Xiamen is situated in the southern part of Fujian Province, west of the Taiwan Straits. It has many attractions for visitors. It is a scenic port city on the southeastern coast of China and a Special Economic Zone ratified by the State Council as well as a city in separate state plan whose administration level is vice provincial with seven administrative regions under its jurisdiction. The city covers an area of 1,516 sq. km with a population of 1.2 million.

The local language is Southern Fujian dialect. Xiamen has been famed as a hometown of overseas Chinese and Taiwanese. It is known as "the pearl of the East Sea" due to its prosperous culture and education along with its developed economy. Xiamen enjoys an agreeable climate, with the weather of spring all year round. It has abundant tourist resources. More and more visitors from China and abroad are attracted by its wonderful hills, seas, rocks, caves, temples, gardens, as well as its historic sites, customs and cultures with special South Fujian characteristics. Xiamen now ranks as one of theten most popular tourist cities in China.

Xiamen has a natural deep-water port. Its highways lead to every part of the country and a railway network connects with the entire nation. Passenger vessels travel to and from Hong Kong regularly. Xiamen International Airport hosts more than 40 domestic airlines as well as 6 international airlines from Xiamen to Singapore, Manila, Malaysia, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. Xiamen city proper adopts an all number programmable control telephone system, which supplies a link with every city and region in China and more than two hundred countries and regions in the world.