Xiamen 2026: Gulangyu Ferries and a Tulou Day

Summary

Xiamen has two highlights, and they do not sit on the same map. Gulangyu needs a ferry ticket and a set island time slot; the Fujian tulou stand in Nanjing or Yongding and take a full day round trip. Split those two apart and Xiamen becomes unhurried. This guide covers how to buy the ferry ticket, which tulou route to choose, when to ride the ring-island road, and how typhoon season can change the plan.

Quick facts first

The decisions that come before the sights

Whether Xiamen goes right is settled long before you land: when you win the Gulangyu ferry ticket, which day you put the island on, and whether the tulou day runs through Nanjing or Yongding. Get those two out of order and all four days go to piers and long rides on the road.

In this guide

1

Why Xiamen, and who should pick another city

Xiamen runs on ferry timetables and tides. Half of what is worth seeing sits on the water, half in the old town and along the shore. Gulangyu is reached by boat, and how many visitors get across each day is set by the ferries, while the Fujian tulou stand in Zhangzhou’s Nanjing or Longyan’s Yongding and take up a full day round trip.

Come if you want the sea, slow walking, and are willing to chase a ticket for one island crossing. Pick another city if you mean to tick off Gulangyu, the ring-island road, the tulou and Quanzhou in two or three days. Xiamen has few sights and they are spread out, so forcing them together only spends the hours on buses and piers.

2

What you must book before you fly

Xiamen asks for few advance bookings, but each one is tied to a clock: the Gulangyu ferry ticket, a tulou ticket, and Xiamen University if you plan to enter. All are verified below against official sources, with prices rechecked in the week of publication.

Gulangyu ferry tickets

• The only official channels are the WeChat or Alipay mini-program Yujian Xiamen, with the Xiamen Ferry Co. account equally valid; there is no ticket window at the pier, and without a ticket you simply turn back.
• Since 1 February 2026 visitors can book online 15 days ahead, with each day’s batch released at 09:00 for the fifteenth day out.
• A standard round trip for visitors is ¥35 (about US$5.2), including one free return within 20 days; premium sailings are ¥80 (about US$11.9). Gulangyu charges no gate fee, and that ferry ticket is the entry.
• Tickets are tied to a real name, one document per person; a single account can hold up to 10 unused tickets at once, and sold-out sailings offer an official waitlist.

Tulou tickets

• Nanjing’s Tianluokeng and Yunshuiyao sell separately, adult rates, with reductions for children and seniors; online sales run through the Fujian Tulou Nanjing Scenic Area account plus Ctrip, Meituan, Tongcheng and Douyin. The sites are broadly open from 08:00 to 18:00.
• Yongding’s Hongkeng Folk Culture Village, around Zhencheng Lou, is ticketed per site, and the Gaobei cluster with Chengqi Lou separately again. Nanjing and Yongding lie in different directions, so buy for one a day.

Xiamen University (if you plan to enter)

• Xiamen University caps campus entry by reservation; the quota and slots follow the university’s weekly notice, so check early around holidays.

The short list

The short list: what is actually worth your time

• A full day on Gulangyu. Day 2, on your booked sailing
• Sunlight Rock and Shuzhuang Garden. Take the high ground first
• The Longtou Road lanes. Gulangyu in the afternoon, slowly
• Zhongshan Road and Jukou Street. Day 1 evening, straight into a meal
• The Shapowei typhoon shelter. Day 1 late, or Day 3 morning
• The Eighth Market. Early morning, for local breakfast and seafood
• The ring-island road. Day 3 at dawn, with the bike lane empty
• Zengcuoan and around Xiamen University. Day 3, for lunch and a walk
• Nanjing’s Tianluokeng and Yunshuiyao. Day 4, an early train
• Yongding’s Hongkeng and Gaobei. The other Day 4 option
• Huaxin Road and Baijiacun. An early-evening walk, more locals than visitors

Shopping and the evening

• Shopping: Zhongshan Road and around the Eighth Market are the honest places for local produce; sightseeing-strip gifts cost one notch more, especially on Gulangyu
• Evenings: the small shops and cafes at Shapowei are quieter than Zhongshan Road; transport thins out along the ring-island road at night
• Meal timing: noodles and peanut soup for breakfast; buy seafood at the Eighth Market and have a shop beside it cook it by weight, checking the posted price first

3

How to plan the four days

Four days follow a single rule: the Gulangyu day is fixed, and everything else gives way to it. The ticket is for a particular sailing, missed only by rebooking or buying again, and the tulou are a full day out and back, so do not put them right after the crossing, when you are most tired.

