Xiamen Arts & CultureXiamen has over a hundred traditional and modern sculptures scattered about the city in downtown areas, open amphitheatres, along the beach, in picnic areas and parks. Favorites include "Egret Fairy," "Koxinga," and "3 Generations of Helping Hands".Xiamen also has about 140 cultural, historical preservation sites, as well as 533 protected ancient or famous trees. Additionally, Xiamen citizens are never more than a 15 minute walk from a park.For other arts and culture experiences, check out the local Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra or head to one of the many theaters or museums in Xiamen.
Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra The Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra is a professional orchestra currently supported by the Xiamen municipal government and the Fujian and Xiamen Electrical Power Bureaus, with contributions from xiamen-Hong Kong Solidarity. It made its debut on September 9, 1998, on the beautiful Egret Island, Xiamen, under the leadership of Professor Zheng Xiaoying, the most prominent female conductor in China, who remains the orchestra's artistic director and principal conductor. Since that time, the weekend symphony concerts have brought to audiences more than 600 well-received concerts that have included more than 150 different programs from Haydn to Schostakovitch, domestic and from abroad. During performances, the "Zheng Xiaoying System" of explaining while performing, helps people become familiar with the symphony and become more receptive, and to understand more about the music. The Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra have also made short tours to more than 30 cities in ten provinces and actively advocate composition of symphonies concern to China or Fujian for promotion to a Chinese symphonic career.
In 2002, the orchestra successfully toured three cities in Japan,
and got identical high praise from world-class juries and got
an Award for their Outstanding Contribution from Xiamen Government
for the excellent cooperation in the Fourth International Tchaikovsky
Competition for Young Musicians held in Xiamen.And it also
performed a concert with Fujian subjects in Beijing and was warmly
welcomed by the audience in the Capital. At the end of 2005 year, the orchestra performed a great new choral poem "Echo of the Three Gorges" and in May it had a tour in Jinmen. These brilliant achievements under the new system of the orchestra have been reported by newspapers and magazines thousand times. Supported by the leader of Xiamen municipal government and some corporations, more than 70 artists in the orchestra have come from across China to devote their efforts toward building Xiamen into "Music Islands of the Orient" which can live up to this name. Address:No. 67 Wenyuan Road, Xiamen The Gulangyu Odium The Gulangyu Odium on the Gulangyu Island is a good place for music fans to enjoy the excellent musical instrument performances held there sometimes. Address: No. 1 Huangyan Road, Gulangyu Island, Xiamen
There are a lot of theaters in Xiamen debuting performances of all kinds. They form a very important part of entertainment of Xiamen. One recognized theater in Xiamen is listed below. People's Theater
There are a lot of cinemas in Xiamen showing many updated movies everyday. One popular cinema in Xiamen is listed below. Siming Cinema
The British Museum The BritishMuseum was home to a million antiquities. Most of these items have made their eventual way to the ever-expanding collections of the British Museum where they were set out on display with clear labels in many languages so that foreign tourists could come and see their lost valuables with minimum inconvenience. Overseas ChineseMuseum The Overseas Chinese Museum is about 2 kilometers south of Zhongshan
Road, on South Siming Road (just over the hill from Xiamen University)
in Xiamen. Built in 1956, it opened to the public in May of
1959. The 30,000 square feet have over 7,000 items in displays
documenting the lives of overseas Chinese through different historical
periods. Address: Zhongshan Road, South Siming Road, Xiamen The Xiamen Museum The Xiamen Museum, on Gulangyu Islet, is Xiamen's largest, and housed within the Eight Trigrams Tower. The museum has over 10,000 artifacts, including jade and porcelain, and ancient weapons. Piano Museum Asia's Largest Piano Museum is on Gulangyu Islet, within Shuzhuang
Garden. Thirty of the 70 plus historic pianos were provided
by Mr. Hu Youyi, a piano collector from Australia whose hometown
is Gulangyu Islet. There are old player pianos, as well as barrel
organs that organ grinders used to play as their monkeys scampered
around the crowds collecting donations. Address: No. 45 Huang Yan Rd., Gulangyu, Xiamen Jinguan Coin Museum The former British Consulate is now a coin museum! The beautiful colonial building which was built in 1870 was transformed into Fujian's largest coin museum. The Jinquan Coin Museum house over 5200 exhibits dating from the New Stone Age to New China (1949). It also includes a fine selection of Fujian coins. This fine museum, opened September 28, 1991, must be right on the money because it has attracted coin experts, dignitaries and tourists from throughout Asia. Address: No. 5 Zhongshan Rd., Gulangyu Islet, Xiamen Xiamen Bridge Museum The Xiamen Bridge Museum, located right beneath the Haicang Bridge, has attracted both tourists and experts with its introduction of famous Chinese and foreign bridges. About one-third of the indoor area is devoted to fascinating exhibits about the construction of Xiamen's beautiful Haicang Bridge. Address: Haicang Bridge, Xiamen
Cafes and teahouses here and there in the city are all good places for you to avoid the noisy crowd, or you can have a talk with your friends at a quiet piano bar. U.B.C. Coffee Zuo An Coffee Gudao Teahouse |