast with the manners of an island city: sea breeze in the banyan trees, ferries crossing to **Gulangyu** every few minutes, and a skyline that stops politely at the water. Gulangyu itself is car-free and UNESCO-listed, a square kilometre of former consulates, missionary villas and Amoy Deco mansions gone soft at the edges with bougainvillea. Walk up **Sunlight Rock** for the whole harbour at once, then lose the crowds in the lanes behind Longtou Road, where a piano is almost always audible through a shutter — the island has more pianos per household than anywhere in China, and a museum full of them. Back on the main island, **Nanputuo Temple** burns incense at the foot of Wulao Peak, its vegetarian restaurant as much a draw as its halls, and the campus of Xiamen University next door is still counted among the prettiest in the country. The old town around **Zhongshan Road** keeps its arcaded qilou shopfronts, and the southern ring road runs past Hulishan Fortress to the sand at Zengcuo'an, a fishing village turned guesthouse quarter. Eat as locals do: *oyster omelette slick with sweet-potato starch*, satay noodles in a peanut-and-chilli broth brought home by Southeast Asian returnees, ginger duck, and an unhurried gongfu session with Anxi tieguanyin tea. Xiamen is also the natural base for the **Hakka tulou** of southwest Fujian, the great rammed-earth roundhouses two hours inland. Spring and autumn are kindest; summer brings typhoon-season heat. It slots easily into a wider journey through southern China.