When flying in at night it would be easy to confuse this beautiful coastal city with Vegas, with all of the neon lit. From the sidewalk vendors, to the fish market, to the art galleries, everyone had a smile and was glad to see you. We never had the feeling that we were not welcome, and were helped along the way many times when we were temporally misplaced. We thought at first that we were looking through rose colored glasses, as it was our first stop in China, but after the trip, myself and my trusty lawyer “Unk the Monk” both agreed, and gave Xiamen two thumbs up, a rare occurrence I can assure you, that it truly was one of the highlights of our trip.

Neither of us had heard of Xiamen, or met anyone who had been there to get any local word of mouth. Being the “Cheap Charlies” that we are, we ended up going there for the simple reason that this was the cheapest flight we could get into China. We took an Air Asia flight from Bangkok Thailand for around $125, a great deal for an international flight that lasted over 3 hours.

When we arrived, we didn’t know where we were going, and had only a couple of glances at a small scale internet map for the layout of the city, so we were totally at the cab drivers mercy at nearly midnight. We showed him the hotel name that we had booked on line, and he took us to a hotel, but the name had been transposed, this apparently has happened before, as the doorman at the wrong hotel explained to the taxi driver, who then took us to the correct one. At the second hotel, we though that we were being scammed as the name was different on the hotel signage from what we had wrote down; but it was the correct hotel. What I failed to mention, was that we had to flat rated the cab from the airport, something we never do, as you almost always end up getting ripped off, yet when we went back to the airport, the rate was virtually the same using the meter, without the extra lap around the city that we received the first night! Another nice thing that happened our first night was that we exchanged USD to Yuan at the airport, and the rate was the official rate, with out being gouged by the airport concession; I don’t ever remember that happing before in a airport.

The hotel room at the PT Zhong Hotel was a little tight, however the amenities were those of a 3 star and at $25 a night was a real deal. I had the opportunity at the end of my trip to spend another couple days in Beijing, Shanghai or Xiamen. I chose Xiamen as the city seemed fresher with plenty of things to keep me amused, and the prices were less. It didn’t hurt that it was further south, so the temperature was more moderate than the capitol or Shanghai at the end of March.

When I returned I stayed at a little gem in the rough called the Duo Rung hotel at $20 a night, was one of the better deals on accommodations that we had found in China, for either a guesthouse or hotel room. The hotel was kind of neat as it was spacious with a art deco décor, and I really liked the alcove that jutted out over the street, giving a great view of their boutique shopping area, located a couple of blocks from the ocean.

Fred Tittle has lived and worked in holiday vacation resorts his entire life, from Lake Geneva’s Playboy Club, as a rock jock for KSPN FM in Aspen Colorado, he became a PADI Pro Scuba Diver in Hawaii, diving on Maui, Kauai, Kona on the big island, and Waikiki on Oahu. He now owns EcoSea Dive in Sihanoukville Cambodia where he teaches SSI and PADI scuba diving courses and runs liveaboards in the gulf of Thailand and Asia adventure tours, http://www.ecosea.com

Fred’s new project http://www.CheapCharliesHotels.com where he reviews cheap hotels , budget guesthouses, discount accommodations and cheap international flights, but is really an excuse to go scuba diving on vacation more, Fred is in Beijing China with Xiamen China the next stop.