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Xiamen (厦门), historically romanized as "Amoy", is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian besides the Taiwan Strait. As part of the "Opening Up Policy" under Deng Xiaoping, Xiamen became one of China's original four special economic zones opened to foreign investment and trade in the early 1980s.
To better understand Xiamen, the tour guide from my day trip summarizes into six elements:
| Number | Element | Description |
|---|---|---|
Leisure trip at a glance
Country / Region: People's Republic of China (Fujian)
Period: 23 Mar to 27 Mar 2025
Flight timings:
23 Mar: SQ 868, SIN–XMN, ETD 0810 ETA 1230
27 Mar: SQ 869, XMN–SIN, ETD 1350 ETA 1845
Air tickets:
Return tickets at SGD 397.70 (inclusive of airport taxes)
Accommodation:
Holiday Inn Express Xiamen Lushan – 厦门庐山智选假日酒店 (23 to 27 Mar)
Currency exchange rate:
CNY 100 = SGD 19.00 (Mar '25 period)
There is no time difference between Singapore and China as both countries are in GMT+8 time zone. Total damage was about SGD 900 including transport, food & hotel, and excluding personal expenses.Here's the overview of the trip itinerary:
Day 1 – Breakfast in Changi Airport then boarded flight SQ 868. Took Didi car to hotel and checked in Holiday Inn Express hotel. Took metro to Cruise Center to get ferry ticket to Gulangyu. Visited Zeng Cuo An and Waitu Xiamen Bookstore. Had dinner at Xiamen Guomao Building.
Day 2 – Joined the one-day tour to "Yunshuiyao + Yongding Gaobei Tulou King". Had dinner at SM Xiamen mall.
Day 3 – Took ferry to Gulangyu and explored the island. Walked along Zhongshan Road and had dinner there.
Day 4 – Visited the Turtle Garden, Tan Kah Lee Memorial Museum and Fomer Residence of Tan Kah Kee. Had lunch at SM Xiamen mall. Explored Overseas Chinese Museum, Ding'ao Cat Street, Shapowei Art Zone and Shimao E-mall Shopping Center. Took iconic photographs at Qingshui Palace. Had dinner at SM Xiamen mall.
Day 5 – Took Didi car to Airport. Had early lunch in the airport and boarded flight SQ 869.
Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport (厦门高崎国际机场)
Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Xiamen. It is located on the northeastern side of Xiamen Island, about 12-km from the city's downtown area and 16-km southeast of Xiamen North Railway Station. The IATA code for this airport is XMN.
Terminal 3
- Singapore Airlines uses Terminal 3 as it handles mainly international flights and occasionally domestic flights. The terminal was constructed with elements of traditional Minnan architecture (left photo below) but with a modern interior design (right photo below).
Check-in area was efficient with several counters accessible (left photo below). Shops and eateries were available even after custom clearance within the departure hall (right photo below).
- Gaoqi Airport will cease all of its civilian traffic once the new Xiamen Xiang'an International Airport (厦门翔安国际机场) is completed and commences its operations in the late 2026. The new airport is located 25-km from central Xiamen and will still retain the IATA code of XMN.
Transportation
Getting in/out of the Airport
Besides car or personalized transfer services, there two modes of public transport available. Note: there is no direct metro station connected to Gaoqi International Airport.
- Buses
There are Airport Shuttles or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) available to and from downtown. This is the most cost-effective option, but the average travel time can take about half an hour. - Taxis or Ride Hailing Services
It is convenient and fast for door-to-door transportation, but also the most expensive way to get or leave the airport.
Xiamen Metro (厦门地铁)
- Operating since Dec 2017, the Xiamen Metro is a rapid transit system of Xiamen city that consists of 3 lines with 70 stations and a route length of 98.4-km (photo below).
Train Fares
- Fares start at CNY 2 for a trip up to 4-km in distance, with additional CNY 1 added for the next 4-12-km, 12-18-km, 18-28-km, 28-43-km accordingly. Typically fare range from a couple of stations at CNY 2 to the longest journey at CNY 7 per ride.
Fare Payment
- Single-ride tickets in the form of an RFID-enabled plastic token can be purchased from the automatic ticket vending machines located in the metro station.
The most popular form of payment is by the Alipay or WeChat Pay (left photo below). Just show the code to the reader at the gantry (right photo below) and entrance will be granted. Almost in real time, the transaction will be shown in the application after exited from the station.
- Station entrances can be easily located from its bright signages on the elevated platform (left photo below). As stations been operating for less than 10 years, generally they have a modern and sleek look (right photo below).
- Metro train cabin is clean and spacious with clear indication of stations (photos below).
