Experience the best of Xiamen

Xiamen occupies an island and a stretch of mainland shore in Fujian province, close to the Taiwan Strait, and was one of the first Chinese ports opened to foreign trade in the nineteenth century. Its mild climate and tree-lined streets set it apart from the bigger cities of the south. Gulangyu, a small island a short ferry ride away, has no cars and holds colonial-era villas, church spires, a piano museum and winding lanes.

Nanputuo Temple, with its Buddhist halls climbing a hillside, sits beside the campus of Xiamen University, whose buildings pair Chinese roofs with Western walls. Huandao Road follows the southern shore for kilometres between beaches and parks, and Hulishan Fortress guards a headland with a huge nineteenth-century gun. Inland, the round earthen tulou of Fujian, communal homes of rammed earth that are World Heritage sites, make a long day trip.

The food is Minnan seafood: oyster omelettes, peanut soup, sand-worm jelly and shacha noodles in a thick, savoury broth. Tieguanyin tea from Anxi, inland, is poured in the city's teahouses, and the sea air is mildest in spring and autumn.