Though I’ve been to Xiamen before and toured around the charming Gulang Island, my recent trip to see the Taiwanese Kinmen islands – just a ferry ride from Xiamen – gave me an opportunity for a brief revisit. Though it’s

Beautiful Xiamen : Trip Summary & Suggested Itinerary
Xiamen was a very pleasant surprise. It’s not too crowded, quite tourist friendly, very well developed, and has a special charm which combines the scenic beauty of a coastal city with lots of colonial and regional history. To summarize

Around Gulang Island : Xiamen
Gulang Island is gorgeous. I think it’s one of the nicest places I’ve visited in mainland. To summarize the Gulang island and Xiamen experience, following are photos I took around the island … Previous posts on Gulang Yu :

The Houses of Gulang Yu : Xiamen
Want a taste of Europe in China? Gulang Island has just the thing. Though the island has suffered from the ongoing rampage of China’s 20th century political turmoil it still maintains what I believe is among the best selection of

Shuzhuang Garden : Gulang Yu Xiamen
There are many small treasures and hidden gems in the lovely Gulang island in Xiamen. One of the attractions is Shuzhuang Garden, which is an extension of a villa once owned by a Taiwanese businessmen and has some pseudo classical

Haoyue Park – Zheng Cheng Gong : Gulang Yu Xiamen
I know a thing or two about Zheng Cheng Gong (鄭成功 o Koxinga) and it mainly has to do with the time I spent in Tainan-Taiwan where Cheng Gong is considered somewhat of a local hero for driving away the

Hulishan Fortress : Xiamen
Being the lovely and prosperous coastal Chinese town that it is, Xiamen naturally has some strategic significance and that obviously lends to some interesting history. There’s not much available in English on Xiamen’s role in many of the conflicts China

Local Street Food : Gulangyu Island – Xiamen
If you’re looking for some terrific Chinese snacks, then you’ll enjoy wondering around Xiamen’s Gulang Yu. In the two days that I’ve visited the island I’ve enjoyed an endless variety of local snacks that were absolutely delicious. As you

Driving Around Beautiful Xiamen
On my last day in Xiamen I was lucky to meet with a local who was sweet to take me for a drive-through tour of Xiamen. It was really what I would consider a five star tour. We drove around

Guanyinshan Sand Sculptures Cultural Park : Xiamen – Golden Beach
Facing the Taiwanese islands of Jinmen, Golden Beach in Xiamen offers a new relatively unique attraction – a sand sculptures park Guanyinshan. With 120000sqm it’s considered one of "Asia’s largest", a bit bigger than the sand sculpture festival I previously