Vibrant red lanterns hang high adorning the streets

#chinatraveltips Vibrant red lanterns hang high, adorning the streets, parks, and malls of Xiamen in southeast China's Fujian Province, creating a blissful atmosphere as the Year of the Snake draws near. Xiamen is a port city on China’s southeast coast, across a strait from Taiwan. It encompasses 2 main islands and a region on the mainland. Formerly known as Amoy, it was a British-run treaty port from 1842 to 1912. Many Europeans and Japanese lived on Gulangyu, today a vehicle-free island with beaches and meandering streets lined with old colonial villas.