Old Amoy city

Today's Xiamen is a large Chinese city, covering most of the island. If you look at this 1945 map though, the old Amoy city was in the south-west corner of the island.

I hadn't seen this map when we visited, but luckily the standard unscientific approach took us to the same part of town: if there are winding roads on a map, they are worth checking out (modern sections tend to be built on a grid layout). Then if they are too narrow to get a car down, they are definitely worth a look.

Old Chinese buildings first, then on to the shophouses.

Old Chinese buildings

Here's a building that was close to the hotel we stayed at. From the construction it looks as though it was once an important building, but it's falling apart now.

This next one we saw as we walked along a lane. Again, from the quality of construction it must have been an expensive one to build.

Here's another, just a simple wooden entrance this time, but again built with care.

The strange thing was that I didn't see any information about what they were, or any signs that they were being preserved / restored. It's a bit odd when there's major investment going into restoring the colonial buildings on nearby Kulangsu (Gulangyu) island.

Shop houses

Zhongshan Road is the main shopping street, and looks as though it has been for many years. At the quiet end of the street were these two-storey shophouses. There are similar buildings in many parts of Asia. Zoom in to see the the decoration around the upper windows.

The main section of the street is pedestrianised, and has a much grander style of building. Still the same idea though - shops on the ground floor, and accomodation above. They reminded me of Singapore. I'm not sure how old they are, but I'd guess pre-1940s.

Other

The streets of Zhongshan Road have plenty more old buildings to see. Here's a terrace I especially liked. They've been extensively customised by different owners, but it's not hard to imagine how they looked when they were new. Again, lots of decoration around the windows.

New old buildings

This block caught my eye too. It's a new development near Zhongshan road, but built to look at least vaguely similar to the old shophouses. It rained several times during our visit, so we were glad of the covered walkways. Something for Hong Kong to think about re-introducing?

Next on the tour: into a tunnel.