Xiamen, China - an Unexpected Beautiful City Where Wealthy Chinese Retire

Xiamen, is a beautiul city in southeastern China. We heard of this city before but didn't know much about it. We were pleaseantly surprised after spending a couple of days there. On the first night we were there, we went to a night market full of young people and tourists to the area. There were lots of restaurants offering local and seafood dishes. The second day we took a ferry and visited the island of Gulangyu. Loved the parklike island!

As always, no matter which city we arrive at, we try hard to find a church to attend a worship service on Sunday. On the third day of our stay in Xiamen, we called a taxi and had a tour of the city. We found the streets clean, free of litter and lined with mature trees.The city is not a huge city, not as populated as other big Chinese cities. Being a coastal city, Xiamen offers an abundance of fresh seafood to its residents and visitors at affordable prices. Therefore, the taxi driver informed us that Xiamen is a city where many wealthy Chinese have chosen to retire.

We went to the First Protestant Church of China, a beautiful church modelled after western architectual design with white majestic pillars at the front of the building. A huge blue animal sculpture reading an opened bible sit at the front courtyard welcoming people to the church. It looked so cute! The church was full of people, mainly older adults. People were friendly; but unlike our home church in Toronto, there was no refreshments after the service for social time.

After church, We met up with Tony who was driving across China in his vehicle. He came to pick us up at our hotel and took us to a restaurant for lunch.

It was an interesting mall! As soon as we entered the courtyard, we were greeted by huge teddy bears placed on the steps, on the courtyard and garden. THese teddy bears were so cute! The child in me could not help but hugged them. I had never seen anything like that in a shopping area. How welcoming this was not only to children but adults as well!

So far on this journey in China, we discovered and were amazed by the beauty of some of its cities such as Xiamen, We could hardly wait to explore the other Chinese cities on our itinernary. RT, Xiamwn, China