Xiamen

City Name:Xiamen

Other China city

Fujian Province, 109km (68 miles) S of Quanzhou, 770km (481 miles) E of Guangzhou

The island of Xiamen, then better known to foreigners by its Fujian name of Amoy, became a foreign concession in 1903, with most of the foreigners living on the tiny islet of Gulang Yu just off Xiamen itself. By the 1930s there were about 500 resident foreigners and nine consulates, several of which still stand, as do the vast, Europeanized mansions of Chinese who returned wealthy from overseas.

Here, more than at any other former treaty port including Shanghai, there seems to be something left of the foreign presence and the colonial era, in the largest and best-preserved warren of colonial-era shop-houses in mainland China, and on Gulang Yu, the largest and best-preserved collection of colonial mansions. People also seem remarkably relaxed and law-abiding -- there's little spitting, little shouting at foreigners, and an unusual tendency to obey road signs.

Much of the island is a hideous white-tiled wasteland to match anything else in China, but even so, the odd turret and spire reflect the city's pride in its stock of original European architecture. The rest of the island is a refreshing change and full of character -- narrow alleys connecting sinuous streets are laced together with power and telephone cables, and house DVD shops, noodle restaurants, and hair salons where no hair is ever cut. Vehicle-free Gulang Yu, a few minutes away by ferry, is all pleasant strolls and quiet back streets full of mansions overgrown with brilliant bougainvillea.

In short, Xiamen is the largely overlooked gateway to China that provides the softest landing of all. The comfortable cruise around the coast from Hong Kong provides the ideal overture to a mainland visit, with Xiamen a halfway house between orderly former colony and the bedlam that is most mainland cities.