Where the south coast is — and why it's the area for the young crowd and beach-lovers
Plenty of people come to Xiamen and pour all their time into Gulangyu, forgetting the big island has its own gems. If you want Xiamen at its most youthful, head down to the south coast of the island — the stretch lined up along Huandao Road (环岛路), from Xiamen University and Nanputuo Temple down past Baicheng Beach, Zengcuo'an village and Huangcuo Beach to Hulishan Fortress. This is a seaside university town: students, cafés, sea breeze and food filling every lane.
The area has two hearts. The first is Xiamen University (厦门大学), famous as the most beautiful campus in China — Nanyang-style buildings with red-tiled roofs, a lake, and the Furong Tunnel, its walls covered in students' paintings. Right next to it is Nanputuo Temple (南普陀寺), an ancient Buddhist temple set against a hill facing the sea. The second is Zengcuo'an (曾厝垵), a fishing village more than 800 years old that has turned into an arty village full of lanes, street-art walls, guesthouses, cafés and the liveliest street-food stalls after dark.
Picture this — an area where you pay your respects at a temple and walk a seaside campus in the morning, cycle the seafront mid-morning, sit in a café in an old lane in the afternoon, then eat your way down a street-food lane until you're full at night. The south coast does all of it within walking distance and a few bus stops. That's why we love steering young travellers, beach-lovers and budget travellers here — laid-back coastal days without paying a premium.
