Xiamen

A small car-free island where concession-era villas and churches survive lane by lane, made World Heritage in 2017. Visitor ferries leave from the Dongdu international cruise terminal, booked in your own name with ID. Arrivals are capped daily.

A seaside garden built in 1913 by Lin Erjia, a magnate from Taiwan, with a bridge zigzagging out over the water. A piano museum inside lines up dozens of old instruments, which is where the island's nickname as a place of pianos feels true.

A temple said to date from the Tang; the rocks of the hill behind it climb to views of city and sea together. Its vegetarian hall is known for soy and wheat shaped like meat, and lunch means waiting for a seat. It shares a wall with Xiamen University.

Founded in 1921 by the overseas Chinese businessman Tan Kah Kee, its red-brick blocks under Chinese roofs face the sea. Entry for outsiders needs booking ahead, and daily numbers are capped. The Furong tunnel, painted end to end by students, is the draw.

A fishing village on the island's south shore whose lanes have turned wholesale into souvenir and snack shops. They knot together so tightly that at weekends moving forward is hard work, and one road across puts you on the Huandao Road beach.

A coast road round the island's east and south shores, with its own cycle lane, so you hire a bike and ride. On the eastern beach a huge sign spelling out reunification faces Kinmen. The sea wind is strong and turns into a headwind in the afternoon.

A battery where a big coastal gun bought from Krupp in the late Qing still sits where it was mounted. Passages inside the granite walls lead underneath it, and from the fort's yard the sea toward Kinmen spreads below.

Round houses of rammed earth, each once home to dozens of households of one clan, inscribed by UNESCO in 2008. At Tianluokeng in Nanjing county five stand together and look from above like four dishes and a bowl of soup. Nearly three hours' drive from Xiamen.

The old high street, where arcaded qilou shophouses from the 1920s run down to the ferry piers. You stay dry under the arcades, and one block into the side lanes are the old peanut soup and shacha noodle shops. Night lighting brings bigger crowds.

The schools Tan Kah Kee founded in his home village, notable for Western brick blocks capped with Minnan roofs that curl up at the ends like swallow tails. His tomb is in Aoyuan on the shore, wrapped by a long wall of stone carving.

Warehouses and old houses ring the basin where fishing boats once sheltered from typhoons. Workshops, cafes and small galleries fill them now, yet boats are still moored at the quay, ten-odd minutes' walk from Xiamen University's west gate.

A garden spread through a rocky valley behind Nanputuo, best for its rainforest glasshouse and succulent beds. Boulders sit tumbled on every slope, hence the name, Ten Thousand Rocks, and a hill path from the temple leads in by the back gate.

The city stretch of the old Yingtan to Xiamen line, laid in the 1950s, now a walkway with rusty rails and sleepers left in place. It runs through a former rail tunnel, and the trees grow thick enough to shade it even on summer afternoons.

The great temple of Quanzhou, about an hour from Xiamen by high-speed train, with two Song stone pagodas facing each other across its courtyard. UNESCO inscribed old Quanzhou in 2021; West Street outside leads into the old port's lanes.