Announcements are made in three languages: Mandarin (Chinese), Minnan (Hokkien) dialect and English.Security Checks
- All hand-carry bags or luggage from passengers entering any metro station would have to be scanned. The scanning machines used are similar to those used in the airports. Therefore, do expect to wait a little longer in the queue before boarding the metro during peak hours.
Xiamen City Bus
- City bus system in Xiamen is well developed and traveling by it is convenient (photos below).
Approximately 4,000 buses serve about 370 routes around the city, and most of them run from 0600 hours to 2300 hours. Bus stops are easily identified (left photo below) and its bus route information needs no clarification (right photo below).
The fare for regular buses is CNY 1 per person, and CNY 2 for air-conditioned buses. Need to tap the card or scan the QR code both when boarding at the front door and exiting from the rear door.
DiDi Ride (滴滴出行)
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Besides metro trains and city buses, I also hired Didi cars to transport me from the airport to the hotel, and vice versa. |
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Holiday Inn Express Xiamen Lushan (厦门庐山智选假日酒店)
The Holiday Inn Express Xiamen Lushan hotel was booked via internet at SGD 463.74 for four nights per standard room with daily breakfast. This 4-star hotel of 23-floors is located just steps away from the "Lianhua Intersection" metro station Exit 2 (left photo below). Its lobby is situated on ground floor, and has a spacious waiting area (right photo below).
Standard Room
- This standard room had a comfortable queen-sized bed (left photo below) and a functional TV console that served as a snack bar (right photo below).
- Daily breakfast was served on the third floor (left photo below) and the coffee beans came from a local coffeehouse chain "Luckin" (right photo below).
The hotel offered a variety of Western and Chinese style breakfast (photos below).
There was even a "on-demand" snack counter that serves local delights (left photo below), and my favorite was the "satay noodles" (沙茶面) that tasted authentic (right photo below).
Following were the selections on my second and third day of stay (photos below).
Similar choices were made with some salad on my fourth day of stay (photos below).
Breakfast selections were typical and almost the same, except gotten a bowl of satay noodles, on my fifth (last) day of stay (photos below).
Interesting Observations
- Don't be confused that I was back to Okinawa with these cute guardian lions (photos below).
In fact, these are "Wind Lion Gods" (风狮爷). The Wind Lion, also known as the Stone Lion, is a unique protective and wind-warding deity found in southern Fujian (especially Kinmen) and the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa). Its origin is related to the strong monsoon climate in these areas, where residents erected stone lion statues to pray for blessings and protection against wind disasters. In Ryukyuan culture, these wind lions are called "shisa".
- Xiamen can be superstitious, especially on the number '13'. As such there was "13th floor" missing in the hotel (left photo below).
- Live-streaming in China is so popular that a livestream host can earn millions by promoting products in a single day. Equally profitable are the livestream agencies that took a large portion of the commissions. It's not surprising that their advertisement of recruiting livestream hosts could be seen along the walls of metro station escalators (right photo below).
- Minnan, or Southern Min, dialect is spoken in southern Fujian, specifically in the cities of Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and much of Longyan, hence the name. To help visitors pronounce Xiamen in local dialect, even Hanyu Pinyin (ĕi méng) was used to translate its tone (left photo below).
However, for readers who know Minnan (Hokkien), naming the eatery "Lau Sai" was somewhat unexpected (right photo below). Perhaps the owner was trying to hint that the food was "so delicious till lau sai" or "好吃到拉赛(拉肚子)"?
- The locals gave the Minnan translation another meaning, such as "礼好" depicts "你好" (left photo below), and "壶见" depicts "福建" (right photo below).
- Another tonal translation was the use of Chinese characters with Mandarin pronunciations to match the Minnan spoken tone. This was what I saw on the hanging red lanterns of a restaurant (photo below).
Chinese Characters Actual Meaning 冻尾雕 受不了 迪咔蹦 猪脚饭 巴肚妖 肚子饿 挖兄利 我想你 礼呵 你好 欢夕 欢喜 虾米 什么 哥垄苏 鼓浪屿 水渣貊 漂亮女人 晒父 师傅 呵代志 好事情 宾友 朋友 - Political slogans can be found even at a village road (left photo below) and cruise center (right photo below) to remind citizens and tourists that it is a socialist country.
- Mr. Tan Kah Kee is so influential in Xiamen that even posters advocating "Kah Kee's patriotic sprit" could be seen (photos below). To such an extent that I had not seen a single image of Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping during my travel in Xiamen.
Some useful links:
- China Discovery – Xiamen Tavel Guide:
https://www.chinadiscovery.com/fujian/xiamen.html
- KAYAK - Xiamen:
https://www.kayak.sg/Xiamen.34115.guide
- Xiamen - Wikivoyage:
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Xiamen
- Xiamen - Wikitravel:
https://wikitravel.org/en/Xiamen