XIAMEN , traditionally known in the West as Amoy , is one of China's most tourist-friendly cities. Located until the mid-1950s on an offshore island, it is now joined to the mainland by a five-kilometre-long causeway, and its streets and buildings, attractive shopping arcades and bustling seafront have a nineteenth-century European flavour. Smaller and much prettier than the provincial capital Fuzhou, and with a lot more to see, it is in addition the cleanest and, perhaps, most tastefully renovated city you'll see anywhere in the country, giving it the feel of a holiday resort, despite the occasional seedy, fishy backstreet redolent of old Macau. Compounding the resort atmosphere is the wonderful little island of Gulangyu , a ten-minute ferry ride to the southwest, the old colonial home of Europeans and Japanese whose decaying mansions still line the island's traffic-free streets. Gulangyu has some great hotels and staying on the island is highly recommended.
As is the case with many of China's ports, Xiamen has a relatively short but interesting history. It was founded in the mid-fourteenth century and grew in stature under the Ming dynasty, becoming a thriving port by the seventeenth century, influenced by a steady and rather secretive succession of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch fortune-hunters. When invading Manchu armies poured down from the north in the seventeenth century, driving out the Ming, Xiamen became a centre of resistance for the old regime. The pirate and self-styled Prince Koxinga (also known as Zheng Chenggong ), heavily romanticized by later writers, led the resistance before being driven out to set up his last stronghold in Taiwan where he eventually died, before Taiwan too was captured by the Manchus.
A couple of hundred years later the British arrived, increasing trade and establishing their nerve centre on the nearby island of Gulangyu; the manoeuvre was formalized with the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. By the turn of the century, Xiamen, with its off-shore foreigners, had become a relatively prosperous community, supported partly by a steady turnover in trade and by the trickle of wealth back from the city's emigrants, who over the centuries had continued to swell in numbers. This happy state of affairs continued until the Japanese invasion at the beginning of World War II.
The end of the war did not bring with it a return to the good old days, however. The arrival of the Communists in 1949, and the final escape to Taiwan by Chiang Kaishek with the remains of his Nationalist armies, saw total chaos around Xiamen, with thousands of people streaming to escape the Communist advance in boats across the straits. In the following years the threat of war was constant, as mainland armies manoeuvred in preparation for the final assault on Taiwan, and more immediately, on the smaller islands of Jinmen and Mazu (known to the West as Quemoy and Matsu) which lie only just off the mainland, within sight of Xiamen.
Today the wheel of history has come full circle. Although Jinmen and Mazu are still in the hands of the Nationalists, the threat of conflict with Taiwan has been replaced by the promise of colossal economic advantage. In the early 1980s Xiamen was declared one of China's first Special Economic Zones and, like Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong, the city has entered a period of unprecedented boom.
The City
The main pleasure in Xiamen, apart from visiting Gulangyu Island, is simply walking the streets of the old city. Starting from the Siming and Zhongshan Lu intersection, you'll be amazed at the juxtaposition of turn-of-the-century facades and clean orderly streets, pavements and shops. At the western end of Zhongshan Lu, where the seafront opens up, you'll see the island of Gulangyu right in front, across the water. Just south of Zhongshan Lu, on the waterfront, is a kiosk organizing boat trips, the most fascinating of which circumnavigates the Nationalist island of Jinmen (Sat & Sun; ¥80 per person) - for good views of the Guomindang front line, bring binoculars.
Southeast and east from the town centre there's a thin scattering of tourist sights. On Siming Nan Lu, about 2km south of Zhongshan Lu, you'll find the Overseas Chinese Museum (daily 9am-4.30pm; ¥6), accessible on buses #1 and #2. This houses collections presented by the huge Fujianese diaspora around the world, including pottery and some exceptional bronzes going back as far as the Shang dynasty, three thousand years ago. On the ground floor is an interesting display of paintings, photographs and relics depicting the life of Chinese people abroad over the centuries.
Another kilometre farther southeast (bus #1 to Xiada, Xiamen University) is the Nanputuo Si (daily 8am-5pm; ¥3), a temple built more than a thousand years ago on the southern slopes of Wulao Shan. This is one of China's most organized, modern-looking Buddhist temples, its roofs a gaudy jumble of flying dragons, human figures and multicoloured flowers, and containing among its collection of treasures a set of tablets carved by resistance fighters at the time of the early Qing, recording Manchu atrocities. Inside the main hall, behind the Maitreya Buddha, is a statue of Wei Tuo, the deity responsible for Buddhist doctrine, who holds a stick pointing to the ground - a sign which means the monastery is a rich one and can provide board and lodging for itinerants. The temple today is very active and has a vegetarian restaurant .
Immediately south of Nanputuo stands Xiamen University . From here you can cut through to Daxue Lu, the coastal road, which runs past attractive sandy beaches. A kilometre or so southwest brings you to Huli Shan Pao Tai (Huli Mountain Cannon Platform), at the terminus of bus #2. This nineteenth-century hunk of German heavy artillery had a range of 10,000 metres and was used during the Qing dynasty to fend off foreign imperialists. You can rent binoculars here to look across to the Nationalist-held island of Jinmen , which lies less than 20km to the west. Until 1984, because of the close proximity of Taiwan, this whole area was out of bounds, and the beaches were under a dusk-till-dawn curfew.
A lengthy hike from Nanputuo (at least two hours) takes you from inside the temple grounds, up and over the forested Wulao Shan behind the temple - otherwise, catch #bus 17 from the little street outside Nanputuo's entrance. Either way, you'll arrive at Wanshi Botanical Gardens (daily 6.30am-6.30pm; ¥5), where a stock of four thousand varieties of plant life includes a redwood tree brought here by President Nixon on his official visit to China. From the botanical gardens' north (main) gate, you cross a rail line to reach the Revolutionary Martyrs' Memorial, about 1.5km west of the town centre, near the #4 bus route. Southwest of here, along the rail line, is the Huxiyan (Tiger Stream Rock) on your right, built up high on a rocky hillside. If you climb up you'll find a great little temple nestling here amid a pile of huge boulders, and you can actually slip through a cave to one side and climb rock-hewn steps to the top of the largest boulder. A second small temple, called Bailu Dong (White Deer Cave), commands spectacular views over the town and the sea.
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