Read this first:Before you lock the four days, read section 6: how the ferry ticket is bought and whether the tulou day runs through Nanjing or Yongding settle everything else.

4

Where to stay

Xiamen has one rule for picking a base: stay close to the places you will cross back and forth to. If Gulangyu and the tulou each get a day, the Zhongshan Road strip between the pier and the old town saves the most time. For hotel types, see our separate post.

5

Getting around: metro, intercity rail, airport

Xiamen Island is small, and the metro plus buses cover most days. The real thinking goes into three things: which pier you cross from, which station you leave from, and how the airport feeds the city.

Metro

• The metro is built around the island, with Line 1 linking Xiamen station to Xiamen North and other lines reaching the center and the piers; fares start at ¥2, most journeys run ¥2 to ¥7, and you can enter by QR code or transit card.
• To reach Gulangyu, cross by day from the Dongdu passenger pier by the cruise terminal, the main visitor pier; at night sailings move to Hall 2 of the Lundu pier, and the other piers stop.

Two railway stations

• Xiamen station sits on the island, close to the old town, while Xiamen North stands across the water in Jimei with more trains; most intercity and high-speed services to Nanjing, Quanzhou and Fuzhou leave from there.
• Metro Line 1 links the two directly, but work your departure time back from the train, and never cut it fine for the early Nanjing services.

Into town from Gaoqi airport

• Gaoqi International sits on the island in Huli district and has a Line 1 stop, with the BRT and airport shuttle buses into town as well; the shuttle to the Lundu pier costs about ¥10 (about US$1.5), and a taxi to the Zhongshan Road area takes around twenty minutes.
• The new Xiang’an airport’s opening date follows the airport operator’s notice, so confirm the actual airport before you fly.

6

Gulangyu tickets, piers and slots; Nanjing or Yongding for tulou

The most underrated part of Xiamen is that reaching the island is itself a plan. Gulangyu has no gate fee but a ferry, and the ticket splits by sailing, by pier and by a daily cap; the tulou, in turn, demand a choice between Nanjing and Yongding. Decide either at the last minute and you will probably stumble.

Gulangyu: know the piers first

• Cross by day from the Dongdu passenger pier by the cruise terminal, the most convenient and the most frequent; the First Pier and the Haicang Songyu passenger pier also serve the island.
• The island has two arrival piers, Sanqiutian and Neicuo’ao: Sanqiutian is closest to Longtou Road and Sunlight Rock and has the densest sailings, while Neicuo’ao sits on the quiet side, a short walk from the core.
• At night the other piers stop and you sail from Hall 2 of the Lundu pier; the last sailing shifts with the season, so follow the day’s ticketing system.

Gulangyu: slots and the daily cap

• Gulangyu caps daily entries and the ferries sell to that ceiling, so buy the moment tickets open at holidays and through the summer.
• The outbound leg is tied to your sailing, but returns run on any sailing within 20 days, so there is no need to leave on the same boat.

Tulou: Nanjing or Yongding

• The Nanjing route: about 40 minutes by train from Xiamen or Xiamen North to Nanjing, then bus 6 or a shared car into the site, roughly an hour. Tianluokeng, nicknamed “four dishes and one soup”, is Nanjing’s signature view, and the Yunshuiyao old road with Hegui Lou and Huaiyuan Lou sits in the same patch, which suits a day trip.
• The Yongding route: by train via Longyan, or two hours and more by car. Hongkeng Folk Culture Village gathers the famous buildings such as Zhencheng Lou, while Chengqi Lou at Gaobei, billed as the king of tulou, is the pick for seeing buildings people still live in, at a longer ride.
• What both share: the points inside each area sit far apart and are covered by shuttle or hired car, too much to walk; tickets are sold per site, so settle the route before you buy.

7

What to eat, and in which district

This section covers only which district for which meal; cuisines and prices are in our food post.

• Sate noodles · the Eighth Market and old-town streets: the broth carries peanut and sate sauce, good for breakfast or a late supper; pick a small shop with locals and a fast turnover.
• Oyster omelet and worm jelly · around Zhongshan Road and Jukou Street: convenient for a first taste, but sightseeing prices run high and portions small, so duck into the lane beside it for better value.
• Ginger duck · old-town restaurants: one pot usually serves two and is most welcome in cooler weather, good for a sit-down dinner.
• Peanut soup and meat zongzi · breakfast stalls: sweet with salty, the pairing Xiamen people grow up on, easiest to find near the Eighth Market in the morning.
• Seafood · buy at the Eighth Market, cook at a shop beside it: choose your seafood, then a nearby shop cooks it by weight; check the posted price before you order.

