XIAMEN

We gather in Xiamen for an evening that introduces you to this city's singular food culture. Our welcome dinner is a seafood feast featuring the fresh catch that defines this maritime city, where oysters, clams, fish, and shellfish come straight from the sea to your table. The atmosphere captures everything authentic about Xiamen dining: bustling, unpretentious, and utterly delicious. For those arriving early, there's time to explore on your own. Wander the pedestrian streets of Zhongshan Road for street snacks and shopping, or stroll along the waterfront to watch the ferries crossing to Gulangyu Island.

Included: Dinner, Accommodation

Our day begins at Bashi (Eighth Market), navigating the two connected markets where Xiamen's food culture lives and breathes. We'll hunt down vendors who have specialised over generations — like the 60-year-old hand-torn chicken stall, the five-spice roll master whose crispy creations have attracted lines for decades, the deluxe taro bun stuffed with scallops and abalone. You’ll eat like locals eat, moving from stall to stall, sampling as the morning unfolds. By afternoon, we ferry to Gulangyu Island, the curious UNESCO World Heritage Site where 13 nations once maintained consulates and Chinese nationals returning from overseas built mansions blending Western forms with Chinese sensibilities. We're staying overnight so we can avoid the day-trippers who flood the island from 9 AM to 5 PM, giving us the quiet evening streets and early morning light to ourselves, experiencing the island as it actually is, not as a crowded attraction. Dinner showcases more Hokkien specialties before we wander lanes emptied of crowds, the architecture glowing in the evening light.

Included: Breakfast, Market tour and snacks, Ferry, Gulangyu entry, Dinner, Accommodation

We wake to Gulangyu's morning stillness before the first ferry arrives, photographing architecture in soft light, watching residents begin their day. By mid-morning we return to mainland Xiamen, heading first to antique markets where Republican-era documents mingle with vintage watches and old goods returned from overseas Chinese estates. Next we visit Nanputuo Temple, an important Buddhist site where incense fills the air and worshippers move through halls housing everything from four-story guardian kings to a thousand-armed Guanyin. The afternoon takes us to Shapowei, the former fishing port transformed into an art district that maintains its grittiness. The weathered dock and factory buildings are full of bookstores in converted warehouses, street art telling the port's emigration stories, alongside craft shops and art galleries. Tonight is yours to explore: craft breweries with brews from across China, rooftop bars with Gulangyu views, or a proper Minnan feast.

Included: Breakfast, Ferry, Lunch, Nanputuo Temple Entry, Accommodation

Today we leave the coast for the mountains, trading maritime culture for something completely different: the Hakka people's extraordinary tulou. These massive circular earthen fortresses, some as old as 700 years, still have families living communally in them. We'll wander the famous "Four Dishes and One Soup" cluster, and enter the gravity-defying Yuchang Lou where residents still occupy rooms. We'll learn how these inland agriculturalists represent the other half of Fujian's story, in contrast to coastal traders. After exploring traditional Hakka villages, we return to Xiamen for a farewell feast of ginger duck, that warming Xiamen specialty, reflecting on how this single province gave the world two such different faces of Chinese culture, both now scattered across the globe yet still rooted here in their homeland.

Included: Breakfast, Tulou and ancient village entry, Guide, Lunch, Dinner, Accommodation

Xiamen is easily accessible by train, domestic flight or international flight.

There are multiple daily flights from all major domestic airports. Xiamen Airlines runs direct international flights to many destinations globally, as do other international carriers.

Shanghai: ~2 hours by flight, 6-8 hours by train

Beijing: ~3 hours by flight, 11-12 hours by train