Discover Xiamen
Zengcuo'an
曾厝垵
A fishing village on the south coast swallowed by guesthouses, snack stalls and buskers - heavily commercialised but the liveliest night eating in Xiamen, and right on the beach.
The story
What makes this place special
Zengcuo'an was a fishing village on the south-east shore of Xiamen island — the name means the Zeng family's hamlet — which was absorbed by the city as Huandao Road was built along the coast and Xiamen University expanded nearby. Through the 2000s it filled with cheap guesthouses, student bars and hostels and became the backpacker quarter of Xiamen; it has since been rebuilt and heavily commercialised into a dense grid of snack stalls, souvenir shops and boutique hotels. The village street plan survives underneath; almost nothing else does.
What you’ll discover
A compact warren of narrow lanes behind the seafront, packed solid with food stalls, milk tea, souvenir shops and small hotels, with a temple or two still functioning among them, and a beach immediately beyond. It is loud, crowded and almost entirely commercial. The food is the reason people come: sand tea noodles (shacha mian), oyster omelette, peanut soup, spring rolls, and the Fujian snacks the region is known for, at prices well below the restaurants.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Come to eat and then leave for the beach. Thirty minutes in the lanes buying food and an hour on the sand is the right shape for this place; two hours of shopping is not.
- Eat shacha mian here, which is the Xiamen dish, rather than the squid skewers and milk tea that occupy most of the frontage.
- The lanes are at their worst between about six and nine in the evening in summer, when they are shoulder to shoulder. Mid-afternoon or after ten is navigable.
- This is where the cheap beds are. If budget matters more than quiet, the guesthouses here are a fraction of hotel prices elsewhere in Xiamen, and it is on Huandao Road with the beach in front.
- Do not expect a fishing village. The street plan is old and nothing else is, which disappoints people who have read the word 'village' in a guide.
When to come
Mid-afternoon for the lanes without the crush, or early evening if you want the atmosphere and will accept the crowd. Any season; autumn and winter are far more comfortable.
Getting around
Poor inside the village, good outside it. The lanes are flat but very narrow, uneven, wet in places and obstructed by stalls, tables and scooters, with crowds that make a wheelchair impractical at busy times; early afternoon is the only realistic window. The seafront promenade and beach approach on Huandao Road immediately outside are level, wide and step-free.
Worth knowing before you go
The lanes nearest the sea still have real village houses and the old Fuhai Temple; the main drag is pure snack street.
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