Zengcuo’an, Xiamen: An Old Fishing Community with Hidden Surprises

Dec 28, 2023
4 min read

I don't like surprises. This is why I often organize outdoor excursions occasionally to find surprising things and learn how to deal with them. Practice. Which is how I discovered the off-the-beaten-path community in area an called Zengcuo'an Community, Xiamen. Situated about 3 kilometers from the student dormitories, it was an easy pick for a tentative exploratory trip.

Zengcuo'an community started out as a small fishing village due to its proximity to the sea. In recent years, this proximity to the sea and its beaches has quickly turned the village into a popular location for tourist hostels, restaurants and street markets to accommodate the floods of tourists that come into Xiamen for the holidays.

As with most places receiving a constant flow of tourists and wanting to maintain the traffic, a number of interesting locations in the area have picked up renewed cultural interest to cater to visitors, including a shell museum, an old missionary church, the street markets, temples, teahouses and a long stretch of sandy beach aptly named Pearl Bay (Zhenzhu wan) 珍珠湾.

As you stroll the maze like alleyways, you will often discover gaudy apartment blocks that look like rundown apartments. Asking around, I've found that they are love hotels. Xiamen being a popular destination for couples, wedded and otherwise I am not surprised.

However, these are three things that are usually worth a stroll in Zengcuo'an, Xiamen

1. Zeng cuo' an street market 🥘

📍Huandao Road, Zengcuo'an Community North Road

Constructed in a mass of alleyways, is a cluster of buildings that have slowly been transformed into travel hostels and the alleywyas, shops and restaurants and food stalls. There is always something curious to see and eat along these streets. Most are speciality Xiamen cuisine, which consists of various kinds of sea food. I have certain shell fish allergies, so I by pass the food booths and stalls, in favour of the crafts and tea shops.

The lively atomsphere on the streets allows me to weave cautiously among the crowds, or choose to go with its flow.

2. The little hidden cafes ☕️

有猫 Youmao cafe

📍Siming district Wenqing Road Zengcuo'an no.340

Cafes in Xiamen China. A cat cafe in Xiamen Xiamen China

The shop is pretty and well kept. At anyone time, it is not overly crowded. It is my first experience going to a cat cafe. Outside the door are plastic bags that one has to wear over one's shoes and some sanitizer to help protect the cats.

Inside, fat, fluffy cats lounge lazily all over every surface. It's a cat lover's dream. The cats are calm and there are plenty of helpful instructions on how to treat the furry friends from the kind staff. And the coffee is good too. All food orders are also kept protected from sneaky paws by protectors.

The shop has become a place I go to often when I feel particularly under the weather or anxious about life in general.

1/2 Cafe 二分之一咖啡

📍Zengcuo'an no.505

I have been meaning to find this cafe since October. So well hidden as it is. My first two trys were unsuccessful as the navigation apps I was using usually stopped just short of the particular alleyway . I have also always been too intimidated to ask for directions.

It wasn't all a waste as each time I got lost my consolation prize was a pop into the cat cafe.

However, it has been particularly cold lately and the prospect of staying in my apartment fearing to over apply the air-conditioner has been a great motivator to get out despite the cold gales. That, and perhaps procrastinating on writing my thesis.

So I braved the cold and took the now familiar short bus ride and barely 6 minute walk back to Zengcuo'an community, on a hunt for this cafe. I wasn't going to give up. After a minute of wondering about, I discovered that I wasn't the only one struggling to follow the navigation. A pair of young tourists were wondering the same alleys and I was wondering if it wouldn't be any long now that they started to suspect I was being creepy heading down the same way.

Suddenly I see the signs. Literally, there were signs on the wall with arrows pointing the right way to the coffee shop and there it was.

It is as romantic in appearance as it does in the pictures on 小红书， Xiaohongshu, the Chinese version of instagram. Attached as it is to a spa, it has got the feeling of a tropical hideaway. The building housing the cafe is a old structure of residential house with a courtyard, some of its remnants maintained within the new structure.

It is proper winter now, and heavily windy, therefore lacking the lively buzz that would be expected at peak tourist season.

It is quiet, the coffee was good and I had the best toasted croissant I have had in years.

3. Pearl Bay Beach 珍珠湾🌅

The beach stretches along Huandao Road, it faces Dadan Island and the Yuping Mountains and offers spectral views of sunsets. The beach is highly favored by wedded couples for their wedding photos and it is constantly occupied by large groups of couples in weeding clothes and their photography teams in black, aiming to capture a moment. But is well loved by families and students alike for evening parties and activities well into the night.

I enjoy popping down to the beach with coffee and a book, and enjoying the sunsets and the spectacular views of freight ships crawling their way to harbour.