Things to Do in Xiamen in December

Xiamen's car-free island is a UNESCO World Heritage site of crumbling 1920s consulate villas, banyan-shaded lanes, and the ivory keys of more pianos per capita than almost anywhere on earth, which is why locals call it Piano Island. December is the month to do it on foot, because the suffocating summer crowds that turn the lanes into a shuffle are gone. You can hear the actual surf and the occasional drift of someone practicing scales through an open window. The low winter sun on the pastel facades photographs beautifully. The climb up Sunlight Rock rewards you with a clear, haze-free view across to the city towers.

Backed against Wulao Peak, Nanputuo is a thousand-year-old working Buddhist temple where December weekday mornings bring a calm you never get in peak season. Just the smell of sandalwood smoke, the murmur of chanting, and the clack of prayer beads. Next door, the campus of Xiamen University, with its red-brick swallowtail-roofed halls beside a lotus pond, is one of the prettiest in China and a short, sheltered walk that works even on a cool, drizzly day. Combining the two gives you culture and architecture in a compact area that handles December's variable weather well.

Huandao Road traces roughly 30 km (18.6 miles) of Xiamen's southeastern shoreline on a dedicated waterfront path, and December is its best season precisely because the heat that makes summer cycling brutal is gone. You ride past the Strait with the wind off the water, the statue line at Banshi, and on a clear day the low silhouette of Kinmen island offshore. Crowds thin, the temperature sits in that ideal 19°C (67°F) range, and you can cover serious ground without overheating. Bring a windbreaker, because the exposed sections funnel a stiff sea breeze.

Shapowei is Xiamen's old fishing harbor, a tangle of converted warehouses, moored wooden boats, and lanes that smell of frying oyster batter and roasting peanuts. Nearby Zengcuo'an is a former village swallowed by the city and full of Min Nan snack stalls. December's cooler air is when the local comfort foods come into their own. The steaming bowl of peanut soup, the satay noodle broth, the o a jian sizzling on the griddle. Eating your way through on a crisp evening, jacket zipped against the 12°C (54°F) chill, is the most Xiamen thing you can do.

Built in the 1890s on a headland facing Kinmen, Hulishan Fortress still cradles an enormous Krupp coastal cannon. Granite ramparts catch the sea wind straight off the Strait. The site is open-air and exposed. December's cool, clear days are ideal. You gain long views minus summer haze or heat radiating from stone. The daily artillery drill by costumed soldiers is worth timing your visit around.

Tucked into hills behind Nanputuo, Xiamen Botanical Garden is famed for its surreal cactus and succulent valley. Towering desert plants loom against grey volcanic rock. Rainforest sections feature a fine mist machine that turns the canopy ghostly. December is smart here. Subtropical greenery stays lush through Xiamen's mild winter. Cooler air makes uphill paths comfortable. Misty, low-light days can make the rainforest section atmospheric.