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, under two square kilometres 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.