In Dr Scott's introduction to the island, he notes it "became notorious for heavy drinking, excessive gambling, wild nightlife and exotic bordellos." That makes a change from tunnels - off we went to explore!

This was an unexpected bonus. A tunnel runs into the hill opposite our hotel, and leads to an underground theatre!

Here's what I saw as the taxi pulled up at the hotel:

Today's Xiamen is a large Chinese city, covering most of the island. If you look at this 1945 map though, the old Amoy city was in the south-west corner of the island.

We're just back from a long weekend in Xiamen, or Amoy as it used to be called. It was opened to British trade in 1842 by the Treaty of Nanking, the same treaty that ceded Hong Kong to the British. And though Amoy's international settlement never matched Shanghai or Hong Kong for size, it beats them soundly in one respect - most of the old settlement is still standing today.