I went over to Xiamen for Autumn festival to visit my friend Tony who had just got a job there. is beautiful, especially the island of Gulangyu. It's almost like being somewhere in Italy, with delightful colonial buildings. The highlight for me was hermit crab picking on the beach. You can see across to Taiwan, it's not easy to get to though for obvious reasons. Xiamen has a real charm and unique almost Mediterranean atmosphere very different to the rest of China.