My Xiamen

written on February 4th, 2013 by Marget Villarica

I was invited to join the familiarization tour to Xiamen, China. How could I say no? So I immediately agreed to join . The last time I was in Xiamen was sometime in the early 90s. It was great to be back and explore the destination.

Our first dinner was in a nice Chinese restaurant in a mall. I noticed that our first course was a plate of fruits. As our host mentioned , in most restaurants in Xiamen, it is tradition to serve the fruits first before the meal. That’s a very healthy way to start a meal. As expected we all enjoyed the delicious Chinese Lauriat.

The following day, we toured the city and went to the famous island called Gulangyu. I was so impressed at how clean and well landscaped the city was. It wasn’t your typical China destination. For one thing, it wasn’t crowded with tourists! As the guide would say, the tourists come here to relax. I could vividly remember my first visit and my impression of Xiamen was a laid back city. There was not much to offer to tourists. Honestly, I was not happy being in Xiamen at that time and I just wanted to fly back home, but things have changed.

The famous Gulangyu island is a major tourist destination. The island has about 20,000 permanent residents, all of whom enjoy a comfortable, relaxing life. Only electric-powered vehicles are permitted on the island, so the environment is free from the noise and pollution of combustion engines. Breathing the clean air, appreciating the ever-present green trees and lovely flowers, you would be forgiven to think that you were in heaven. With classical and romantic European-style architecture, the island truly deserves to be called the’Architecture Museum.’ It is also known as the ‘Cradle of Musicians’ and ‘Island of Music’ because of its reputation for music appreciation. Aida Uy one of the travel agents showed us the ancestral home of the late husband’s family and a Chinese couple were staying in the house as caretakers.

One of Xiamen’s major events is the Xiamen Marathon which is held every first Saturday of January. It starts at the Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center (The Strat). The fee to join for foreign tourists is only USD20.00. Royal Victoria Hotel is a hotel nearby that is an ideal place to stay if one is planning to join the event.

What impressed me the most was when I started to explore Yundang lake in front of the Marco Polo. I thought it was just a small lake and I decided to run around it. To my surprise , I ran 4 kilometers around the area until I got back to the hotel. It was such a scenic place. As I was running, I could see people fishing, senior citizens doing taichi and a number of them just seated by the cafe chatting with friends. The locals best describe the lake – it is mystical by day and magical by night. See how the egrets flock during the day and fly home at night.

When it was time for shopping, the guide said the best place to shop was no other than the SM mall . I found a number of interesting shops and a few Philippine stores as well. As usual, I did not have time to explore the SM Lifestyle area (where the high end brands are located).

Xiamen will be an interesting destination to explore and I will surely recommend it to my travelling friends. One can find good food, great shopping and lovely scenic tourists spots to explore.

Cathay Pacific flies every Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday and Saturday to Xiamen from Cebu via Hong Kong. For more info, contact us here.