Xiamen Travel Guide 2023

Gulangyu Island (鼓浪屿) is a lovely island that within just a short ferry ride for about 7~20 minutes from the ports in Xiamen downtown. It is also a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site that is mainly famous for its coastal beauty, colonial style architectures and a myriad of interesting museums, like piano museum, organ museum, etc. Bright sunlight, pleasant beaches, interesting buildings and museums and exquisite gardens, Gulangyu Island can fulfill all your dreams for a vacation!

South Putuo Temple (南普陀寺), or called Nanputuo Temple, is adjacent to Xiamen University. It is located south of Mount Putuo in Zhejiang Province, hence the name. This temple is a sacred pilgrimage site for Fujian people and also dedicated Buddhist followers from Southeast Asia. It also has an amazing vegetarian restaurant, which allows you dinning with the monks. At the back of the temple lies Wulao Peak (Five-old Peak), where you can take a hike and have a broad panorama view of Xiamen.

Xiamen Botanical Garden (厦门园林植物园), also known as Wanshi Botanical Garden, is a big and beautiful garden that shares the border with Xiamen University. It is even the first Botanical Garden in the whole Fujian Province. At Xiamen Botanical Garden, you will find thousands kinds of lovely flowers, cactus and other plants, grotesque rocks, and also groups of locals coming for relax and picnic. It is a good place for leisure walking, especially for the visitors travelling with children.

Xiamen Huandao Road (环岛路) refers to the road sections that set along the coastal of Xiamen. This road measures about 43 kilometers in total, and its most popular part starts from Xiamen University to the Old Convention and Exhibition Center, which is called the "Golden Coastline". Huandao Road is the best place for cycling in Xiamen, and it shows the best sea view and some of the best beaches to the visitors. Hulishan Fortress, a historical landmark, is also there.

Fujian Tulou clusters are actually located in Zhangzhou City of Fujian Province instead of Xiamen. However, most of its tourists prefer to get there from Xiamen. Fujian has three main Tulou sites, while the hottest one is Nanjing Tulou (南靖土楼), which has the densest and the most unique Tulou buildings, including famous "Four Dishes and One Soup" (magical four circle-like Tulou surrounded a square Tulou), the "Tilting Tulou" with its wooden columns tilting in breathtaking degrees...

Yongding Tulou clusters (永定土楼) are only about 20 km and 40 minutes from Nanjing Tulou and 163km and 2.5~3 hours from Xiamen by car. Compared with Nanjing Tulou, the sightseeing areas of Yongding Tulou are more distributed. The most popular Tulou clusters there include its main tourist area with famous Zhencheng Building (the King of Fujian Tulou), Gaobei Tulou with Chengqi Building (another famous Tulou that once printed on stamps in China), Nanxi Tulou, Chuxi Tulou, etc.

Foodies and shopping lovers must like Xiamen Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street (中山路步行街) very much. This lively street offers almost everything you want, including a wide array of local snacks, souvenirs, clothes, jewels, etc. Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street is suitable to be visited during both day and night. Most of its shops won’t be closed until 10:00 pm. There are also shops and restaurants that offer service until 3:00am and even 4:00am.

Xiamen Riyuegu Hot Spring Resort (厦门日月谷温泉度假村) is 1 hour or so from Xiamen downtown by car. This resort is a sanctuary with luxury hotels, hot springs, swimming pools, restaurants, etc. It offers about 40 kinds of hot springs for its visitors to relax themselves, including the ones flavored with herbs, fruits, flowers, etc. It is said the water of its hot springs is rich in a large number of microelements beneficial to blood circulation, disease prevention, tiredness killing...

A Xiamen tour without the visit to Gulangyu Island is far from enough. Only half day or so is enough to explore this small island. During the half day tour, you will not only be rewarded with somewhat the best coastal scenery in China and also get a glimpse of Chinese history over the past 100 years. Highlights of Gulangyu Island include Sunlight Rock, Shuzhuang Garden, Piano Museum, Organ Museum, Haoyue Garden, etc.

Bright sunlight and fascinating beach are the musts for a holiday to a tourist destination rich in islands. And in Xiamen, you will never miss these wonders. There are many beaches for you to choose, including Baicheng Beach, Huangcuo Beach, Huizhan Beach, etc. on the coastal of Xiamen Island, and Meihua Beach and Junru Beach, etc. on Gulangyu Island. All of them will meet your needs and dreams for a beach tour!

Imagine cycling and laughing with your friends along the beautiful sea, with gentle breeze and warm sunshine kissing your face, isn’t it just a holiday should be? Xiamen Huandao Road, especially the southeastern part, is a wonderful place for such a happy cycling tour! Besides the great cycling experience, this road also gathers some historic relics in Xiamen, which will introduce you more history of this city!

In such a coastal city like Xiamen, it is really much easier to get fresh sea products, like oyster, fish, shrimp and so on. Plus the superb cooking skill of the locals, visitors can have a taste of somewhat the most delicious snacks and dishes of seafood in Xiamen, including Oyster Omelette, Fish Ball Soup, Shrimp Noodles, Oyster Porridge… If you like, you can also follow the locals to visit The Eighth Seafood Market to know more secretes of Xiamen food.

Xiamen is also a good place to have a golf holiday. This popular tourist city enjoys a pleasant weather all year around, which creates great weather conditions for golf games. Besides that, the contrast of beautiful natural costal beauty and modern city view of Xiamen also make it a unique experience to play golf there. Golf courses in Xiamen are a lot, and the most popular ones are Xiamen Orient Golf Country Club, KaiKou Golf Club, etc.

Tulou clusters, also known as Hakka Houses and Earthen Buildings, are the homes of the local Hakka people. These buildings feature unique round and square shape and huge size. They are the world's unique mythical mountain village residential architectures that everyone there should pay a close visit to. Most of the tourists prefer to visit Fujian Tulou from Xiamen, which only takes for about 2.5~3.5 hours from Xiamen by driving.

Xiapu Mudflat ranks in the top 10 scenic spots for nature photography in China. Instead of always-the-same beauty, the scenery in Xiapu Mudflat is ever-changing with sun, tidal and also human activities. Tiger-striped beaches, rows of bamboo structures and poles, colorful water with lingering light of the setting sun… Everything is worthy to be kept by your camera! From Xiamen, you can get to Xiapu Mudflat in only 3 hours by bullet train.

Wuyi Mountain is a sacred World Cultural and Natural Heritage that mainly famous for its beautiful Danxai Landform, precious cultural relics of over 2,000 years and black tea culture. In Wuyi Mountain, you can enjoy bamboo rafting, hiking, tea tasting, etc. Also, there is a large-scale live performance with the real Wuyishan scenery as backdrop. From Xiamen, you can get to this sacred site in about 4~4.5 hours by bullet train.