Charm in China
Charm in China
by Les Turner
by Les Turner
There are few things I like better than arriving at a foreign destination I have never visited before. For me, it is like being invited to enter a treasure trove, where there are untold gems to discover. When my husband announced that he had business meetings in Xiamen, China, after attending a conference in Hong Kong, I was immediately interested. "I think I will go with you," I said. "You don't even know where it is, let alone what you can do there," he replied jokingly. My response was to get out my well-thumbed world atlas and find it.
I discovered that Xiamen was located in Fujian, a coastal province in South East China. The province's major cities include Quanzhou, Fuzhou and Zhangzhou. The reason why my husband was heading there was soon evident – Xiamen is one of China’s special economic zones and business is booming. Tourist information seemed scarce – all I could find was that the biggest attraction was Gulangyu Island, a car-free colonial outpost, and that the city was recently voted the cleanest in China. That was enough to convince me, so I set about planning my trip.
Three weeks later, we were in a suite at the fabulous Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. One of the perks of being on a business trip is that we get to stay in the very best hotels. Certainly, "the Pen" is among the top hotels in the world. I decided to travel to Xiamen by passenger ship, while my husband caught a flight so that he could complete his business deals before I arrived.
I loved the trip on board the Wasa Queen and spent 17 hours of solitude in my spacious cabin, only venturing out on deck occasionally to scan the shoreline. There were two restaurants and a casino on board for the more adventurous. Unfortunately, mine was one of the last trips on this route and this service has now been discontinued, which is a real shame.
My husband surprised me at Xiamen harbour and he had a car waiting to take us to the Mandarin Hotel. Instead of the skyscraper design favoured by most other hotels in town, the Mandarin resembles a small village of villas and pavilions. I loved our suite, but was even more impressed by the leisure facilities. It has indoor and outdoor pools, squash courts, a sauna and a jogging track.
I considered opting for a massage, but my husband was eager to dine at a restaurant that everyone in Xiamen raves about. The Shuyou Seafood Restaurant is one of the few excellent independent eateries in Xiamen, the others mostly found in hotels. It is famous for its impeccable service and, as the name suggests, it specialises in fresh seafood cooked in the Cantonese and Fujian styles.
My husband opted to try one of the most famous Fujian dishes, called Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (so named because even the Buddha would jump over a wall to eat it once he smelled it). A mixture of seafood, chicken, duck, and pork is put into a rice-wine jar and simmered over a low fire. I chose another traditional favourite, sea mussels quick-boiled in chicken soup. We both loved our meals.
The next day I started my explorations early, taking a walk through the tiny streets of the Old Town. The main street is filled with shops, old and new. However, many of the side streets have not changed in decades, consisting of rows of shop houses, their colonnades covering the sidewalks. I wandered through this labyrinth of lanes and found myself looking up to see hints of Art Deco and other European influences in the buildings. It made sense later, when I discovered that Xiamen was one of the first treaty ports to be opened to foreigners after the First Opium War.
This is even more apparent on Gulangyu Island, situated a short distance across the bay. Foreign traders moved to this island in 1842 and built villas, sanitation systems, consulates, schools, churches, hospitals and roads that still remain today. The old British Embassy building still stands on one of the hills and there are two hundred-year old churches on the island, one Catholic and one Protestant.
To get to Gulangyu, we boarded a ferry for the short ride. A fellow traveller gave us some tips on how best to enjoy the island. Following his advice, we avoided the new European-style buildings at the port housing shops and restaurants (including a McDonald’s) and headed for the small maze of streets behind full of simple seafood restaurants with catches out front in buckets. I discovered that the no-vehicle rule had been adapted – motorised karts now take tourists around. However, we preferred to walk.
We visited a museum of ancient coins and a piano museum, but lingered longest in the City Museum, which has fascinating material from the Opium War and the Japanese occupation and we even spent an hour relaxing on a surprisingly clean beach. However, the real attractions on the island are the many beautiful villas with their delicate gardens.
These mansions represent many foreign architectural styles, especially the Portuguese types still prevalent in Macau. The most impressive of the mansions was Fujian Lu 31 - a vast porticoed mansion built in 1928 by a Vietnamese-Chinese real estate tycoon. The mansion later served as a hospital during the Japanese occupation of World War II, and today is used by the local university.
The next day, our last in Xiamen, I returned to Gulangyu Island. This time I took a motorboat tour around the island, viewing it from the sea. I looked back at the city and acknowledged that it possessed a great deal of charm. Certainly, the local people are among the friendliest we have met on our travels it China. While Xiamen has the facilities and manifestations of a major city, it still manages to maintain the allure and charisma of a vacation resort. That is a great combination.
To read other articles about China, go to our archive
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