Xiamen for foreigners

Xiamen is a coastal Fujian city defined by its 2-sq-km island, Gulangyu (鼓浪屿), just a 7-minute ferry ride from the main waterfront. Gulangyu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2017) and the only district in China with no motor vehicles — deliveries arrive by ferry, hauled on handcarts. The result is an almost European pace of life: cobblestone lanes, piano music drifting from shopfronts (the island has China’s highest density of pianos), and 19th-century colonial architecture from the era when Xiamen was a treaty port. Beyond Gulangyu, Xiamen has the Nanputuo Temple (1,000-year-old Buddhist complex on the main waterfront) and is the gateway to the Fujian Tulou — the iconic round earthen buildings of the Hakka people, 2-3 hours by car in the inland mountains.