Xiamen, Gulangyu and Jimei in Five Days from Luoyang

Arrive around midday and the smell of the sea reaches the station exit. Bags down, then straight to Zhongshan Road, where the covered walkway keeps the sun off and the columns and old shop signs carry a Southeast Asian accent. At the far end turn into Jukou Street, narrow enough that two people pass with a shuffle.

Attraction introduction: Zhongshan Road is the commercial spine that grew up after Xiamen opened as a treaty port, and its arcades went up in the 1920s and 1930s: ground floors set back into a continuous colonnade, upper storeys projecting over the pavement, a Nanyang colonial form transplanted to southern Fujian. The side lanes, Jukou and Dazhong among them, are older than the main street, lined with oyster omelette and peanut soup shops that have run for decades with tables out on the pavement. The sea is only a few hundred metres away and several lanes end with a view of the wharf.

Tips: Guests generally find the first day is spent on the main street itself, crowded and overpriced and not especially good eating. In practice we walk Zhongshan once for the architecture and then eat in the side lanes, where an oyster omelette costs a little over ten yuan, half the main-street price.

Nothing scheduled in the morning. Sleep in, lunch at eleven, then the half past two ferry, twelve minutes to Sanqiutian pier. Bags to the guesthouse first, and only after four do we go out, by which time the day-trippers are heading back.

Attraction introduction: Gulangyu sits southwest of Xiamen Island across a six-hundred-metre strait, and no motor vehicle runs on it, bicycles included. Sanqiutian is the main visitor pier; inland along Fujian Road stand the old consulates and overseas-Chinese villas, red brick and arched colonnades and glazed balustrades layered over one another. Bougainvillea flowers almost all year here, and November brings a second flush that spills over the walls and closes the lanes overhead.

Tips: Guests generally find Gulangyu wall-to-wall with people, when in fact the crush runs only from about ten in the morning to four in the afternoon. In practice we land late, walk the coastal loop at dusk and eat on Longtou Road after dark. Many lanes have no lighting, so bring a torch or use the phone.

Out at half past six with the sky just light, Longtou Road shuttered except for the breakfast stalls firing up their burners. Up Quanzhou Road to the foot of Sunlight Rock without climbing, then round to Jishan Road for the villa walls. Back to the guesthouse for breakfast at half past eight, and the half past eleven ferry to the mainland.

Attraction introduction: Early morning Gulangyu is a residential district, with ten thousand or so people still living on the island, buying vegetables at the lane mouth or practising taiji in the sports ground. The tightest cluster of old houses is where Quanzhou and Fujian roads meet, door plates still carrying pre-war names. Sunlight Rock is the high point at ninety-two metres, its summit gate a relic of Zheng Chenggong's garrison in the late Ming, and the top opens over the whole island and the skyline opposite. The Jishan Road villas have large gardens, walls of patterned red brick with bougainvillea coming over the top.

Tips: Guests generally find the best two hours on the island come just after dawn, and almost nobody gets up for them. In practice we push breakfast to half past eight and walk first; the Sunlight Rock stairs are steep and narrow with half-hour queues at busy times, so we stay at the base and give the time to the lanes instead.

Out of Zengcuoan in the morning onto the timber boardwalk heading east, reef on one side and grass on the other, stopping whenever the view earns it. Huangcuo in a little over an hour, seafood lunch nearby, then across the bridge to Jimei in the afternoon for the dragon-boat pond and the school village.

Attraction introduction: The island road follows the southeast coast of Xiamen with the boardwalk laid close to the reef, where low tide exposes a pavement of oyster shells. On a clear day, looking east from the Huangcuo stretch, the hills of Kinmen are recognisable across the water. Jimei lies off the island; the dragon-boat pond was dug under Chen Jiageng's direction in the 1950s with seven pavilions along its edge and the races held here at midsummer festival. Shangzhong and Daonan halls in the school village are red brick and white stone with swallowtail ridges on the roofs and Western capitals on the columns, the mixture that defines Jimei's architecture.

Tips: Guests generally find the coastal ride looks easy and turns brutal into a headwind. In practice we run it west to east with the wind behind, and anyone who flags can hop on a bus at the roadside. The school village is spread out and easy to lose the group in, so stay with the guide rather than wandering deeper.

No early start. Into the Bashi market for misua noodle soup with fried dough and a braised egg. Back to pack, checkout at half past ten, one last bowl of satay noodles nearby, and the afternoon departure.

Attraction introduction: Bashi is the old town wet market, formally Yingping Market, open from five in the morning until dusk with seafood, dried goods and cooked food stalls packed into a few narrow lanes. Misua soup is the local breakfast, fine wheat noodles cooked until they soften into the broth with pork blood, intestine and prawns, thickened lightly and eaten with fried dough. Satay noodles came back from Southeast Asia: peanuts, dried shrimp and chilli ground into a paste, a thick soup base, and whatever toppings you point at.

Tips: Guests generally find they want one proper local meal on the last day. In practice Bashi at half past seven gives an hour of eating and browsing, back at the hotel by nine; the floor is wet and a suitcase is a nuisance there, so leave bags at the front desk.