Xiamen's culture runs deeper than Gulangyu's villas: a fine-arts university that trained China's oil painters, Nanyin ensembles playing music notated in the Tang dynasty, and lacquer-thread artisans still working in Jimei. Three days, in Amoy's own idiom.
The city's main contemporary and ink-painting venue inside the Cultural & Art Centre on Tiyu Road, sharing a plaza with the library and science museum. Rotating shows of Fujian oil painting, calligraphy and print. Open 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays; last entry 16:30.
Chen Jiageng's 1913 school town: granite colonnades under swooping green-glazed Minnan roofs, the style locals call 'Western body, Chinese hat'. Nangui Hall, Daonan Hall and the waterfront Longzhou Pool make one continuous architectural walk.
The overseas-Chinese philanthropist's tomb sits inside a granite garden ringed by 291 carved relief panels — a stone comic strip of Chinese history and folklore, and the finest Hui'an stone-carving ensemble in Xiamen. Open 08:30–17:00.
Xiamen University's art college keeps a public gallery of student and faculty oil painting, while Jimei Building houses the Lu Xun Memorial Hall in the room where the writer lived and taught in 1926–27. Campus entry needs advance online booking.
Four floors tracing Amoy from Neolithic shell mounds through the 1842 treaty port to the overseas-Chinese diaspora — with a strong Minnan folk-craft gallery of lacquer-thread sculpture, Bo-bo gourd puppets and Dehua white porcelain. 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays.
Home company for Gezaixi, the sung Minnan opera that crossed to Taiwan and came back. The centre runs rehearsals and weekend public performances of classics like 'Shao Jiang Jun'; the box office on Siming Nan Road lists the month's programme.
Nanyin — UNESCO-listed since 2009 — is played on pipa held sideways, dongxiao flute and clapper, from notation older than the Song dynasty. Amateur ensembles gather most afternoons in the old-town pavilion near Zhongshan Road; teahouse sets run about 90 minutes.
The Xiamen Philharmonic — one of China's few privately funded orchestras — plays the Bailuzhou Concert Hall with its Klais pipe organ, while the Minnan Grand Theatre stages touring opera and dance. Tickets sell through Damai; evening curtain is usually 19:30.
A Tang-founded Buddhist complex under Wulao Peak: the Great Compassion Hall's octagonal roof, a Ming Guanyin with a thousand arms, and swallowtail ridges typical of Minnan temple carpentry. Open 03:00–18:00; the vegetarian restaurant serves 11:00–16:00.
The old town's working wet market and the anchor of Minnan food culture: sha cha noodle stalls, oyster omelette pans, dried seafood counters and the satay-paste shops that gave Xiamen its Southeast Asian palate. Busiest 06:00–10:00 and again at dusk.
A 300-year Xiamen craft, national intangible heritage: silk-fine lacquer threads coiled by hand into armour, dragons and robes over a moulded core. The workshop gallery shows master pieces and runs short hands-on sessions for visitors.
Xiamen's last inner-city fishing harbour turned studio district: converted fish-processing sheds now hold independent galleries, ceramic and printmaking workshops and the Yishu Xiqu design market, with the wooden boats still moored at the quay.