8

Two hours off the crowd

Xiamen’s popular spots are two different cities before 08:00 and after 20:00. These four need no ticket most of the time, and walking in puts you inside an ordinary local day.

• The ring-island road at dawn · around sunrise: the bike lane is empty and the water bright, the quietest stretch of the day.
• Shapowei typhoon shelter · morning: a living quarter built from an old fishing harbor, calmest just as the cafes and small shops open.
• The Eighth Market · early morning: the locals’ produce market, the place to see a city’s real breakfast and seafood.
• Huaxin Road and Baijiacun · early evening: old villas and older neighborhoods, where walkers outnumber visitors; quiet, and made for a slow stroll.

9

Six rules that catch visitors out

1. Carry the original ID. Ferries, trains and ticketed sites all check the document you booked with; a phone scan is only a backup.
2. Buy Gulangyu tickets officially. There is no ticket window at the pier, so ignore anyone nearby offering to “get you across”; one document, one ticket.
3. The crossing runs on your sailing. Sail out on your booked boat or rebook it, and return on any sailing within 20 days.
4. Ride the ring-island road by the rules. No one under 12 may cycle on the road; bikes are banned from the sea bridges and tunnels, and from inside the parks.
5. Check the notices in typhoon season. From June to September sailings and flights can be canceled, so read the ferry and airport notices before you travel; suspended sailings can be changed or refunded without a fee.
6. Pick one tulou route. Nanjing and Yongding lie in different directions; go to one in a day and do not burn the hours on the road.

10

FAQ

Can I ride a shared bike on the ring-island road?

The ring-island road has a bike lane and riding beside the sea is fine, within the rules: no one under 12 on the road, no bikes on the sea bridges or in the tunnels, and none inside the parks. Check the drop-off and parking zones when you borrow and return.

Can I still visit Xiamen in typhoon season?

Yes, but leave some slack. From June to September sailings and flights can be canceled, so check the ferry and airport notices and put Gulangyu early in the trip, leaving room to reschedule if sailings stop; the tulou are inland and less exposed.

What if the ferry sells out the moment it opens?

Use the official waitlist first: sold-out sailings take a queue. At the same time, move the island day one day earlier in the trip and keep off weekends and holidays. If it still will not come together, swap in Shapowei, the Eighth Market and the ring-island road, and try Gulangyu again before you fly home.

A typhoon stops the sailings. Now what?

Suspended sailings can be changed or refunded without a fee, and unused tickets refund automatically once service resumes, so refund first rather than waiting it out. Pull the tulou day forward, since it is inland and less exposed, and push Gulangyu to the first weekday morning after sailings restart, checking whether your flight is affected too.

Where PT5 fits in

Where PT5 fits into a Xiamen trip

Xiamen’s difficulty is not the sights but the timetable: the Gulangyu ticket has to be snagged on the dot, the tulou day has to catch the early train, and typhoon season can rewrite the plan. Someone on the ground, and someone answering, is the most practical help this city offers.

If you want those four days in Xiamen handled, start in the trip group and we will map it against your dates.

Quotes and fees: a written quote before you commit, with costs stated up front. Our people do not take tips.

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The short version

The short version

Xiamen is not a city you win by ticking off more stops. Lock the Gulangyu ferry for the right day, then settle whether the tulou run through Nanjing or Yongding, and hand what is left to the sea breeze, the old town and one long, unhurried meal.

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Around the region

Around the region: Quanzhou, Fuzhou and Wuyishan

From Xiamen, most nearby cities and sights have direct and frequent trains. This section covers only how to leave Xiamen for the region; for getting around the city, see the previous section.

• Quanzhou: Xiamen’s near neighbor, about 30 minutes by train with dense departures, its old town and Kaiyuan Temple good for half a day to a day.
• Zhangzhou: a little over twenty minutes by train, both the transfer for the Nanjing tulou and worth a trip for its own old town.
• Fuzhou: many trains daily, 1.5 to 2.5 hours, second class commonly from ¥80 (about US$12), subject to that week’s 12306 services.
• Wuyishan: direct trains, around three hours, subject to that week’s 12306 services.
• Toward Shenzhen and Guangzhou: direct high-speed trains, three to four hours, which make Xiamen a good place to close the Fujian leg.
• Gaoqi airport: the outbound gateway, with domestic and international routes; confirm flights and any airport move on the operator’s notice.
• The Xiamen-Kinmen route: boats from the Wutong passenger pier to Kinmen; mainland residents need a Mainland Residents Permit for Taiwan plus a valid endorsement and an entry permit arranged through a qualified travel agency, with requirements set by that week’s official notice.