The wife and I had the opportunity to visit Xiamen this December. This is our first trip to China and we were pleasantly surprised by this pretty coastal city.

One of the first surprises of the city was the Walmart, Carrefour and other big shopping centers that form the basis of convenient shopping in our modern lives. We just returned to Singapore from living in USA, so we still missed Walmart! Xiamen is not a very big island, so getting around either by cab or public bus (just like the buses in Singapore, it takes time to know the route) was really convenient.

Language wise, the mixture of Chinese and Minan dialect spoken is really similar to Singapore and Taiwan. We had no problem at all striking up conversations with the locals, who were really surprisingly friendly and helpful when we had to ask for directions. We had some relatives that we met for the first time, and we had a great time catching up with them and understanding more about the Xiamen culture. It feels like we will fit right in.

We also took the opportunity to visit the resort showroom that was located in town. The sales staff was pleasant and thoroughly explained the concept and the different types of units available. The scale of the development was huge! It was clearly aimed the folks who wanted to get out the city traffic and relocate to a more relaxed environment in the country. Many modern amenities were still available at the resort and thoughtfully put in place. There are future plans to have an organic farm next to the condominiums where the residents can buy fresh produce directly from the resort.

We had to see it for ourselves. It turned out that two of our relatives, who were native Xiamenese, had already purchased units in the resort. Talk about a coincidence! They were keen to go take a look since they are taking delivery later this month. Instead of taking the company transport, we took the relative’s car to Changtai and the journey was a modest 37 minutes after leaving Xiamen.

The resort was certainly very nicely nestled in the country. The scenery is fabulous and the view of the mountains is seriously comparable to some of the more expensive places in Tucson, USA. We had a good tour of the actual facilities such as the clubhouse and the actual units. We had a fantastic impression of the place! In our opinion, this place will be perfect for a vacation home for the Xiamenese, or a more permanent home for someone who yearns for a slower pace of life compared to Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong or even Malaysia.

In our particular case, we have young kids who will need to receive primary school education in a bilingual environment. Unfortunately the resort does not offer any nearby schools that will meet those requirements. But we can only look on enviously at folks with kids already grownup who might want to consider this as an opportunity to live in a really nice relaxing environment and take time to smell the roses!